Oakland General Strike Archive

  1. First-Hand Accounts by Stan Weir
Stan Weir interviewed by Pat McCauly on December 5, 1990 at Cal State University Long Beach (excerpt)
  1. First-Hand Audio Accounts
“The Oakland General Strike of 1946,” produced by the New American Movement and the Oakland Study Group. KPFA broadcast Nov. 29, 1976
Al Kidder, Kahn’s employee, interview excerpt (from above KPFA radio show)
  1. First-hand Video Accounts
Evelyn Schaaf, 60th Anniversary of General Strike on July 22, 2006 at Oakland YWCA PART 1
Evelyn Schaaf PART 2
  1. Paramount Newsreel (excerpt)
  1. Golden Lands, Working Hands
“We Called it a Work Holiday” about 1946 Oakland Genera Strike (excerpt from Golden Land, Working Hands)
  1. Scholarly Accounts
 Chris Rhomberg on the forgotten history of Oakland: the rise of the Klan in the 1920s, the Oakland general strike of 1946, and the explosion of the Black Panthers in the 1960s. KPFA broadcast December 19, 2005

  1. Occupy Oakland “Attempted” General Strike 2011
Gifford Hartman, Cynthia Kaufman, and Eddie Yuen speak about the 1946 Oakland general strike, the Occupy Wall St movement, and Occupy Oakland’s general strike. KPFA broadcast October 31, 2011
KALW’s Holly Kernan interviews Gifford Hartman on 1946 Oakland General Strike #OccupyBayArea
  1. Other accounts of 1946 Oakland General Strike

“It was like a carnival”: The betrayal of Oakland’s 1946 General Strike

Interviews with Erik Loomis, working class historian Gifford Hartman, and archival recordings of workers who participated in the 1946 uprising, explore why Oakland was the site of “America’s last great general strike” – and the connections between this 74-year-old conflict and the struggles of today’s “gig economy” workers.