EXCERPT:
Like many young workers of his generation, Porter was radicalized in the 1960s by the conditions in the cities, the collapse of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. This was a period in which radical-sounding black nationalism had a real influence on African American youth. It was the heyday of Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael and the Black Panthers. But Porter was among a layer of the youth won to Trotskyism, precisely in political struggle against these tendencies.
This was fortunate for the working class. Porter’s political career now spans a half-century. Working for years as a welder in both steel and auto, including at Bethlehem Steel and Chrysler Corporation, Porter has fought for socialist consciousness among all sections of the working class—autoworkers, steel workers, educators, health care workers—and sought to unite workers of all races.
He has reported extensively on the horrific social conditions that have developed in Detroit over the last 30 years. In 1993, he helped investigate and chaired the Citizens Inquiry into the Mack Avenue Fire, the result of Detroit Water Department’s inhuman policy of water shutoffs. In 2010, Porter led a group of Detroit residents in creating the Committee Against Utility Shutoffs (CAUS). In 2013, he chaired the Workers Inquiry into the Bankruptcy of Detroit and the Attack on the DIA and Pensions. Between 2015 and 2017, he focused on reporting and mobilizing workers against the bipartisan coverup of the lead poisoning of Flint’s water supply.
Throughout his career, Porter has been continuously active in opposing identity politics and, above all, fighting to bring an international socialist Trotskyist perspective to the struggles of the working class.
Purchase Marcus Garvey and the Reactionary Logic of Racialist Politics at Mehring Books.
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