Michael Stauch 

Ph.D. Candidate at Duke University 

“Wildcat of the Streets: 

Working-Class Resistance in Detroit in the 1970s." 

The 1970s were a time of tremendous upheaval. Both inside and outside the factory, people rebelled against the stifling conditions they faced. Faced with forms of organization that seemed ill-suited to their needs, they gravitated to other means of addressing their grievances. In the factory, this led to what has been called, “the most sustained period of wildcat strikes in history.” In the streets, workers and oppressed people struck out in similar ways, finding themselves at odds both with traditional civil rights groups and the institutions of state power confining them. The case of the Livernois Five is one example of a “wildcat of the streets.” In Detroit, in the summer of 1975, five young black men found themselves on trial for a crime they didn’t commit during a rebellion they fully supported. This is their story.