From the Free Speech Movement to the Factory Floor - by Andrew Higgins

Book Synopsis

From the Free Speech Movement to the Factory Floor documents the overlooked history and lasting influence of the International Socialists through the words of its members.

Founded at UC Berkeley in 1964 as a left-wing civil rights group, the Independent Socialist Club played a key role in the Free Speech Movement that same year, and its members and successor organizations would go on to influence the course of both the Black freedom struggle and the rank-and-file labor insurgency of the 1970s. From its inception, the organization adhered to the tenets of "socialism from below"--central to which is the belief that revolutionary Marxism meant an expansion of democracy, not its curtailment.

Following their success in the Bay Area, the ISC launched chapters across the country. Forging an alliance with the Black Panthers, the ISC cemented the first Black-white alliance of the Black Power era to help organize the anti-war Peace and Freedom Party. In 1969, the ISC became the International Socialists, and much of its growing membership relocated to the Midwest to take industrial jobs. In their final years, among other important efforts, the IS built up a majority-Black youth group known as the Red Tide, founded the seminal publication Labor Notes, and helped create Teamsters for a Democratic Union. From the

Free Speech Movement to the Factory Floor features twenty-six original reflections by leading members--including renowned scholar-activists Nelson Lichtenstein and Nancy Holmstrom--offering invaluable insights into this influential but little-known organization.

Review Quotes

"From the Free Speech Movement to the Factory Floor faithfully follows the ideas, the personalities, the ups and downs of a critically important thread in the US socialist garment. I hope every young socialist will sit down and read this book, and then read it again, patiently, thoughtfully: you will be a better radical for having done so."
--Paul Buhle, co-editor, Encyclopedia of The American Left, author Marxism in the United States, and the authorized biography of C.L.R. James

About the Author

Andrew S. Higgins is the author of Higher Education for All: Racial Inequality, Cold War Liberalism, and the California Master Plan, called "required reading for understanding the complex politics of race and higher education" by Daniel Martinez HoSang. He earned his PhD in U.S. history from the University of California at Davis.