The administrator of this blog site, I am a lifelong socialist and a retired carpenter and the former recording secretary and an expelled member of Carpenters Local 713. I was expelled for my leading role in the 1999 SF Bay Area carpenters wildcat strike as well as for his opposition to the union bureaucracy in general. I was one of the founding members of a small group called Labor Militant, which was the forerunner to Socialist Alternative. Along with a small group of others, I was expelled when that group started to adapt to the union bureaucracy. I have also visited the workers' movement internationally, including in Pakistan, Egypt (during the Arab Spring), Britain, Mexico and Chile (during the uprising there in 2020). Unless otherwise specified, I am the author of the articles that appear here. Although I am the main author, Oaklandsocialist welcomes articles on any issue that relates to the working class. Contact us at Oaklandsocialist@gmail.com.
UC Davis student-worker union (UAW Local 2865) has passed a resolution calling for a state-wide student walkout in support of striking Oakland teachers. Here is the text of the resolution. If there […]
Here’s a short video of the third day of the Oakland teachers strike. A couple of ideas for what could be done next: Build a state-wide student walk out to support the […]
Here is a video of Day One of the 2019 Oakland teachers strike. We need to help Oakland teachers win a salary that enabled them to live in Oakland! We need to […]
Oaklakdsocialist had published an open letter to Code Pink taking issue with their delegation to Iran, one which would have been used as a cover for the regime there. This approach by […]
If Mexico is “so close to the United States; so far from god”, then Venezuela is “so endowed with oil; so robbed of wealth”. In 1935, Venezuela had the highest per capita […]
I made a political visit to Venezuela in 2005 (at the time that Hurricane Katrina was devastating New Orleans). Things were very different then, but even so you could see hints of […]
In 1968, a teacher strike in New York City shook up the entire school system, leading to a huge high school student movement. This was at a time when young people were […]
The media frenzy about Venezuela is starting to feel like the build-up to the US invasion of Iraq. But will a new invasion of Venezuela happen? Here are some considerations: It was […]
We reproduce here a translation of an interview with Simón Rodríguez Porras, of the Venezuelan Party for Socialism and Freedom. It originally appeared here in Spanish 1- What is the situation of the […]
It is never comfortable to give up long-held beliefs and connections, but the impending climate crisis makes that a burning necessity. And the fact that, scientifically, it’s possible to avoid the worst […]
