Labor and Anti-Work

Welcome to Infoshop's resource portal for all issues relating to labor, class struggle, and the revolt against work.

Basic concepts

Direct Action | General Strike | Strike

Related links

Labor news

Common Dreams

Indymedia

Infoshop.org Labor News

LabourStart

Labor magazines and newspapers

Anarcho-Syndicalist Review

Labor Notes

Left Business Observer

New Labor Forum

Workers Solidarity

I'm too light for heavy work and too heavy for light work.
WOBBLY WISECRACK

Labor blogs

AAAUnite

The AFM in Trouble

afmahead

AFSCME Local 3800

Always Low Prices

Exporting Our Jobs

SuperSizeMyPay

Radical labor unions and organizations

Confédération Nationale du Travail

Confederación Nacional del Trabajo

Industrial Workers of the World

More...

Other labor organizations

LaborNet's Directory of Union Organizations on the Internet

Communications Workers of America

International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM)

The National Writers Union

United Farm Workers

WashTech

More...

Resources on labor

Business and Labor Cartoons by Carol Simpson

How to Organize a Union

IWW Library

Joe Hill Commemoration Homepage

LaborNet

Songs from the Little Red Songbook

More...

History of labor

Celebrate The IWW Centenary (1905 - 2005)

The Life and Work of Rudolf Rocker

Lucy Parsons (1853-1942): The Life of an Anarchist Labor Organizer

Anti-work and zerowork - the ultimate goals

The Abolition of Work by Bob Black

Aphorisms Against Work by Len Bracken

Labor Daze

WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE AND STOP WORKING!

Further Reading

Against the Corpse Machine: Defining A Post-Leftist Anarchist Critique of Violence
Sometimes anarchists are slow learners. Disregarding the famous, definitive and prognostic Marx-Bakunin split in the First International near the end of the 19th century, anarchists overall have continued to cling to the obsolete notion that anarchy is best situated within the otherwise statist Leftist milieu, despite the bourgeois democratic origins of the Left-Right spectrum. Since then communists and Marxists, liberals and conservatives alike have had us right where they want us - and it's shown in our history. In continuing to view ourselves as Leftists, despite the glaring contradictions in such a stance, we have naturally relegated ourselves to the role of critic within larger movements, and often found ourselves either marching towards goals which stand in direct opposition to our own interests or suckered by counter-revolutionary appeals to anti-fascist or anti-capitalist unity.

An Anarchist Program For Labor
Today there is a general unrest and anger among working people, even though most workers continue to hold usual "American" views (support of capitalism, the two parties, racism at some level, patriotism, etc.). This unorganized discontent has resulted in a change in the hierarchy of the unions, a move toward a more liberal, more active group of bureaucrats, under John Sweeney. The new leaders are worried about their loss of membership (bureaucrats who cannot even keep their dues base
are pretty pathetic). They have managed to link up with college activists (especially on the more affluent campuses) to oppose sweatshop labor, in the U.S. and abroad, and to include environmentalism.

Fair Trade for Sale
Coffee is among the most exploitative products traded on the international market today. This luxury beverage is attended in its regions of production with every conceivable form of oppression, environmental destruction, and economic exploitation. While companies like Starbucks reap massive profits, coffee farmers and plantation workers live on starvation wages. Sometimes not even that much.

Temporary Insanity
Recently I was trying to determine my official employment status. Colloquially, I'm a temp. Or rather, "temp" is the nominal designation assigned to my current circumstances—just graduated, and affiliated with sundry temporary job-placement agencies in hopes of finding work. I have spent inordinate amounts of time filling out tax forms and taking skills tests to assess my knowledge of Microsoft Word, mail merges and spreadsheet proficiency. Doing so has resulted in two one-day assignments in the last four weeks and one lingering question: "Am I employed or not?" I suppose I should have realized earlier that job security in temporary work is a contradiction in terms.