Looking at the U. S. White Working Class Historically - Softcover

Gilbert, David; Sakai, J.

3.87

23 ratings by Goodreads

9781894946919: Looking at the U. S. White Working Class Historically

Softcover

ISBN 10: 189494691X ISBN 13: 9781894946919

Publisher: Kersplebedeb Publishing, 2020

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Looking at the U.S. White Working Class Historically tackles one of the supreme issues for our movement, the contradiction embodied in the term ""white working class."" On the one hand there is the class designation that should imply, along with all other workers of the world, a fundamental role in the overthrow of capitalism. On the other hand, there is the identification of being part of a (""white"") oppressor nation. Gilbert seeks to understand the origins of this contradiction, its historical development, as well as possibilities to weaken and ultimately transform the situation. In other words, how can people organize a break with white supremacy and foster solidarity with the struggles of people of color, both within the United States and around the world?

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About the Author:

David Gilbert, a longtime anti-racist and anti-imperialist, first became active in the Civil Rights movement in 1961. In 1965, he started the Vietnam Committee at Columbia University; in 1967 he co-authored the first Students for a Democratic Society pamphlet naming the system "imperialism"; and he was active in the Columbia strike of 1968. He later joined the Weather Underground and spent a total of 10 years underground.
David has been imprisoned in New York State since October 20th, 1981, when a unit of the Black Liberation Army along with allied white revolutionaries tried to get funds for the struggle by robbing a Brinks truck. This tragically resulted in a shoot-out in which a Brinks guard and two police officers were killed. David is serving a sentence of 75 years (minimum) to life under New York State's "felony murder" law, whereby all participants in a robbery, even if they are unarmed and non-shooters, are equally responsible for all deaths that occur. While in prison, he's been a pioneer for peer education on AIDS and has continued to write and advocate against oppression. He's been involved with the annual Certain Days Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar since 2001 and has written two books from prison that are available from Kersplebedeb: No Surrender and Love and Struggle, as well as the pamphlet Our Commitment is to Our Communities: Mass Incarceration, Political Prisoners and Building a Movement for Community-Based Justice.

Review:

"David Gilbert's analytical clarity, commitment to universal justice, and unswerving integrity shine through his words." --Barbara Smith, founding member of the Combahee River Collective, and of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press; Consulting Editor, Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building With Barbara Smith

"When Malcolm X said John Brown was his standard for white activism, he could have easily meant David Gilbert. He is our generation's John Brown. His support of Black liberation as a method of freeing the world is to be studied, appreciated, and applied." --Jared A. Ball, author of I Mix What I Like! A Mixtape Manifesto, and professor of Media and Africana Studies at Morgan State University

"If we want to organize white people against racism and for racial justice, if you want to build up a broad-based majority for economic, racial, and gender justice, if you are enraged at the devastation of structural inequality in our lives and on our planet, then this book is key. Class inequality is organized through white supremacy, and the ruling class strategy of divide and rule of pitting working class and poor white people against communities of color, must be understood. David Gilbert gives us historical analysis to understand this ruling class strategy, and how we can unite white people across class to a collective liberation vision with racial justice at the center." --Chris Crass, author of Towards the "Other America": Anti-Racist Resources for White People Taking Action for Black Lives Matter

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