Jeffrey B. Perry

The first blurbs for the forthcoming "Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1918-1927" (volume 2 of the Hubert Harrison biography) can be found HERE
Among the early blurb offerings are those from Brent Hayes Edwards, Herb Boyd, Charisse Burden-Stelly, Brian Jones, and Wilson J. Moses.

Each of the two volumes of the biography can be obtained from Columbia University Press at 20% off by using Code "CUP20" (you will not be charged for the second volume until it is shipped) — see
"Hubert Harrison: The Struggle for Equality, 1918-1927" HERE and see
"Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918" HERE

This striking 1969 video presentation is of Ray Richardson, grandson of Hubert Harrison and producer of "Say Brother" for Public Station WGBH TV (Boston) in 1968-1969.

On August 25, 2020 (August 27 in the print edition), the "New York Times" ran an article entitled "'Soul!' Brought Black Culture to TV in 1968. A New Doc Tells Its Story" that discusses the New York City public education tv show "Soul" that began on September 12, 1968 (after the April 4, 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.). [The article is entitled "Black Culture Front and Center Back in the Day" in the print edition.]

Earlier that year (on July 18, 1968) Boston Public Television station WGBH began airing "Say Brother" an extraordinary hour-long show that, would air prime time (and be repeated later on the weekend). It was directed by Ray Richardson and directed by Stan Lathan. Richardson was the grandson of Hubert Harrison and he and Vashti Lowns would die under suspicious conditions in 1971 after the show was taken off the air and Richardson was fired in July 1970 in the wake of the show's coverage of New Bedford, Massachusetts protests.

For background on Ray Richardson and "Say Brother" see "The Radicalization of Ray Richardson: Suspicion Still Surround Death of Black Activist TV Producer," which was co-authored in 2013 by Charles Richardson (Harrison's grandson and Ray Richardson's brother) click HERE

Unfortunately, the links cited in the above article were moved. Two video clips from "Say Brother" are available Here

and HERE

To see "'Soul!' Brought Black Culture to TV in 1968. A New Doc Tells Its Story" online see HERE

See Theodore W. Allen Papers (Part of Jeffrey B. Perry Collection), Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts -- Amherst

Articles by and about Theodore W. Allen online at U-Mass-Amherst-Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA)

Theodore W. Allen, "'Class Based Preference' is No Anser to Racial Discrimination," Theodore W. Allen, Letter to The Nation, March 5, 2001 re Richard D. Kahlenberg and Ruy Teixeira "A Better Third Way"

In the early morning hours of July 21 at the 1.8 million square foot New York Bulk & Foreign Mail Center in Jersey City, NJ the largest postal facility in the world at that time, an informational picket line went up.

Postal workers carried signs of "No Contract, No Work," a slogan endorsed by the three major postal unions (the American Postal Workers Union, the National Association of Letter Carriers, and the National Post Office Mail Handlers [division of LIUNA]) and a slogan that was the official position of their joint Labor Negotiating Committee. Conditions were oppressive, particularly at the Bulk, and pressing worker issues involved safety, wages, mandatory overtime, COLA, racial and gender discrimination, and the right to strike.

With conditions as bad as they were, and in the political climate that had been created around the contract, it didn't take much to close the 4,000-worker Bulk Mail facility by the time workers started arriving for the 6 a.m. day shift. Ninety percent of the day shift workers did not report to work and the temperatures that day (like today) went into the 90s. Afternoon and evening shifts also stayed out.

The wildcat strike grew and spread quickly to the San Francisco Bulk Mail Center (in Richmond, CA). There were also walkouts at the Kearny, NJ Mail Processing Center

the Washington, D.C. BMC, and in Philadelphia; and sporadic protests in Chicago, Allentown, Pennsylvania, Miami, and Los Angeles.

