In the past year, I've had the honor of becoming a friend of Sol Dollinger, a longtime socialist who sadly passed away last month at the age of 80.

I met Sol when he came to Oakland, Calif., to promote his book Not Automatic: Women and the Left in the Forging of the Auto Workers' Union. I had read about his wife, Genora Johnson Dollinger, in an oral history called Striking Flint.

Sol invited members of the International Socialist Organization to stay with him in Los Angeles during the August 2000 protests outside the Democratic National Convention. We took him up on his offer.

Although he was already very ill, Sol came with us to several demonstrations, fed us each evening and talked politics late into the night.

Sol said he was supporting Ralph Nader in the presidential election and was eager to know our reasons for doing so, too. He thought that Nader's campaign was an important step for the left.

Sol was adamant that the workers of the world will have to rebuild unions and a genuine socialist movement to win real change.

I'm sure Sol would have been proud to see so many thousands already building a movement against Bush's war.

Kim Rabuck, Oakland, Calif.

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