The philosopher Herbert Marcuse saw machines as our greatest hope for real liberty. But in Trump’s America, automation feels more totalitarian than ever. By David Moscrop.

The first conjugal visits in America took place in 1904 at Parchman Penitentiary, an institution that resembled a slavery-era plantation more than a prison. By Alex Mayyasi.

Who delivers Amazon orders? Increasingly, it’s plainclothes contractors with few labor protections, driving their own cars, competing for shifts on the company’s own Uber-like platform. Though it’s deployed in dozens of cities and associated with one of the world’s biggest companies, government agencies and customers alike are nearly oblivious to the program’s existence. By Bryan Menegus.

Forced labour persists around the world, particularly for domestic workers

More Ontarians are using temp agencies to find work — and these workers are more likely to get hurt on the job. A Toronto Star undercover investigation. By Sara Mojtehedzadeh, Brendan Kennedy. (Sept. 8, 2017)

But the prison labor system is also rotten to the core… By Nathan J. Robinson.

Slavery still exists today. And it exists in the Gulf states and in Saudi Arabia. By Christiane Saliba.

Most utopian communities are, like most start-ups, short-lived. What makes the difference between failure and success? By Alexa Clay.

“The number of Nepali workers going abroad has more than doubled since the country began promoting foreign labor in recent years: from about 220,000 in 2008 to about 500,000 in 2015.” By Martha Mendoza.

Trump’s company battled unions during his campaign, but the deal ends a bitter dispute over pay at his Las Vegas hotel and eases discord at his D.C. property. By Jonathan O'Connell and Drew Harwell.

With Capitol Hill controlled by Republicans and the president-elect likely to nominate a conservative supreme court justice, unions ‘hunker down.’ By Steven Greenhouse.

My constituents are shocked that Amber Rudd has ruled out an inquiry into the behaviour of South Yorkshire police in June 1984. Our fight will continue. By Sarah Champion.

The ruling class will never give up fossil fuel, because it's key to their power over workers. By Troy Vettese.

More time at home with the family isn't a bad excuse. By Jeffrey Kaplan.

Jeremy Corbyn has received a huge boost after up to 130,000 Labour Party members won the right to vote in the upcoming leadership election. By Laura Hughes.

Selected Translations from "Factory Stories"

Smiles and waves at annual Durham event as leader goes off script but division and suspicion among unions and party undermine message of solidarity. By Helen Pidd.

Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) and unions representing nearly 40,000 wireline workers have reached a tentative deal "in principle" to end a strike that started April 13th, U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said on Friday.

The company wants to crochet its cake and eat it too. By Amy Larocca.

Film-maker Jennifer Peedom and the son of history’s most famous Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, on how his people are stuck between a rock and a hard place. By Luke Buckmaster.