{"id":7453,"date":"2022-08-26T08:00:17","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=7453"},"modified":"2022-09-08T09:12:48","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T13:12:48","slug":"fighting-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2022\/08\/fighting-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

J<\/span>on Melrod has written a page-turning memoir of his years as a revolutionary activist from his student days in Madison through his years working in the American Motors Corporation\u2019s (AMC) auto plants in Milwaukee and Kenosha. Melrod\u2019s exceptional story-telling abilities and his honest account of life and political battles inside and outside of the declining \u201cLittle Fourth ” of the U.S. auto industry never fail to inspire.<\/p>\n

I encourage everyone to read Fighting Times<\/a><\/em>, and I hope radical activists can host in-person or online meetings with Melrod, there is much to learn from his experience during the 1970s. The last few years have seen a renewed interest in the years following the collapse of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1969, the largest New Left youth organization of the 1960s, and the “turn to the working class<\/a>” thousands of radicals during the rank and file rebellion<\/a> of the 1960s and 1970s.<\/p>\n

Articles by veterans of the 1970s recounting their experiences and lessons for today\u2019s activists have appeared regularly and are available here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>. David Ranney\u2019s full-length memoir \u201cLiving and Dying on the Factory Floor\u201d<\/a><\/em> published by PM Press was reviewed<\/a> by Tempest<\/em> two years ago. Melrod\u2019s memoir is also being released at an important moment of discussion, debate<\/a>, and an uptick in strike activity<\/a> and new organizing, especially those flowing out of the success at Starbucks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Motivated to write his memoir after his first bout with pancreatic cancer\u2014so that his sons could understand their father’s political life\u2014the book has a fierce honesty about it with no romance of industrial work. Melrod is sure that one of his first industrial jobs exposed him to the deadly chemicals that caused his cancer. He pulls no punches on the dirty, noisy, and dangerous work in auto plants. This AMC-produced video<\/a>\u2014despite its cheery tone\u2014captures the mind-numbing assembly line work in Kenosha, despite having the best contract in the UAW.<\/p>\n