karen eliot writes

The Last General Strike?

A Celebration of Over 100 Years of Class War

Help mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World with a brief photo presentation of the last general strike ever to occur in the U.S., the “Work Holiday” from December 1-5, 1946 in Oakland, California. After the brief presentation, we will show a few short video clips from a video called “Precarity” about the new and imaginative examples of working class resistance—from South Korea, Argentina, France, Italy and Spain—to the increasingly exploitative, insecure and precarious nature of wage labor today. Most importantly, our event will mostly be an informal discussion about the possibilities for class struggle today, with first-hand accounts of the inspiring recent actions—in the tradition of the Wobblies—like the wildcat strike of West Coast troqueros in the spring of 2004 and the community Flying Picket actions in solidarity with the citywide striking/locked out hotel workers in San Francisco this year.

I should be very much pleased if you could find me something good (meaty) on economic conditions in California…California is very important for me because nowhere else has the upheaval shamelessly caused by capitalist centralization taken place with such speed.

From the discovery of gold in 1848 onward, California has been at forefront of capitalist development—as well as the class war against it. We will take a historical look at this present juncture in the class struggle and how we can reach back into the past and draw useful lessons from the inspiring legacy of working class battles on the West Coast. A crucial milestone was the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905. In this centenary year, we will discuss how the spirit of the I.W.W. resonated in such events at the 1934 West Coast Maritime Strike, which escalated into the San Francisco General Strike in the summer of that year. It reappeared again twelve years later in 1946, as the U.S. exploded with six general strikes. There were also major stoppages by steelworkers, coal miners, autoworkers and on the railroads; it was the closest the U.S. has ever come to a nationwide general strike. The 1946 Oakland General Strike, the topic of this presentation, was the final act in that phase of class struggle that reached the highest level of strike activity ever in this country. Most importantly, we will discuss our own experiences and how we can place ourselves in this tradition and carry on fighting for a world beyond capitalism.

Our event is part of the formation of the California Class War History Project in which we will document the struggles of the working class, within the historical tradition outlined above. Please join us with your stories of being part of this age-old fight for a classless society. As the end of the first paragraph of the Preamble to the Industrial Workers of the World Constitution says:

Between these two classes a struggle must go on
until the workers of the world organize as a class,take possession of the means of production,
abolish the wage system, and
live in harmony with the Earth.

7 PM, Saturday, August 13, 2005

Flor y Canto 3706 N. Figueroa, L.A.

(323)276-1148,
SFBay@IDPeditions.org