IN CELEBRATION: A PAST TO REMEMBER, A FUTURE TO MOLD
               THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FLINT SIT-DOWN STRIKE
                             by Michael Hauben (1987)


Fifty years ago, this February 11 [1987], 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 struck against General Motors 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 producing 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.
--------------------