revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

influence in northern black communities . On the international level,
Robert Williams, RAM's chairman in exile, issued an appeal for world support
and spoke at international conferences in Asia and Cuba . The communist
Party of Cuba disagreed with his
black nationalist analysis and
began to sabotage the movement's influence in international circles .
This produced a crisis for the movement as avenues of potential support
were cut off .
In
the United States, the American Communist Party disagreed with
RAM's race and class analysis, and its clear conclusion that black people
were a colonized nation in the U .S . The CP consequently organized against
RAM .
In 1965, several movement activists were drafted into the army . Some
decided to go, while others decided to start a black anti-draft movement .
Those who went into
the army were immediately isolated from others soldiers
by army intelligence .
In Detroit, General G . Baker, Jr . received his draft notice . He wrote
a political letter to the draft board denouncing U .S . imperialism . ASM
decided to protest the General's induction .
They put out leaflets and
press announcements stating that 50,000 blacks would show at the Wayne
County Induction Center when General had to report . Only eight demonstrators
were there but the threat of mass action had convinced the U .S . Army
to find General unsuitable for service .
Different members of the Detroit cadre began to go
in different occupational
directions . Watson and Williams became students at Wayne State
and General worked in the auto factories . In 1965, Glanton Dowdell came
into the cadre . Glanton's start experience added valuable skills to the
cadre .