The wildcat strike was broken after five days. Postal management fired 125 workers, suspended 130, and issued letters of warning to 2,500. Among those striking postal workers were a number of valiant working class fighters who are no longer with us including Dave Cline, Clarence Fitch, Al Mancuso, Grady Fitzgerald, and Drake Waller (who is on the right in the photo). Worker consciousness was raised in the struggle, proposed contracts were rejected by union members, and an arbitrated settlement was ultimately imposed that retained the uncapped COLA that workers demanded and weakened no layoff protections as management wanted.

The 1978 wildcat strike was the largest federal employees strike since the 1970 walkout by 173,000 postal workers and it would not be surpassed until the August 1981 strike of 11,500 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO).

The postal wildcat strikers of 1978 were fired under the administration of Democrat Jimmy Carter. The PATCO workers were fired under the administration of Republican Ronald Reagan.

The full stories of the 1978 postal wildcat and related struggles are still to be told. People interested in more on the 1978 strike may want to look at:

The video "Signed Sealed and Delivered: Labor Struggle in the Post Office" (1980) by Tami Gold. Dan Gordon, and Erik Lewis

The book "There's Always Work at the Post Office: African American Postal Workers and the Fight for Jobs, Justice, and Equality" (University of North Carolina Press, 2010)

For a brief discussion of some of the work subsequently done by Mail Handlers from the Jersey City Bulk Mail Center at the branch, local, and national levels see "The Centrality of the Struggle Against White Supremacy -- THE MAIL HANDLERS UNION AND THE FIGHT AGAINST RACISM" at the Labor Notes Conference, Sunday May 21, 1989, Detroit, Michigan

Jeffrey B. Perry

"The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights
from Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen
on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy" ("Cultural Logic," July 2010)

Table of Contents
Epigraph
Introduction
Hubert Harrison
Theodore W. Allen
Harrison and Allen and the Centrality of the Struggle Against White-Supremacy
Some Class and Racial Aspects of The Conjuncture
Deepening Economic Crisis
U.S. Workers Faring Badly
White Supremacist Shaping
Wisconsin
Millions are Suffering and Conditions are Worsening
Insights from Hubert Harrison
Arrival in America, Contrast with St. Croix
Socialist Party Writings
"Southernism or Socialism – which?"
The Socialist Party Puts [the "White"] Race First and Class After
Class Consciousness, White Supremacy, and the "Duty to Champion the Cause of the Negro"
On "The Touchstone" and the Two-Fold Character of Democracy in America
Concentrated Race-Conscious Work in the Black Community
Capitalist Imperialism and the Need to Break Down Exclusion Walls of White Workers
The International Colored Unity League
Struggle Against White Supremacy is Central
Insights from Theodore W. Allen
Early Research and Writings and Pioneering Use of "White Skin Privilege" Concept
White Blindspot
Why No Socialism? . . . and The Main Retardant to Working Class Consciousness
The Role of White Supremacy in Three Previous Crises
The Great Depression . . . and the White Supremacist Response
Response to Four Arguments Against and Five "Artful Dodges"
Early 1970s Writings and Strategy
"The Invention of the White Race"
Other Important Contributions in Writings on the Colonial Period
Inventing the "White Race" and Fixing "a perpetual Brand upon Free Negros"
Political Economic Aspects of the Invention of the "White Race"
Racial Oppression and National Oppression
"Racial Slavery" and "Slavery"
Male Supremacy, Gender Oppression, and Laws Affecting the Family
Slavery as Capitalism, Slaveholders as Capitalists, Enslaved as Proletarians
Class-Conscious, Anti-White Supremacist Counter Narrative – Comments on Jordan and Morgan
Not Simply a Social Construct, But a Ruling Class Social Control Formation . . . and Comments on Roediger
The "White Race" and "White Race" Privilege
On the Bifurcation of "Labor History" and "Black History" and on the "National Question"
Later Writings . . . "Toward a Revolution in Labor History"
Strategy
The Struggle Ahead
Addendum [re "Daedalus"]