Indignant heart, a black worker's journal

by Charles Denby

Clean crisp pages. No internal markings. Cover shows slight edging and normal shelf wear. Thank you for your purchase.

Genres: Labor, History, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

295 pages, Paperback

First published December 28, 1978

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning text in which Denby (real name: Simon Owens) presents his experiences as a black man growing up in the south of the USA during the early 20th Century, and later working in an automobile factory in Detroit in the wartime and post-war period. This entails describing the various forms of resistance undertaken, the conditions of the job, as well as his (disappointing) interactions with the various major 'socialist' parties of the time (including the CPUSA and SWP), and the UAW. A seriously important book for understanding the dual racism of American society and the so-called workers' institutions, such as the unions and socialist parties, that are meant to oppose this society, as well as the roots of later traditions in the workers inquiry tradition. The one major limitation of this text however is not knowing how much of the language used is Owens' own words and thoughts, given the intervention in the writing process by intellectuals in the 'Correspondence Publishing Committee', of which Owens was a member, who, despite their aims to abolish the division of mental and physical labour, did precisely that in their interventions in the publication of this book - even the title, 'Indignant Heart', was one that Owens did not wish to use but was pushed by the intellectuals of the group!

[Sam Whitehill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Denby, pseudonym of Matthew Ward, pseudonym of Simon Owens, writes about his life, from the Jim Crow south to the autoworker revolts of Detroit. Profound observations from a Forrest Gump type life.

[Mx Phoebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles Denby (Simon Owens) was a black auto worker in Detroit for much of the twentieth century, a socialist closely allied with the "Marxist-humanist" philosopher Raya Dunayevskaya, and the son of sharecroppers from Lowndes County, Alabama. Denby's fascinating memoir, Indignant Heart, is an important text for anyone trying to understand the intersections of race and labor in 20th century US history and in the practice of class struggle. Denby's rich descriptions of the infrapolitical form of resistance to white supremacy in the rural south, his account of his migrations back and forth between the South and the north, his descriptions and histories of rank and file workplace resistance in multiple automobile factories over the course of five decades, his experiences battling Walter Reuther's UAW bureaucracy, and his accounts of the physical toll that manufacturing work in the age of automation are only a few of the elements that make this book so important for folks interested in Labor History, radical politics , theorizing racial capitalism, the UAW, etc.

[josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. Should be up there with the Autobiography of Malcolm X in importance. A great narrative and easy to read writing style.

It follows the working life of Charles Denby who was born in Alabama in 1907 and spent much of his life working in auto factories in Detroit. He goes through years of working for a lawyer in the South and his experiences with racism and the development of his own class analysis.