Refusal of Work: The Writings of Harry Cleaver

Refuse work. Revolt against capitalism. Read Harry Cleaver. In that order. Repeat.

Join editors Robert Ovetz and Kevin Van Meter for a discussion of Points of Departure: Refusal of Work and the Crisis of Capitalism: The Collected Writings of Harry Cleaver, a definitive collection of Harry Cleaver’s best unpublished, translated, or lesser known writings – both historical and current – on the refusal of work, class composition, and the “inversion of the class perspective.” The book puts essential theoretical weapons into the hands of a new generation of militant workers and organizers re-energizing the class struggle. In these essays, Cleaver rereads Marx to advance our collective search for points of departure from capitalism, so we can end it before it ends us.

Robert Ovetz holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Texas–Austin and is a senior lecturer in Political Science at San José State University, where his work focuses on academic labor organizing and the labor movement. He is the author of When Workers Shot Back, We the Elites, and the forthcoming Rebels for the System. He writes on labor for Dollars & Sense and other publications.

Kevin Van Meter holds a PhD in Geography, Environment and Society from the University of Minnesota, serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Labor and Society, and is a union organizer and labor educator who writes on contemporary labor issues, labor history, and working-class self-organization. He is author of Guerrillas of Desire and the forthcoming Reading Struggles: Working-Class Self-Activity from Detroit to Turin and Back Again. His work has appeared in New Politics, Notes from Below, Dollars & Sense, and other publications.