Michelle Chen

Michelle Chen is a contributing editor at In These Times. She is a regular contributor to the labor rights blog Working In These Times, Colorlines.com, and Pacifica's WBAI. Her work has also appeared in Common Dreams, Alternet, Ms. Magazine, Newsday, and her old zine, cain.

Articles by this author

A Spontaneous Rebellion of Low-Wage Workers Is Rising Up Amid Pandemic

Workers are fighting for their lives—even as they save ours.

Michelle Chen · May 25, 2020

Prisons Are Using the Pandemic to Impose Lockdowns

Advocates say the extreme restrictions on movement are punitive and dangerous.

Michelle Chen · May 15, 2020

Dirty Air and Water Is Killing Us

New study affirms that pollution is the world’s leading cause of death, ahead of tobacco use, drug and alcohol use, and even war.

Michelle Chen · Dec 31, 2019

Can Google’s Soul Be Saved?

Rank-and-file Silicon Valley tech workers are using their leverage to push companies toward more ethical business models, or at least away from destroying the environment and undermining human rights.

Michelle Chen · Nov 15, 2019

Hong Kong Protesters and Militant Chinese Workers Point the Way to a New Kind of Internationalism

We can remain warily optimistic that, regardless of the system of government that rules over them, workers and civil society are still the force from which even the most powerful states derive legitimacy.

Michelle Chen · Jul 30, 2019

'Hardhats vs. Hippies': How the Media Misrepresents the Debate Over the Green New Deal

Despite the media’s insistence that environmentalism remains the province of the privileged, blue collars and green priorities may overlap more than they know

Michelle Chen · Jun 21, 2019