Chris Townsend has been organizing workers, conducting political work for labor unions, and teaching young workers to organize for almost all his adult life. He is, as we say, “the real deal.” While most of us opine and pontificate about labor, Chris does the dirty work. He organizes. His contributions over several decades have played […]

A cornerstone of Donald Trump’s economic policies is tariffs. Claiming that just about every country in the world has ripped off the United States—even stating that the European Union was established to do this—he sees tariffs as a way for the U.S. to get even.

Rafael Barrett has always been close to the hearts of Paraguayan radicals, who, along with his progeny, have kept his memory alive. And he is known throughout the Southern Cone of South America, though his work has suffered long periods of relative neglect there.

As a former college teacher, one who witnessed the attacks on those who protested against the War in Vietnam and who studied the repression on campuses during the McCarthy period, I became so appalled at what was being done to our brave and courageous college students that I began to write letters to the leaders of what are, in reality, academic enterprises.

Parts 3 and 4 of an interview with Michael D. Yates by Farooque Chowdhury.

Parts 1 and 2 of an interview with Michael D. Yates by Farooque Chowdhury. The emancipation of labor is one of the foremost questions in all exploitative societies and societies in transition.

The list of negative things one can say about Joe Biden gets longer by the day.

More workers are forming independent unions, untethered from the AFL-CIO and other established labor groups.

Work Work Work: Labor, Alienation, and Class Struggle

The ruling class always tries to divide the working class. We must make certain that the working class is not divided internally and we can draw on the past to find examples of working-class organizations that have actively worked to generate a cohesive and class-conscious membership.

Mary Filippo began in 2004 to audit economics classes in the hope that she could “learn something about globalization. Does it really help people in developing countries? What are its downsides?” She did not learn these things.

Today in the United States, there has been an upsurge in social democracy/democratic socialism (I use these terms interchangeably; I don’t see much difference between them, at least in the U.S.) The main current of social democracy is the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), whose overall political perspective can be described as follows.

In the backdrop of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, Michael D. Yates, decades-long union activist, director of Monthly Review Press and former Associate Editor of Monthly Review magazine, discusses condition of the working people and steps required.

The world is now in what scientists are calling a no-analogue situation. The dangers are increasing and so is the space for revolutionary human development, calling for a new Earth movement. If humanity is to survive a renewed struggle for freedom as necessity.

Killers rule us. Trump, Pence, Kushner, and all the others. What can we call them but murderers? If actions speak louder than words, then they are screaming at us, “Die, we don’t care.”

Sagebrush, Ponderosa Pine, Juniper Trees, and Piñón Pine are important flora in the western United States. Juniper can live more than 1,000 years, as can some Piñón. Ponderosa live up to 400 years. Sagebrush is a perennial and can survive for 100 years. All have been and are used for a variety of purposes by native peoples.

Monthly Review Press editor Michael D. Yates reflects on the state of U.S. labor in this special May Day interview conducted by Farooque Chowdhury.

Samir Amin’s work will provide inspiration to revolutionaries in their struggle against capital for many years to come.

The first thing to understand about colleges and universities is that they are workplaces. And like all workplaces in capitalist societies, they are organized as hierarchies, with power radiating downward.… Those at the top have as their central objective control over the enterprise, so that their power can be maintained, that revenues from tuition, grants, money from various levels of government, and the like keep flowing in, that the prestige of the college or university grows. And, of great importance, that those below them do not and cannot make trouble by challenging their authority.

  NBC recently aired a show called America’s Next Great Restaurant.  Contestants, each of whom hoped to open a restaurant chain, were put through a series of tests to see whose idea had the best chance for success.  A panel of judges eliminated one person at the end of each program, until the last one […]