• Monthly Review
  • Monthly Review Press
  • Climate & Capitalism
  • Money on the Left
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Mastadon
MR Online
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact/Submission
  • Browse
    • Recent Articles Archive
    • by Subject
      • Ecology
      • Education
      • Imperialism
      • Inequality
      • Labor
      • Literature
      • Marxism
      • Movements
      • Philosophy
      • Political Economy
    • by Region
      • Africa
      • Americas
      • Asia
      • Australasia
      • Europe
      • Global
      • Middle East
    • by Category
      • Art
      • Commentary
      • Interview
      • Letter
      • News
      • Newswire
  • Monthly Review Essays
  •    A dozen unions in Chicago struck for the day on April 1 2016one of several examples from recent history that hold lessons for how the labor movement could speed run to larger more disruptive actions Photo Jim Westjimwestphotocom   MR Online

    Maybe a general strike isn’t so impossible now

    Originally published: Labor Notes on December 4, 2025 by Alex Han (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted Dec 06, 2025)

    Trump’s attacks on working people—threats to send troops into major U.S. cities, ripping collective bargaining rights from a million federal workers, an immigration enforcement terror campaign that borders on unconstitutional—have been so extreme that many people are talking about a general strike.

  •    An aerial view showing destruction in Rafah Gaza   MR Online

    Columbia tries to undermine its unions, hire scab instructors

    Originally published: Labor Notes on August 13, 2025 by Jenny Brown (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted Aug 15, 2025)

    Imagine you get a letter from your manager a week before you are set to teach classes, removing you from teaching duties but saying you’ll get paid anyway.

  •    Crystal Londonio wife of detained Machinist Max Lodonio speaks at the June 6 rally Richard Howard the president of her husbands Machinists local is at right in hat with another local member Photo Zack Pattin   MR Online

    ‘IAM Max’: Machinists rally for member detained by ICE

    Originally published: Labor Notes on June 9, 2025 by Zack Pattin (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted Jun 11, 2025)

    Rallying under the banner “IAM Max,” 200 union members and supporters gathered outside the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, Washington, on June 6 to demand the release of Maximo Londonio, a member of Machinists (IAM) Local Lodge 695 who has been imprisoned by ICE since mid-May.

  •    At the DBK4 delivery station in Queens New York cops swarmed and arrested an Amazon driver who stopped his van in support of the strike Then they forcibly broke the picket line Photo Luis Feliz Leon   MR Online

    Cops bust picket line as Teamsters strike seven Amazon warehouses

    Originally published: Labor Notes on December 19, 2024 by Natascha Elena Uhlmann (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted Dec 21, 2024)

    Amazon warehouse workers and delivery drivers at seven facilities in the metro areas of San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Southern California, and New York City are out on strike Thursday, in what the union says is the largest strike against Amazon in U.S. history.

  •    After nurses held a one day strike Kapiolani Medical Center locked them out indefinitely The bitter irony of a retaliatory lockout in response to a strike about retaliation was not lost on the nurses Photo courtesy of Nurse Erica   MR Online

    Honolulu nurses weather long lockout and win staffing ratio language

    Originally published: Labor Notes on October 28, 2024 by Nurse Erica (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted Oct 31, 2024)

    In a malicious ploy, a hospital in Honolulu locked out its nurses after a one-day strike—and not just for a couple days, as hospitals often do, but indefinitely. The message was, you can come back only when you accept our demands.

  •    Phones held aloft to record the moment delivery drivers marched on their bosses at three Amazon contractors to announce their new union To march today and walk in there with everyone behind us all of us standing together as a union it was so amazing said Latrice Shadae Johnson Photo Teamsters   MR Online

    New York Amazon delivery drivers join the Teamsters in surge of momentum

    Originally published: Labor Notes on September 16, 2024 by Luis Feliz Leon (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted Sep 18, 2024)

    Hundreds of Amazon drivers at a delivery station in Queens, New York, marched on their bosses today to announce they are joining the Teamsters.

