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NEWS & LETTERS, DECEMBER 2003John Miller, 1919-2003We mourn the death of John Miller, a retired Black Chrysler worker who wrote the NEWS & LETTERS column "On the Line" under the name of John Allison from l962 until l980. He died of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 84. Both a long-time member of the Detroit News and Letters Committee and a UAW worker at the now closed Chrysler Highland Park plant, John constantly fought against UAW bureaucrats, against Chrysler management's drive to speed up production, and against practices of exploitation and discrimination in the plant. John also spearheaded the rank-and-file movement in the plant to put out "The Stinger," a regular publication that exposed both management and union abuses. "The Stinger," like John's columns in NEWS & LETTERS, helped in the creation of a rank-and-file caucus in the union that threw out the do-nothing Reutherite union bureaucrats and replaced them with rank-and-file fighters for better working conditions and more effective worker representation. Word about the effectiveness of "The Stinger" quickly spread, and other Chrysler plant workers put out their own "Stingers." John's wife, Mary, also worked at the Chrysler Highland Park plant and her voice was often heard in John's column as she described the abuses and discrimination women suffered in the plant and their often successful efforts to fight against them. In his many battles in the plant, through his activity in the Detroit News and Letters Committee and in his many columns in the paper, John always represented the highest principles of Marxist-Humanism and constantly worked as a revolutionary worker-thinker dedicated to the creation of a new truly human society --Andy Phillips |
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