DRUM's Legacy
While the death of UAW president Walter Reuther in a plane crash came as a shock to many who saw him as a champion of workers' rights, DRUM thought differently. They conceived of Reuther’s death as the end of UAW domination and ignoring of Black worker grievances. Instead of a benevolent father figure, Reuther is painted as authoritarian with ample comparisons to monarchic rule including the disposition of competition and rampant nepotism.
Reuther’s death led to a frenzy to replace him, with head of the GM department Leonard Woodcock replacing him. His death set in “a new stage of open class warfare” which resulted in more racism, worker deaths, and docked pay as conditions worsened under Woodcock. DRUM goes as far as to call these actions a Black “genocide”, in line with the “Nixon-Mitchell Southern Strategy”. Using homophobic rhetoric in passing, DRUM describes the ideal it seeks in Black men and implicates Chrysler in the deaths of Black workers at the Eldon plant. DRUM’s international vision is teased with its call for workers of all countries to unite in their fight against U.S. imperialism. Eschewing DRUM’s usual violent passion, a small anecdote about a successful campaign to raise money for a Black soldier named Romis McClendon with white and Black support is recounted, explicitly labeled as “not a race issue”.
After 1970 DRUM lost its cohesion. DRUM's mission was unclear as splintering interests emerged; would mere reform of the UAW be enough or should the organization's focus be on larger issues outside of the confines of ineffective and oppressive systems? Split into factions, DRUM dissolved but its legacy lived on. DRUM had succeeded in securing better working conditions for Black autoworkers and in illuminating the horrific conditions these workers faced. Chrysler management and the UAW were forced into acknowledging their crimes with their vehement protests against DRUM and its affiliates only expressing the strength of this Black labor movement. Like other American socialist ventures before it, DRUM laid a foundation for a new generation of Americans seeking racial and economic justice. DRUM's brief existence and limited successes in the face of monolithic oppression should not discount its significance, but instead highlight its vivacity for real change with limited resources.