Marxists’ Internet Archive

Martin Glaberman

1918 – 2001

“There’s an early article and this comes from a different book where Marx says in order to create a new society we need new people. New people are created in activity and we need a revolution not only because the old ruling class can only be overthrown in a revolution, but you need a revolution in order to transform the people making it. So they become qualified to create a certain society. That’s clearly the reverse of what most Marxists think. Most Marxists think you have to change people. You have to convince them and then you make a revolution, but Marx says no. You make a revolution and that will change them.” – Revolutionary Optimist

Biography

Martin Glaberman referred to himself as an “unreconstructed Johnsonite.” Johnson being the pen named used by the West Indian Marxist C.L.R. James during his time in the United States. Glaberman was a member of the tendency James founded along with Raya Dunayevskaya in 1941, and worked with James until the latter’s death in 1989. During this time Glaberman was the managing editor of such publications as Correspondence, Speaking Out and Speak Out. Glaberman worked as an auto worker for twenty years where he served as a shop steward, committeemen and local union editor. He was Professor Emeritus of Social Science in the College of Lifelong Learning of Wayne State University in Detroit. He was the author of countless articles and pamphlets, as well as a number of books. He died in December 2001.

Remembering Marty Glaberman (1918–2001),
by Seymour Faber & Linda Manning Myatt (Against the Current, No. 97, March/April 2002)

Works:

7 Mar. 1939	Liberation Seen Near for Framed Harlan Miners (as Martin Harvey)
20 Jan. 1940	FDR’s Washington Is Jim Crow Town (as Martin Harvey)
3 Jan. 1944	Michigan CIO Leaders Move for Labor Party (as Martin Harvey)
5 June 1944	Low-Down on the Chrysler Strike (as Martin Harvey)
24 July 1944	Michigan CIO Retreats from Its 1943 Militancy (as Martin Harvey)
7 Aug. 1944	Chrysler Strike Leaders in Big Sweep of Local Union Elections (as Martin Harvey)
14 Aug. 1944	UAW Chiefs Doublecross Militant Chevvy Union (as Martin Harvey)
28 Aug. 1944	GM Workers Slugging It Out with Bosses and WLB! (as Martin Harvey)
28 Aug. 1944	Michigan Politics a Sewer (as Martin Harvey)
9 Oct. 1944	Chevvy Local Elects Militant Leadership (as Martin Harvey)
30 Oct. 1944	UAW Members Can Defeat the No-Strike Pledge (as Martin Harvey)
6 Nov. 1944	Detroit Strikes Show Need to End “Pledge” (as Martin Harvey)
4 Dec. 1944	No Place in Dearborn for Negro Housing (as Martin Harvey)
Jan. 1945	Charles and Mary Beard (book review)
8 Jan. 1945	Detroit Mayor and Council Pass the Buck on Housing
15 Jan. 1945	Paper of Catholic Unionists Is for No-Strike Pledge
29 Jan. 1945	Intense Fight Against ‘Pledge’ as Vote Nears
26 Feb. 1945	Detroit Negro Housing Situation
5 Mar. 1945	Dodge Strikers Still Stand Firm!
12 Mar. 1945	Support Detroit Strikers!
19 Mar. 1945	105,000 UAM [sic] Workers Vote – Against No-Strike Pledge
30 April 1945	Detroit UAW Rank and File Faces Reconversion Fight
7 May 1945	Employment in Detroit Area Decreased by 107,000 Workers
14 May 1945	Ranks of Ford Local 600 Take Action on Cutbacks
11 June 1945	How to Get Full Employment? Socialist Planning, Not Profits!
25 June 1945	Detroit UAW Asks National Strike Vote!
24 Sept. 1945	Frankensteen Differs Little from Jeffries
1 Oct. 1945	Strike Still Continues at Kelsey Co.
1 Oct. 1945	UAW Moves on Companies for 30% Increase
1 Oct. 1945	Use of Derogatory Term (letter)
8 Oct. 1945	Workers Party Again Initiates Smith Picketing in Detroit
15 Oct. 1945	Frankensteen vs. Jeffries
Nov. 1945	Does Freedom of Speech Include Fascists?
19 Nov. 1945	How Frankensteen Was Defeated
3 Dec. 1945	Back the UAW to Victory!
Jan. 1946	Lessons of the Detroit Elections
Feb. 1946	Big Business in a Democracy (book review)
Apr. 1946	The Age of Jackson (book review)
13 May 1946	On the Issue of Factory Committees (as Martin Harvey)
15 Aug. 1946	UAW Leads Buyer’s Strike in Detroit Area (as Martin Harvey)
21 Oct. 1946	Disputes Review of Animal Farm (as Martin Harvey) (letter)
Aug. 1947	Strata in the Working Class
Summer 1965	Introduction to Destruction of a Workers Paper by CLR James
Summer 1965	“Be his payment high or low”: The American Working Class in the Sixties
Winter 1965/66	Ghetto Riots in the USA
Summer 1966	On the Giant’s Shoulders (book review)
Winter 1966/67	The East Is Red (book review)
January 1967	Upheaval in China
June 1967	The United States and the Russian Revolution
Jan. 1968	Nkrumah’s Sponsors (letter)
June/July 1968	On Balance: The French Events
April 1968	Martin Luther King, Jr
April 1968	Regis Debray: Revolution Without a Revolution
July 1968	Indonesian Communism: The First Stage
1969	Black Cats, White Cats, Wildcats: Auto Workers in Detroit
Apr./May 1969	The Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement
Nov./Dec. 1972	Unions vs. Workers in the Seventies: The Rise of Militancy in the Auto Industry
Nov./Dec. 1973	The American Working Class in Historical Perspective (book review)
Feb. 1974	False Promises: A Review (book review)
Sept. 1974	Marxist Views of the Working Class
1975	The Working Class and Social Change (pamphlet)
Apr. 1980	Terror in Italy (letter)
1994	Wildcat I (poem)
1996	Walter Reuther, “Social Unionist” (book review)
1997	A Different Sort of Democracy
1997	“Workers have to deal with their own reality and that transforms them”
Jan. 1997	Letter to the Editors [of Against the Current
Jan. 1998	Remembering C.L.R. James (book review)
Sept. 1998	On Marxism and Method
1999	Working For Wages: The Roots Of Insurgency (extract) (with Seymour Faber)
2000	Back To The Future: The Continuing Relevance of Marx (with Seymour Faber)
2000	Revolutionary Optimist (interview)
May 2001	On C.L.R. James (letter) (with Alex LoCascio)
Oct. 2001	Letter to Discussion Bulletin (letter)
Related Archives: Raya Dunayevskaya Internet Archive C.L.R. James Internet Archive
Marxist Writers’ Archive \| Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism