Written in 1987


              IN CELEBRATION: A PAST TO REMEMBER, A FUTURE TO MOLD
               THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FLINT SIT-DOWN STRIKE
                             by Michael Hauben


Fifty years ago, this February 11, sit-down strikers finally left
the factories they had occupied for the previous 44 days. General
Motors agreed to recognize the UAW, the union of the automobile
workers. This was clearly a victory for workers of America! This 
great event is known as the Flint Sit-Down Strike.

The conditions in the auto factories were so awful that workers
had been trying to organize for many years. For example, the 
speed of the assembly line was inhuman; if a worker wanted to
complain to the foreman, he would be shown the long line of unemployed
people outside of the plant and told if he didn't like the conditions
anyone out there would gladly replace him. The worker would be fired
if there was any indication he was involved in union activities. The workers
almost sruck against General Motores in 1934.

For the first time, by late 1936, many General Motors factories were shut
down by workers. On December 30, 1936, Fisher No. 2, in Flint, Michigan,
stopped producikng car bodies. This brought Flint into the strike. Fifteen
hours later Fisher No. 1 sat down. General Motors tried to everything to 
get the workers out of its plants. First G.M. got an injunction to get the 
workers out. It failed because the judge had stock in G.M., so he was
an interested party, which was against Michigan law. Later on they shut
off the heat, stopped the flow of food into the buildings, smuggled 
whiskey in, spread rumors around in the plants, and created the Flint
Alliance. The Alliance was a back-to-work movement. It said that a 
minority of workers took over the plants and that the majority wanted
to go back to work. In fact, the plants were taken over by a majority,
but a minority "held the fort," while a majority supported the sit-downers.

In all of the plants that were held, the men had free time and duty time.

Their duty time was filled with guard duty, clean-up duty, sabotage-prevention
duty, and kangaroo court duty. The kangaroo court found impostors, i.e. company
spies, and threw them out, or offenders who didn't do all of their assigned
work and made them do extra for punishment. The workers' free time
consisted of playing cards, and checkers, chess, dominoes, reading of 
newspapers and magazines, and ping-pong, volleyball, exercise and roller
skating in some plants. They would have discussions on things that they
knew about. Most of the plants had an orchestra that was made up of a
variety of instruments.

General Motors sent in police to try to drive the workers out of the plants.
The police didn't succeed and they were driven back, so this was called 
"the Battle of Bulls Run." Rose Pesotta describes the fight. "The police
were met by a deluge of cold water from a fire-hose and an avalanche of two-
pound steel automobile hinges. The cops line broke under this defensive
onslaught. Defeated and shame faced they left the scene at top speed."
(Bread Upon the Water, p. 241-2). As the strike went on, G.M. intensified
its attack on the strikers. If the strikers didn't do something that
showed their strength to G.M., G.M. might have held out longer
than the strikers until G.M. would have won.

The strike leaders tricked the company spies into thinking there
was going to be a sit-down at Chevy Plant No. 9. They were in fact 
going to take Chevy 4, which was the engine plant of all Chevy models.
Because the workers were able to take Chevy 4, G.M. was forced to let
the strike come to an end. The workers were victorious! They had
won the right to their own union.

Today, industrial unionism is starting to decline. There is a need
to rebuild these unions. People should look to the past to these 
great strikes, in order to rejuvenate their unions. The Flint Sit-Down
Strike shows that people can and will fight to solve their problems.