revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

6 . Total involvement in policy by the workers as opposed to the
dictatorship by the executive board . 40
The election campaign was organized primarily as a tool for political education
while also attempting to elect Ron March . March led the balloting
in the election with 563 votes to the 521 votes of his closest competitor .
The Hamtramck police attacked some black workers near some bars the
same night the election returns were announced . Chuck Wooten, a member of
DRUM, describes forms of harassment :
. . . the Hamtramck police department began to move in a much
more open way . They gave us tickets on our cars and just
generally harassed us . One day about fifty of us were in the
union hall, which is right across from the police station .
The mayor of the city and the chief of police came in with
guns in their hands . They told us to stop making trouble,
and we said all we wanted was to win the election . We asked
them why they weren't harassing others . While we were talking,
a squad of police came throu h the door swinging axe
handles and throwing Mace around . l
Between the time of the first election and the runoff, the union leadership
sent letters to the retired workers appealing to them to participate
in the election . While blacks made up 63 percent of the active work force
in UAW Local 3, whites (primarily Polish-Americans) made up the overwhelming
majority of the retired workers .
On October 3, Ron March was defeated in a runoff by a vote of 2,091
to 1,386 .
With negative publicity from the established union press and
repression from police forces, DRUM felt that March's pulling 40 percent
of the vote under those conditions was a good showing .
After running in
two additional elections and
receiving similar results, DRUM decided to
terminate its direct participation in union electorial politics . Instead,
40 DRUM Newsletter, Vol . 1, No . 13, Detroit, Michigan, p . 1 .
41Dan Georgakas/Marvin Surkin, Detroit : I Do Mind Dying , p . 47 .