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.
by Michael Karadjis republished from his blog MKaradjis.com. Interesting that in a 37-minute speech to justify Russia’s brazen annexation of four regions of Ukraine, Putin didn’t mention “Nazis” or “de-Nazification” once, these silly tropes […]
On Oct. 2, the Ukraine Socialist Solidarity Campaign held a Zoom meeting with exiled Russian dissident Ilya Budraitskis. What follows is a video of the full meeting plus a transcript of Ilya’s […]
With the crisis of the Putin regime, a new and even more unstable period in world history may be opening up. The “Cold War” was marked by tensions and constant struggles. Then […]
Here is a video plus the text of an interview I did with the SF Chronicle yesterday: SF Chronicle Well, John, can you tell me a little bit about yourself? John Reimann […]
The old demons of the interwar period are back in Europe! By Yorgos Mitralias “Days of 1922? Not yet, but Italy is on track to “celebrate” in four years the centenary of […]
It is important to learn how to answer capitalist politicians, and running for office is one way of doing so. I’m learning a lot by running for mayor of Oakland, mainly through […]
“And RL cracked a smile that woulda made a sweet girl’s photograph cry.” There are such beautifully descriptive sentences scattered throughout Walter Mosley’s 1995 novel “RL’s Dream”. The novel is formally about […]
When viewed more closely, the crises in which Trump and Putin find themselves go a long way towards defining what they have in common and where they differ. The fact that Putin […]
Ukraine Socialist Solidarity Campaign will be holding two meetings/discussions on events inside Ukraine and inside Russia. We urge people to attend and participate. Sunday, September 25: What is happening inside Ukraine? The […]
We must start to draw a link between the confusions – in fact the abandonment of principle – of many socialists regarding Ukraine and their equally great confusions about the crisis swirling […]
