Maurice Sugar: Law, Labor, and the Left in Detroit, 1912-1950

By Christopher H. Johnson

Book Overview

The life and legacy of a labor champion and UAW lawyer.

Labor activist and attorney, Maurice Sugar played a key role in guiding the new United Auto Workers union in the 1930s. He orchestrated the injunction hearings on the 1937 Dodge Main strike and defended the legality of the sit-down tactic, wrote the union's constitution in 1939, and worked to nurture rank-and-file power.

This book traces Sugar's roots in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, through his resistance with Eugene V. Debs to World War I, and on to the struggles of the early 1930s to bring the union message to Detroit. Firmly grounded in the historiography of the UAW, Christopher H. Johnson shows the importance of Sugar and the Left in laying the foundation for unionizing the auto industry in the pre-UAW days. Johnson documents the work of the Left in building a Black labor coalition in Detroit, the importance of anti-Communism in Reuther's rise to power, and the diminution of union democracy in the UAW brought about by the Cold War.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814344836
• ISBN13: 9780814344835
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Wayne State University Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.99 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"