  •    After organizing a unit of delivery drivers in California the Teamsters have extended picket lines to Amazon facilities across the country If were going to bring Amazon to the table we need to build a national movement of Amazon workers who are strike ready said Connor Spence whos running for president of the ALU Trying to build that without some kind of institutional backing is a long shot Photo Amazon Teamsters   MR Online

    Teamsters and Amazon Labor Union announce affiliation, member vote still ahead

    Originally published: Labor Notes on June 5, 2024 by Luis Feliz Leon (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted Jun 06, 2024)

    The Amazon Labor Union and the Teamsters have signed an affiliation agreement.

  •    After a groundbreaking win at MIT graduate workers elsewhere borrowed talking points for organizing research assistants in science technology engineering and mathematics   MR Online

    How tens of thousands of grad workers are organizing themselves

    Originally published: Labor Notes on May 29, 2024 by Valentina Luketa (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted May 31, 2024)

    It’s the biggest organizing wave the U.S. labor movement has seen in decades.

  •    United Auto Workers members at the University of California marched in Oakland Attacks on campus occupations have led to unfair labor practice charges and even a strike vote Photo UAW Local 2865   MR Online

    Unions support student protestors against campus administrators and police

    Originally published: Labor Notes on May 14, 2024 by Caitlyn Clark (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted May 20, 2024)

    More than 2,700 protesters have been arrested on 64 college campuses since the initial arrests at Columbia University in New York on April 18. Encampments have appeared at 184 campuses worldwide.

  •    In July 2023 in the middle of Amazons Prime Day promotional sales rush 100 warehouse workers walked out for more than three hours at its delivery station in Pontiac Michiganbringing the facility to the brink of a total shutdown Photo Zach Rioux   MR Online

    The end of lean production… and what’s ahead

    Originally published: Labor Notes on May 2, 2024 by Kim Moody (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted May 06, 2024)

    Lean production, introduced in the 1980s from Japanese automakers, caught on in many U.S. industries.

  •    Auto workers from the Kentucky Truck Plant rallied with President Shawn Fain on the eve of the Stand Up Strike This super profitable plant joined the strike abruptly tonight after Ford failed to improve its economic offer Photo Luis Feliz Leon   MR Online

    Auto Workers escalate: Surprise strike at massive Kentucky Ford truck plant

    Originally published: Labor Notes on October 11, 2023 by Keith Brower Brown (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted Oct 13, 2023)

    Every Friday for the past four weeks, Big 3 CEOs have waited fearfully for Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain to announce which plants will strike next.

  •    Kiada Shanklin center a team leader in the quality department at Stellantiss Jeep Grand Cherokee plant posed with her three children and UAW President Shawn Fain at a contract rally on Sunday in Warren Michigan Her shirt says I have 3 major reasons to strike Photo UAW   MR Online

    Fired-up auto workers are ready to battle the Big 3

    Originally published: Labor Notes on August 21, 2023 by Luis Feliz Leon (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted Aug 23, 2023)

    Sunday afternoon at the Auto Workers (UAW) Region 1 Pavilion in Warren, Michigan, felt a lot like church. Auto workers came together in sweltering heat to rally each other with fiery speeches, cheers, and songs in the first Big 3 contract rally anyone can remember.

  •    Locked out Ascension Seton Medical Center nurses in Austin Texas confront a representative of the hospitals administration on June 28 The company locked them out for three days after they struck but the move backfired Photo National Nurses United   MR Online

    Newly organized nurses in Texas and Kansas strike for a first contract

    Originally published: Labor Notes on July 11, 2023 by Seth Uzman (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted Jul 22, 2023)

    Through wet weather in Wichita, Kansas, and scorching heat in Austin, Texas, hundreds of nurses walked picket lines June 27 in a one-day strike for safe staffing and patient safety. Nearly 2,000 nurses represented by National Nurses United (NNU) walked out.

  •    Starbucks workers confront managers at the companys Manhattan regional headquarters on May 1 demanding that the company negotiate and stop retaliating against union activists When workers are fired and victimized for exercising their rights to unionize salting is a completely justified response Photo Jenny Brown   MR Online

    Viewpoint: We are all salts

    Originally published: Labor Notes on May 3, 2023 (more by Labor Notes)  |

    Today’s revival of union “salting” could not be more welcome or more urgently needed.

