What does it take to organize power in a system designed to prevent it?

Join the Stowe Center for Literary Activism for a conversation with Chris Smalls about his new book When the Revolution Comes: A Fight for the Future of the Working Class. This is a story of risk, strategy, and collective action, told from inside one of the most closely watched labor fights in recent history.

In conversation with Anita Durkin, Unit Chair of the Stowe Center’s union, this program connects national labor movements to local organizing. Together, they will explore what it means to build power, what it demands, and why it matters now.

The Stowe Center invites you into a space where literature meets lived struggle, and where conversation can become a starting point for action.

About the Speakers

Chris Smalls, Photo taken by Kennedi Carter

Anita Durkin

Chris Smalls

Chris Smalls is the co-founder and former president of the Amazon Labor Union. Under his leadership, the ALU successfully unionized an Amazon warehouse: a historic victory for workers’ rights in America. A Fortune “40 Under 40” honoree, he was named to the Time 100 list of the most influential people of 2022, alongside his fellow union organizer Derrick Palmer. When the Revolution Comes is his first book.

Anita Durkin

Anita Durkin is the Unit Chair of the Stowe Center for Literary Activism union, UAW Local 2110. She holds a PhD in American Literature from the University of Rochester.