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We speak with organizers Rachel Jackson and Adrienne Williams about the planned solidarity action in support of Amazon workers unionizing in Alabama. Amazon has been accused of unfair treatment in the workforce and workers have until 3/29/21 to vote on whether to form the union, which is a first in Amazon’s history. The historical vote … Continued
What are the best means we have to affect lasting social change? Historian Kevin Young contends that even when progressive candidates are elected to positions of power, their achievements are constrained by the ability of the business class to disinvest in the economy in protest. He argues that, nonetheless, the Left has a powerful tool … Continued
The signs of an accelerating climate emergency are everywhere. While the broad notion of a Green New Deal has caught fire, the details and political hurdles are formidable at best. Radical political economist Robert Pollin lays out what a just plan should include, why it is imperative, and how it might be financed. He also … Continued
Each election year, politicians make endless appeals for the votes of the middle class. But who, and what, is the middle class? David Roediger looks at the political history of an unwieldy category, from its Cold War role as a bulwark against Communism to the Democratic Party’s rebranding of working class voters to the radical … Continued
What do college athletes, prison laborers, welfare recipients, and graduate students in the sciences have in common? According to sociologist Erin Hatton, they’re all workers who face a particular form of coercion. She discusses what these workers’ circumstances tell us about work under contemporary capitalism. She’ll also consider the situation of prisoners pressured into dangerous … Continued
Two historic global economic contractions almost within a decade of each other would have been hard to fathom, if we weren’t living through them. Marxist geographer Richard Walker examines the shape of the United States and world economies during the coronavirus. He also discusses the effects of the crisis on the fossil fuel industry and … Continued
These are anxious times for all of us, but even more so for those whose labor is deemed essential during a pandemic: delivery drivers, grocery workers, those working in Amazon warehouses, and of course health care workers. Labor Notes writer Chris Brooks discusses the challenge for labor under these unprecedented circumstances — and how we … Continued
When we on the left talk about the plight of the Palestinians, we usually talk about land – and rightly so. The dispossession of the Palestinians of their land has been a central element of the project of Israeli settler colonialism. But often what is forgotten is the question of Palestinian labor, its fundamental role … Continued
When we think of the Teamsters union, we often think of the mob and the figure of Jimmy Hoffa, memorialized by countless Hollywood films. Yet Ken Paff reminds us that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters should also conjure up in our minds rank and file militancy and enormous worker power in key sectors of the … Continued
Zombies are almost the mascots of our dark times. Hard to avoid in popular culture, they have become so ubiquitous that even the Centers for Disease Control put out a tongue in cheek guide to surviving the zombie apocalypse. Sarah Juliet Lauro discusses the origins of the zombie, from enslaved worker to liberated rebel in … Continued
