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Marxism

A new era of labor revolt (1966)

On the job vs. official unions

by Stan Weir

In the mid-1960s, in the midst of Black urban revolt and radicalization on campuses, the U.S. working class was supposedly bought off and inactive. Worker-revolutionary Stan Weirdisagreed. In this 1966 speech, he detailed the broad stirrings of a rank and file rebellion—a revolt with roots in unbearable workplace conditions and a deep feeling that “something’s basically wrong with American life.”