Workers of the world
In an increasingly interconnected world, the struggles of working people don’t stop at national borders. Supply chains and capital flows certainly do not. Why should solidarity?
Our reporting on the international dimensions of working people’s fight for a better world is supported by Bertha Foundation.
‘Get out Yankee’: A South Korean village’s fight against the US military
Since 2016, the residents of the village of Soseong-ri have protested the construction of THAAD, a US missile defense system that uses Korean land to protect US military bases throughout the Pacific.
Javier Milei and Latin America’s New Right
Like El Salvador’s Bukele, the Argentine leader couples tough-on-crime policy with a vicious agenda for austerity, deregulation, and privatization.
Colombian farmers take back land stolen from them by Big Oil
150 families displaced from their farms near Arauquita, Colombia 20 years ago have reclaimed their land from the Occidental Petroleum Corporation.
Special report: Workers and the European crisis
India’s growing pension movement: Protests rise as BJP government sticks to the new pension policy
Thousands of workers are taking to the streets and staging strikes to demand a return to the old pension system.
Colombia’s drug war returns as peace deal sputters
As the 2016 peace deal struggles to deliver lasting changes, many young Colombians are faced with two options: a life of crime, or the life of an armed revolutionary.
Farmers in Colombia fight multinational oil companies to get their land back
Journalist and filmmaker Rodrigo Vazquez-Salessi reports on the ground from rural Colombia, where displaced families have returned to reclaim their land and to take on the oil companies that are trying to displace them again.
Hunger, illness, thirst: In Khan Yunis, Gaza’s survivors cling to life
In the south of the Gaza Strip, families displaced by Israel’s bombing campaign must fend for themselves in tents without running water or electricity.
‘Fascism never left Germany’: Berlin’s repression of pro-Palestine activists
From beatings to arbitrary arrests, Germany’s crackdown on all those who dare defy the country’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza targets everyone from Palestinian refugees to anti-Zionist Jews.
Philippines workers denounce police killing of Jude Fernandez, labor leader
Fernandez’s killing by Philippine National Police comes amid a worsening climate of repression for labor under the Marcos Jr. administration.
On the ground in Jenin with the West Bank’s resistance fighters
‘They call us terrorists. Who planted terrorism? Wasn’t it they? As long as there is occupation there is no future for the people. There will be no future unless they let us live.’
‘Long live Akbelen’: In Turkey, villagers fight deforestation in coal mine project
The Akbelen Forest Resistance’s mission to save a centuries old-forest from the Limak Holding coal conglomerate has brought them face-to-face with Turkish security forces.
The far right has hijacked Chile’s new constitutional process. Women and LGBTQ activists are fighting back.
Chile’s 2019 Social Explosion demanded a new constitution to replace the current Pinochet-era document. But the right has now gained control of the process.
30 years after Yugoslavian socialism, Slovenian unions fight for the workers capitalism has forgotten
When Yugoslavian socialism collapsed three decades ago, Slovenian workers faced a new reality of capitalist exploitation, but they got McDonald’s in return. We talk to trade union leader Ana Jakopič about the class struggle in Slovenia today.
‘A new form of colonization’: Argentinian workers confront the IMF
A spiraling debt crisis triggered by former President Macri’s IMF loans has sent the value of Argentina’s currency plummeting, and with it the real wages of the working class.
Namibian workers protest ‘slave labor’ at corporation founded during apartheid
Shoprite workers in Namibia have hit the picket line after one woman’s suicide due to grueling conditions, including bullying and sexism in the workplace.
Indonesia’s Jokowi targets labor rights in the name of ‘job creation’
President Jokowi Widodo’s 2020 Omnibus Bill slashed a range of protections for workers in the name of attracting foreign investment. Trade unions say they won’t abide it.
“The president forced our comrade to die”—South Korea’s workers confront Yoon Seok Yeol’s labor crackdown
After the self-immolation protest death of a union leader, South Korean construction workers have held daily candlelight vigils and mobilized in the tens of thousands against President Yoon’s war on labor.
Israel’s West Bank checkpoints, from the eyes of Palestinian workers
“They built the wall after taking our land and properties, and now we work for them. Is there anyone in the world who commutes to work at 3:30 AM?”
‘A war-like situation’: Britain’s NHS workers strike continues
A devastating combo of austerity and inflation under Tory leadership has led to a 20 percent cut in real wages over the past decade for UK healthcare workers.
On May Day, Colombians mobilize to defend the Petro government
In stark contrast to previous years of anti-government protests, Colombians are now rallying to support their new president—and push his administration to go further.
