Radical lefty sightseeing in The Bay Area?

July 21, 2009 9:51 AM

Fun things for a lefty to do whilenon San Francisco for a few days?

I'm in the bay area for the next few days and would like to check out some fun radical spots. Either in SF, Berkeley, Oakland or the surrounding area. I have a car. If it matters, I'm here until Thursday.

Bonus points for anything having to do with labor activism.

posted by willie11 to society & culture (11 answers total)

I was racking my brain there for a minute for left-handed activities in SF, then I read the rest of your post. D'oh!

There's always the Holt Labor Library on Geary.
posted by Aquaman at 10:16 AM on July 21, 2009 [1 favorite]

Not strictly left wing, but there's a decent anarchist bookstore in the Haight .
posted by dhammond at 10:31 AM on July 21, 2009

Coit tower, definitely. The murals are beautiful.
posted by JJ86 at 10:51 AM on July 21, 2009

This month is Laborfest.
posted by mollymayhem at 11:09 AM on July 21, 2009 [1 favorite]

You should go check out City Lights Books - they have a pretty awesome selection of everything, including a lot of lefty books. But it's really just a great SF landmark.
posted by GuyZero at 11:15 AM on July 21, 2009

typo in the question, sorry. that should be "to do while in San Francisco" of course.
posted by willie11 at 12:11 PM on July 21, 2009

Yeah, lots of fun free history tours with Laborfest this week.
posted by oneirodynia at 12:51 PM on July 21, 2009

Here are some tours, including a lot of labor-related ones. Here's a list of events: go to a talk, a protest, or a meeting.
posted by gingerbeer at 12:54 PM on July 21, 2009

Well, actually, not so much between today and Thursday, which is really too bad. I went on the Bay Bridge tour on Sunday, and it was quite good. You might browse the site and look for things you'd want to visit on your own.

So Coit Tower is worthwhile, you might enjoy a drive out to the Rosie The Riveter National Park in Richmond. Not heavy on the labor overtones, but important nonetheless. The Oakland General Strike is an interesting event, but not much to look at downtown without a tour. The Tribune Tower still exists.

Living New Deal has a map of local projects you might want to visit.
posted by oneirodynia at 1:04 PM on July 21, 2009

(referring to my previous comment about laborfest)
posted by oneirodynia at 1:05 PM on July 21, 2009

oneirodynia - you were on the bridge tour?! Which person were you!?

OP - some ideas: Found SF (for neighborhoods to explore to soak up the radical history), the main library has an exhibit on the General Strike of '34 up now, Modern Times Bookstore, Marcus Books, The Long Haul in Berkeley, IndyBay event calendar - that's all that's coming to mind at the moment but if I dredge up more I'll check back in.
posted by serazin at 11:21 PM on July 21, 2009