Joe Nolan's Insomnia » Nation of Islam

Revolutionary Black Workers

Joe Nolan — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 01:53:05 +0000

In the midst of this surreal political season, with the endurance of Black Lives Matter, and having just written an article about an African American neighborhood in Nashville, I suppose it might have been expected that I’d stumble across a mention about the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, but it still caught me by surprise.

I’ve read deeply and broadly about America’s radical left and have a pretty thorough understanding of how groups like the Black Panthers came to be, their major players, their triumphs and their failures. I’ve also read a lot about how the Nation of Islam took root in the states. I’ve read about the Noble Drew Ali and Marcus Garvey. I understand how Malcolm X straddled both of these organizations between his life and his death.

But somehow I’d never heard of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers which formed right in my backyard in my hometown, in the auto factories of Detroit. Here’s a few words about the league from the legendary Detroit radical newspaper, The Fifth Estate…

The League of Revolutionary Black Workers is a federation of several revolutionary movements which exist in Detroit. It was originally formed to provide a broader base for organization of black workers into revolutionary organizations than was previously provided for when we were organizing on a plant to plant basis. The beginning of the League goes back to the beginning of DRUM, which was its first organization. The Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement was formed at the Hamtramck assembly plant of the Chrysler Corporation in the fall of 1967. It developed out of the caucuses of black workers which had formed in the automobile plants to fight increases in productivity and racism in the plant … With the development of DRUM and the successes we had in terms of organizing and mobilizing the workers at the Hamtramck plant many other black workers throughout the city began to come to us and ask for aid in organizing some sort of group in their plants. As a result, shortly after the formation of DRUM, the Eldon Axle Revolutionary Movement (ELRUM) was born at the Eldon gear and axle plant of the Chrysler Corporation. Also, the Ford Revolutionary Union Movement (FRUM) was formed at the Ford Rouge complex, and we now have two plants within that complex organized.

Our analysis tells us that the basic power of black people lies at the point of production, that the basic power we have is our power as workers. As workers, as black workers, we have historically been, and are now, essential elements in the American economic sense. Therefore, we have an overall analysis which sees the point of production as the major and primary sector of the society which has to be organized, and that the community should be organized in conjunction with that development. This is probably different from these kinds of analysis which say where it’s at is to go out and organize the community and to organize the so-called “brother on the street”. It’s not that we’re opposed to this type of organization but without a more-solid base such as that which the working class represents, this type of organization, that is, community based organization, is generally a pretty long, stretched-out, and futile development.

For more about the league here’s an illuminating documentary about these brave men and women, and their fight…

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Radical: Muhammad Ali

Joe Nolan — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 04:07:19 +0000

I’m a huge fan of combat sports. Back in the day I’d occasionally post about fights here at Insomnia, but since the blog has zeroed-in on counterculture content, only an exceptional fighter might make an appearance. Over the weekend, we lost the great Muhammad Ali. Exceptional is one of the first words one might use to describe Ali’s truly beautiful expression of himself in martial arts as well as his iconoclastic role as an antiwar protester and a newly-converted member of the Nation of Islam in the 1960′s.

I could talk for hours about Ali’s jab or his dance-like defense, but for this illuminated tablet glowing before you we’ll let Ali talk for himself about race, god, war, class and fighting in the ring and out…

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Farrakhan Warns of U.F.O. Attack

Joe Nolan — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 17:28:19 +0000

I first reported on Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s UFO eschatology way back in Coincidence Control Network: Episode 2. For the uninitiated, Farrakhan claims to believe that there is an extraterrestrial (kind of) Mother Wheel or Mother Plane that is preparing to rain destruction down on white America if the U.S. doesn’t straighten its act out and embrace the Nation of Islam’s teachings. Here is some background from The Blaze:

“The final thing is the destruction. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us of a giant Mother Plane that is made like the universe, spheres within spheres. White people call them unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Ezekiel, in the Old Testament, saw a wheel that looked like a cloud by day, but a pillar of fire by night. The Hon. Elijah Muhammad said that that wheel was built on the island of Nippon, which is now called Japan, by some of the original scientists. It took 15 billion dollars in gold at that time to build it. It is made of the toughest steel. America does not yet know the composition of the steel used to make an instrument like it. It is a circular plane, and the Bible says that it never makes turns. Because of its circular nature it can stop and travel in all directions at speeds of thousands of miles per hour. He said there are 1,500 small wheels in this Mother Wheel, which is a half mile by-a-half-mile. This Mother Wheel is like a small human built planet. Each one of these small planes carry three bombs.”

In a recent talk that ended a year-long sermon called “Time and What Must Be Done,” Farrakhan called on Barack Obama to open up the recently declassified Area 51 to scientists as a kind of goodwill gesture that might keep the Wheel in check for the time being. As of this posting the president has not responded to the request.

Here is the man himself explaining Obama, the Shadow Government, the destruction of white America and the power of the Mother Wheel…

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