Oakland: Class War Lessons: The Bay Area General Strikes

Class War Lessons: The Bay Area General Strikes

Presented by Louis Prisco and Gifford Hartman

Readings: “Unions with Leaders Who Stay on the Job” by Stan Weir (chapter 9 in ‘We Are All Leaders’: The Alternative Unionism of the Early 1930s, edited by Staughton Lynd) also available as the pamphlet “Class War Lessons: From Direct Action on the Job to the 1946 Oakland General Strike” which can be obtained by e-mailing SFBay(at)FlyingPicket.org.

Description: Multi-media presentations, newsreel footage and photos, with critical analyses of the two general strikes that rocked the Bay Area: San Francisco in 1934 and Oakland in 1946.

The presentations will be based on first-hand accounts of solidarity in the two strikes, showing how they both began with the initiative of the rank-and-file, but will also show the many weaknesses that prevented them from realizing their radical potential.

Discussion will follow.

Wheelchair accessable.


Sponsored by The Institute for the Critical Study of Society