Stan Weir tells the story of the closest he ever came to the self-governing workers' world in which he believed all his adult life. On the SS Hanapepe, workers turned their ship into a floating classroom with older workers—the '34 men—systematically instructing younger ones. The ship could be such a forum for workers' self-activity only because of the collective direct action with which the crew had made manifest their collective power before going to sea.
The Oakland General Strike of 1946 became the closest thing in Stan's experience to a generalizing of what happened on the Hanapepe, to a local general strike of the entire Oakland, California working class.
The Oakland General Strike of 1946 became the closest thing in Stan's experience to a generalizing of what happened on the Hanapepe, to a local general strike of the entire Oakland, California working class.
