Reading Struggles

Collected works of author, labor educator, and union organizer Kevin Van Meter.

Join Points of Departure editors Robert Ovetz and Kevin Van Meter at Labor Notes 2026 in Chicago as we celebrate the release of this new collection. Meet the Authors Saturday, 4:30 - 6:15pm Grand Ballroom C Full event description: Chat with authors of recent books that help us understand labor and the world. Buy a book and get it signed! With Aleida Garcia Aguirre, Eric Blanc, Jaz Brisack, Ellen David Friedman, Olivia Geho, Fred Glass, Debbie Goldman, Suzanne Gordon, Daniel G

Our Harry Cleaver collection is available for preorder! POINTS OF DEPARTURE: REFUSAL OF WORK AND THE CRISIS OF CAPITALISM: THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF HARRY CLEAVER Edited by Robert Ovetz and Kevin Van Meter “Refuse work. Revolt against capitalism. Read Harry Cleaver. In that order. Repeat.” This is a definitive collection of Harry Cleaver’s best unpublished, translated, or lesser known writings–both historic and current–on the refusal of work, class composition and “inversion

INTRODUCING CLASS COMPOSITIONS (Opening remarks from Class Compositions in a Time of Fascism. Watch here.) Class Compositions is a new Common Notions book and event series dedicated to circulating the best militant research and theoretical interventions around from dynamic historical reproductions to cutting edge dispatches from new worlds just beginning to emerge. Our programming, including todays program, will draw on the rich autonomist tradition to aid militants and w

Kevin's Van Meters's opening remarks from Class Compositions in a Time of Fascism. Capitalism and the state engaged in class combat for nearly a hundred-fifty years. They tried to whittle union density down to under ten percent, they spent a hundred to undo New Deal programs, seventy-five to unravel the social contract and various productivity deals with sectors of the class. The ruling class fought for decades to undermine the gains of black liberation, indigenous, peasant,

CLASS COMPOSITIONS IN A TIME OF FASCISM with Charmaine Chua, Sarah Jaffe, Kieran Knutson, Peter Linebaugh, Kevin Van Meter (mod). UPDATE 5/11: Silvia Federici won't be able to join us, we are ever so pleased that author and labor journalist Sarah Jaffe will be participating in our panel. As part of Red May, cosponsored by Common Notions Press. Join us on Sunday, May 17 at 2:00PM EST / 11:00AM PST: https://www.youtube.com/live/lrfVtVW2WkY What are our most prescient tasks in a

Join Common Notions and the editors of Points for Departure for a special release event in Chicago to coincide with Labor Notes!

Book Blurb for Rehearsing the Future by Michael Doan So pleased to be asked to blurb my comrade Mike Doan's forthcoming AK Press book Rehearsing the Future: The Thought and Practice of James and Grace Lee Boggs. "For much of the twentieth century, Grace Lee and James Boggs made a way out of no way, in love and in struggle, in revolutionary Marxism, Black liberation, and other social movements of the time. Now in our time, how do we make a way out of Grace and Jimmy’s ideas,

CLASS COMPOSITIONS Militant research and theoretical interventions for new worlds! Class Compositions: A Common Notions Series is dedicated to publishing the best militant research and theoretical interventions around from dynamic historical reproductions to cutting edge dispatches from new worlds just beginning to emerge. Our books draw on the rich autonomist tradition to aid militants and working-class intellectuals, political collectives and study groups using methods of w

Pleased to announce and share the cover for the forthcoming Common Notions title Points of Departure: Refusal of Work and the Crisis of Capitalism: The Collected Writings of Harry Cleaver “Refuse work. Revolt against capitalism. Read Harry Cleaver. In that order. Repeat.” This is a definitive collection of Harry Cleaver’s best unpublished, translated, or lesser known writings–both historic and current–on the refusal of work, class composition and “inversion of the class persp

SPRING 2026 TALKS AND WORKSHOPS A few upcoming talks and workshops with more dates and details forthcoming. May 2nd and 3rd Upstate Anarchist Book Fair in Binghamton, NY Using Workers’ Inquiry to Organize and Fight the Boss! Join Anastasia Wilson and Kevin Van Meter at 1:30PM on Sunday May 3rd for this workshop and panel to participate (read full description here). Come visit the Common Notions table. Book Fair information here. May 17th at 2:00PM ET / 11:00AM PT As par

Using Worker’ Inquiry to Organize and Fight the Boss “Workers’ inquiries are identifying working-class self-activity in various sectors, understanding the class struggle from the working-class point of view, and allowing workers to develop their own knowledge of how their work is organized.” Are you a militant worker, labor organizer, movement radical interested in workers' inquiry? Take a read a new introductory piece by Robert Ovetz and Kevin Van Meter at New Politics Magaz

New Applied Research Report! The State of the Unions: Organized Labor in Maine, 2022-2024 (2026) Joseph van der Naald and Kevin Van Meter "The State of the Unions: Organized Labor in Maine, 2022-2024 provides a look into Maine’s labor movement. The report analyzes both historical and contemporary union membership patterns in the state of Maine, their implications for the conditions of workers and their wages, as well as recent union organizing efforts in the state." The Key F

Labor scholars and organizers Robert Ovetz and Kevin Van Meter joined Professor Richard Wolff on Economic Update for a show titled "Resurgent Labor Organizing" this week. Rick interviewed Robert and Kevin about Marx's "A Workers' Inquiry," labor organizing in the US, and contemporary struggles of the working-class. Take a watch! Don't miss part one of this two part episode with our colleagues Alexander Pyne of the Blue Bottle Independent Union and economist Anastasia Wilson

“Amplifying forms of informal and formal organizing the workplace, amplifying and circulating struggles and informal practices of time theft or insubordination, all those things can only be understood from the perspective of the workers themselves.” For my second appearance on the Library Punk Podcast, I join Justin and Jay to chat about The American Worker pamphlet, Grace Lee Boggs and Phil Singer, Karl Marx and CLR James, workers’ inquiry and organizing in the US, and neig

Quite pleased to be offering a workshop on workers' inquiry and recent inquiries into the cafe and non-profit sectors in the Bay Area this December with my comrade Robert Ovetz. Join us! EVENTS SCHEDULE San Fransciso: Sunday, December 7 at Time TBD as part of the Howard Zinn Book Fair: Using Workers’ Inquiry to Organize and Fight the Boss (Workshop) Oakland: Tuesday, December 9 at 6:00PM—East Bay DSA Office: Using Workers’ Inquiry to Organize and Fight the Boss (Workshop). Pl

Offering workshops and public talks on workers' inquiry, The American Worker pamphlet, CLR James, and the contemporary labor movement in the US this November to be held in London, Edinburgh, Dublin and Belfast. Take a read of our workers' inquiry on the cafe sector in the United States published by Notes from Below and my "Searching for the American Worker" available online at New Politics. EVENTS SCHEDULE London: Saturday, November 8 at 10:00 as part of the Historical Mate

Strike When the Needle is Hot Book Release for Labor Organizers. Take a watch and a listen!

Take a listen to the Library Punk Pod as cafe workers and militants talk about "class composition in the cafe sector."