Reading Struggles

“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."

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

Join me for two talks in London and Dublin this November 2024.

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

How Can First-Person Narratives of Work and Workers’ Inquiry Aid Organizing? Join us Friday, June 21st from 6:00-8:00PM in Rochester, NY for a workshop on workers' inquiry. Free and all are welcome. First-person narratives and workers’ inquiries are strategic interventions to grasp power in the workplace, informal work groups and divisions within the workforce, forms of mutual aid and informal organization, “organic” leadership, and can aid organizing efforts. In this works

Blue Bottle Workers Launch Independent Union. Read Five Questions with an Organizer.

Troublemaking Goes International... a review of Troublemaking by Jamie Woodcock and Lydia Hughes of Notes from Below.

Read my latest article "Labor Education for All Workers" over at New Politics!

A new edition of Real World Labor is out now with Dollars & Sense magazine and Kevin Van Meter is proud to be one of the editors!

Kevin Van Meter recently joined COVER for a seminar on The American Worker.

New Politics has just released "Searching for The American Worker" by Kevin Van Meter online for the reading public.

Dollars and Sense Magazine has just released "Management Rights, Workers Wronged" by Robert Ovetz and Kevin Van Meter online.