Sharon Smith is an American socialist writer and activist. She is the author of Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States and Women and Socialism: Essays on Women's Liberation. Women and Socialism, published by Haymarket Books in 2005, is a collection of essays on the origin of women's oppression, the struggle for abortion rights, the political trajectory of mainstream feminism, the place of women in Islam, and the ways socialism could, in Smith's view, overcome women's oppression. In the course of some of these essays, Smith takes up an argument she had previously made in a lengthy article in the International Socialism Journal, arguing against identity politics, which she views as a mistaken approach for feminism or any other movement against oppression. Subterranean Fire, published by Haymarket in 2006, is a history of the US labor movement from the late 19th century through the 21st, focusing on the role of its left wing. Smith writes a biweekly column for Socialist Worker titled "Which Side Are You On?", and writes regularly for other left-wing publications including CounterPunch, Dissident Voice, and the International Socialist Review. [More at Wikipedia]

January 1st, 1956 in (Age 68)