  •    Newly elected UAW leaders including Secretary Treasurer Margaret Mock third from left and President Shawn Fain fourth from left at the convention on March 29 2023 Fain said The rumble of the election is finished and called on members to unite against the employers Photo Jim West jimwestphotocom   MR Online

    Auto Workers convention lurches towards reversing concessions

    Originally published: Labor Notes on March 30, 2023 by Keith Brower Brown and Jane Slaughter (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted Mar 31, 2023)

    At the union’s Detroit convention this week, hundreds of delegates–often local leaders–signaled they were less ready than the members to welcome the reform leadership. But there was unanimity that it’s time to finally recoup the divisive contract concessions granted in the 2007-2009 recession.

  •    The University of Minnesotas Graduate Labor Union gathered union authorization cards representing nearly half the bargaining unit in the first 24 hours of the drive Photo Nolan Ferlic   MR Online

    What’s fueling the Graduate Worker Union upsurge?

    Originally published: Labor Notes on March 22, 2023 by Dave Kamper (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted Mar 25, 2023)

    The Twin Cities saw one of its biggest-ever snowstorms the week of Presidents Day. But for labor activists the snow was overshadowed by the launch of the University of Minnesota Graduate Labor Union.

  •    Workers walked out of the Flint Assembly Plant in the 2019 General Motors strike In a runoff election UAW members have elected a full slate of reformers to lead the union into this years Big 3 auto bargaining and beyond Photo Jake MayThe Flint Journal via AP   MR Online

    It’s a new day in the United Auto Workers

    Originally published: Labor Notes on March 17, 2023 by Luis Feliz Leon and Jane Slaughter (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted Mar 20, 2023)

    The machine will churn no more. Nearly 80 years of top-down one-party rule in the United Auto Workers are coming to an end. Reformer Shawn Fain is set to be the winner in the runoff for the UAW presidency.

  •    Work Work Work Labor Alienation and Class Struggle   MR Online

    Viewpoint: Confronting the nature of work

    Originally published: Labor Notes on September 1, 2022 (more by Labor Notes)  |

    Work Work Work: Labor, Alienation, and Class Struggle

  •    After whistleblowing short strikes and a year of contract negotiations Kaiser mental health workers are on their first ever open ended strike They say patients shouldnt have to wait months for a therapy appointment Photo NUHW   MR Online

    Kaiser clinicians strike against ‘separate and unequal’ mental health care

    Originally published: Labor Notes on August 16, 2022 by Cal Winslow (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted Aug 18, 2022)

    Thousands of Northern California Kaiser Permanente mental health clinicians, members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), are on strike.

  •    Here comes round two Amazons battalion of unscrupulous union busters has descended on the Staten Island sorting facility where workers will begin voting April 25 on whether to unionize Its a war in there said Amazon Labor Union Treasurer Madeline Wesley   MR Online

    ‘They’re playing really dirty’: Amazon lashes back in Staten Island warehouses

    Originally published: Labor Notes on April 14, 2022 by Luis Feliz Leon (more by Labor Notes)  | (Posted Apr 16, 2022)

    The company has billed itself as the everything store. Now Amazon is the throw-everything-at-them union-buster—trying every trick in the playbook to throttle worker organizing at its Staten Island warehouses in New York City.

  • 1
  • 2
Next →

Monthly Review Essays

  • Nikolai Gogol’s Department of Government Efficiency
    Andy Merrifield    A 1926 Soviet illustration of a production of Gogols play The Government Inspector showing audience members in the foreground and actors on stage in the background   MR Online

    Almost two centuries after its opening night, Gogol’s five-act satirical play The Government Inspector continues to create a stir with every performance, seemingly no matter where. Maybe because corruption and self-serving double-talk aren’t just familiar features of 19th-century Russia, but have become ingrained facets of all systems of government and officialdom, making them recognizable to […]

Lost & Found

  • Dividends Are Not Royalties: The SAT and Surplus Value
    Michael Parenti    A young man at a desk takes the SAT   MR Online

    Michael Parenti, the Marxist author and scholar, died on January 24, 2026 at the age of ninety-two. This article originally appeared in Monthly Review 45, no. 5 (October 1993). It has been frequently noted that IQ examinations, while professing to measure innate intelligence, are riddled with racial, gender, and class biases. Thus a low-income, inner-city youth, […]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License

Monthly Review Foundation
134 W 29TH ST STE 706
New York NY 10001-5304

Tel: 212-691-2555