Reading Struggles

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 This is a definitive collection of Harry Cleaver’s best unpublished, translated, or lesser known writings–both historic and current–on the refusal of work, class composition and “inversion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

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

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

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."

After a year of efforts our workers’ inquiry “Class Composition in the Cafe Sector: What do cafe workers in the United States think and do while at work?” has been published by our comrades at Notes from Below in the UK.

At the Edge of Everything: Collected Poems assembles George Caffentzis’s poetic output. The noted class-warrior, philosopher of money and work/energy, is now a published poet.

Beginning with the 1947 publication of The American Worker pamphlet a new form of “proletarian literature” emerged from the automotive factories and corners of Marxian movements in the United States. The pamphlet begins by providing intimate, all-encompassing, and actual details about the functioning, power relationships, and autonomous nature of workers’ struggles in an auto factory—from the workers’ perspective. In this opening episode of the new season of All Hail To The P

If you want to know what an industry looks and feels like, the best person to ask is not a consultant, manager, or business owner. It’s the workers. In this zine you will find some responses that workers in the cafe sector gave to a workers inquiry put together by Blue Bottle Independent Union & Workers Inquiry Dot Work. From unionization to daily conditions, see some of what is on cafe workers’ minds. Blue Bottle Independent Union @BBIUnion on IG and Twitter and Workers Inqu

What do café workers think? What do we want? And how do we share those conversations that take place in “walk ins” or walking to the bus after our shifts as to amplify our voices? Workers' Inquiry Dot Work, a new initiative to publish workers’ inquiries and first-person narratives of work in the US, and Blue Bottle Independent Union have launched a new inquiry into the cafe sector called "Class Composition in the Cafe Sector." Calling all baristas! Cafe workers can participa

For the past several years Shane Burley and Kevin Van Meter have engaged in a series of conversations on “Autonomous Anti-Fascism” and “Antifascism, Historically and in the Present.” Today they are joined by Ben Lorber for a conversation regarding the fight against antisemitism. Fighting antisemitism “through solidarity” doesn’t just create “safety” for “Jews and all people”; it allows us to directly confront the conspiratory core of contemporary fascist and rightwing argumen