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I spent the past weekend writing a German review of the new Kersplebedeb edition of David Gilbert's Looking at the U.S. White Working Class Historically, originally published in 1984. While the original publication mainly consisted of Gilbert's reviews of three relevant publications - Ted Allen's pamphlet White Supremacy in the U.S./ Slavery and the Origins of Racism, W.E.B. DuBois's classic Black Reconstruction in America, and J. Sakai's underground favorite Settlers - the new edition contains plenty of extra material, including Gilbert's essays "Some Lessons from the Sixties" (1991) and "After the Sixties: Reaction and Restructuring" (2017), as well as comments on the original piece by J. Sakai.
The review I wrote was specifically aimed at a Germanspeaking audience, so there is little point in translating it here. However, I would like to name five aspects that I found particularly intriguing in a book that I recommend wholeheartedly to anyone interested in anti-racist and antiimperialist class organizing.
1.White Workers and the Revolutionary Project
"There is very little analysis, and even less practice, that is both real about the nature and consciousness of the white working class and yet holds out the prospect of organizing a large number on a revolutionary basis." This is Gilbert's point of departure. It is of great importance for radical organizing, perhaps particularly here in Europe where the white working class - largely made responsible for the rise of the far right, similar to the situation in the U.S. - remains a demographic large enough to turn the idea of revolutionary mass organizing without it into a farce. In reference to Redneck Revolt, an organization that has received a fair amount of attention...