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Dan Georgakas ( el, Νταν Γεωργακάς; 1938–2021) was an American
anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...
poet and historian, who specialized in oral history and the American labor movement, best known for the publication ''Detroit: I do mind dying: A study in urban revolution'' (1975), which documents African-American radical groups in Detroit during the 1960s and 1970s.


Early life

Dan Georgakas was born March 1, 1938, to Xenophon and Sophia Georgakas in
Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
.


Career

In 1966, Georgakas and painter Ben Morea helped found the Anarchist group
Up Against the Wall Motherfucker Up Against the Wall Motherfucker, often shortened as The Motherfuckers or UAW/MF, was a Dadaist and Situationist anarchist affinity group based in New York City. This "street gang with analysis" was famous for its Lower East Side direct action. ...
affiliated with New York City's
Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally ...
. In 1967, he signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest," initiated by an editor of the ''New York Times'' Magazine. Inspired by the civil disobedience of Henry David Thoreau, the manifesto united 528 American writers and publishers who refused to pay the 10% tax for the Vietnam War. In 1975, Georgakas co-published with Marvin Surkin ''Detroit: I do mind dying: a study in urban revolution''. The book traces workers' struggles of the 1970s in the car factories. It highlights: conditions of line work, corruption of union apparatus, daily racism in American society. In the late 1980s, Georgakas began co-writing the ''Encyclopedia of the American Left'' (1990, 1998) with Mari Jo Buhle and husband Paul Buhle. Georgakas had spoken at annual seminars for the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is a labor union that represents approximately 775,000 workers and retirees in the electrical industry in the United States, Canada, Guam, Panama, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Island ...
(IBEW). Georgakas had long served on the editorial board of '' Cineaste magazine'' and specializes in Latin American cinema. Georgakas had taught at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...
,
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...
, the
University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...
, the
University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...
, and Queens College. Before his death, Georgakas had been serving as director of the Greek American Studies Project of the Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies; he also specialized in Latin American cinema.


Legacy

In 1967, Georgakas and Surkin helped coin the term "New Detroit." Georgakas has left the bulk of his papers to the Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs at
Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...
, with writings on cinema in the Tamiment Library of
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...
.


Works

Written: Georgakas' written works include: * ''Richard Trevellick and the labor reformers (1960?) * "The Black Jacobins in Detroit" (chapter) (1963) * ''Romiossini The Story of the Greeks'' with Giannēs Ritsos * "Conversation over Tea" in ''Phylon'' (1963) * ''Michigan labor and the Civil War'' with Albert A Blum (1965?) * ''Manifesto for the grey generation'' with Friederike Poessnecker and Carl Weissner (1966) * "And All Living Things Their Children" (1968) Poetry published by Screeches Press, UK * ''Detroit: I do mind dying: a study in urban revolution'' with Marvin Surkin (1975) * "Dark Odyssey" in ''Senses of Cinema'' (1980) * ''The Methuselah Factors: Strategies for a Long and Vigorous Life'' (1980) * ''Encyclopedia of the American Left'' with Mari Jo Buhle and Paul Buhle (1990, 1998) * "The Films of Theo Angelopoulos" in ''Journal of Modern Greek Studies'' (2000) * "Stella Michael Cacoyannis, Greece 1955" in ''The Cinema of the Balkans, London and New York'' (2006) * ''My Detroit: Growing Up Greek and American in Motor City'' (2006) * "HUAC and the Red Trilogy of World War II: The North Star, Mission to Moscow, Ballad of Russia" in ''New Politics'' (2013) * "Radical America" in ''New Politicas'' (2018) * "This week in history: Radical feminist Voltairine de Cleyre" in ''
People's World ''People's World'', official successor to the '' Daily Worker'', is a Marxist and American leftist national daily online news publication. Founded by activists, socialists, communists, and those active in the labor movement in the early 1900s, t ...
'' (2016) Film: Georgakas' has appeared in documentaries, including: * ''Detroit: Run of a City'' (2005) * ''I'm Standin' Over Here Now'' (2013) * ''Dan Georgakas: A Diaspora Rebel'' (2015)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Georgakas, Dan 1938 births 2021 deaths American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American historians Activists from Detroit American people of Greek descent Historians from Michigan American anarchists Labor historians