May Day protests in Türkiye face repression as elections loom
As popular dissatisfaction builds, trade unions are pushing to remove President Erdoğan in the upcoming election.
The deplorable work conditions behind Harrods’ $7,000 ‘Ambootia Snow Mist’ Darjeeling tea
Workers at Darjeeling-area tea estates like Happy Valley in West Bengal, India, make under $3 a day.
When Bolsonaro abandoned Brazil’s poorest, the MST stepped up
The Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) crucially stepped up production in their occupations and settlements to meet the needs of Brazil’s urban poor after the COVID-19 pandemic began.
UK teachers aren’t backing down
UK teachers have voted to step up their existential fight against funding cuts and toxic surveillance, showing how dire the conditions in schools have become.
For workers in the Philippines, repression and US trade policy go hand-in-hand
Organizers in the Philippines explain how their fight for labor rights is linked to the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, spurred by the New Cold War on China.
Massive anti-government protests sweep Greece after train crash kills 57 people
As demonstrators lay the blame on the Greek government, years of austerity, privatization, and anti-worker crackdowns tied to EU, IMF, and ECB structural adjustment are back in the spotlight.
60,000 strike in Barcelona for International Women’s Day
Educators, students, migrant domestic workers, LGBTQ groups, and other workers united for a one-day general strike against gender-based pay disparities, discrimination, and immigration restrictions.
Inside the UK’s first Amazon strike
Facing burnout from overwork, mistreatment from managers, and a cost of living crisis that is pummeling working people, Amazon workers at a warehouse in Coventry are making history and striking for higher wages.
‘We must make Macron back down’: French workers launch indefinite strike against pension reforms
After weeks of targeted strikes, French President Emmanuel Macron refuses to change course on his plans to reform the country’s beloved pension system. Last week, unions across France upped the ante and launched an indefinite strike to force his hand.
Amazon promised good jobs in Egypt—for many, low pay and long hours are the reality
Currency devaluations on the Egyptian pound, most recently spurred by an IMF deal, are only making the situation worse as inflation spikes.
Inside Vio.Me, Greece’s only worker-managed factory that’s operated for over 10 years
“Our message to the worldwide proletariat is clear. We are shouting, ‘Workers, you can do without bosses.’”
‘Things are not looking so great in Great Britain’: UK university faculty hit the picket lines
Britain’s higher education union, the UCU, has called multiple days of strike action for fair wages and work conditions, joining millions of workers picketing across the UK.
‘It’s amazing how many people are united at the moment’: UK teachers join strike wave
Britain’s largest strike in a decade swelled to half a million workers on Feb. 1, 2023, after educators and civil servants joined transport workers to demand better pay.
Rail workers of the world, unite!
Railroad workers and union reps from the US, UK, and France discuss the class struggle in their respective countries and how these struggles are connected internationally in this special episode of the ‘Working People’ podcast.
The people vs. capital: French strikes against Macron’s pension reforms continue
French unions have already called the sixth strike of the year for March 7 as the struggle to preserve France’s retirement age and pension system continues.
Professors join the picket: Workers at 150 UK universities pledge 18 days of strike action
70,000 UK higher education staff will walk off their jobs in February and March in protest of precarious contracts, decades of austerity, and the cost-of-living crisis.
UK nurses join Britain’s cost of living strike wave to save NHS
Stagnating wages and years of austerity-driven privatization of the healthcare sector have pushed Britain’s nursing union to call the first national strike in its 100-year history.
‘We will die for our motherland’ Peruvians take the streets against Boluarte coup government
Over 50 people have been killed by military and police in more than two months of demonstrations for new elections and a new constitution following the ouster of democratically-elected President Pedro Castillo.
Striking Spanish doctors suspect a plot to privatize healthcare
Madrid’s physicians have staged weekly walkouts since November, saying they are unable to provide adequate healthcare under current expectations to see 60-70 patients a day.
French national strikes against pension reforms continue despite police repression
Macron’s plans to raise the retirement age to 64 have provoked weeks of unrest as workers fight back.
UK postal workers strike against Tory government’s handling of cost of living crisis
Sharpening inflation spurred by the Ukraine War is driving the UK’s ‘posties’ to strike, but this latest showdown has its roots in the privatization of the mail service from a decade prior.
Greek workers resist soaring energy prices from EU-imposed privatization and Ukraine War
Greece ranks 19th out of 26 EU nations in terms of wages, yet has the highest energy prices in the union.
UK ambulance drivers join cost of living strike wave sweeping Britain
As the costs of fuel, rent, and everyday necessities mount under Rishi Sunak’s government, ambulance drivers prepare to strike in February alongside nurses and workers from other sectors.