the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
April 20, 2026
The Maola milk processing factory in Laurel, Maryland between D.C. and Baltimore will close this summer, throwing 72 workers out of work. These job losses are the latest blows in the rampant consolidation of the milk industry.
Maola will transfer the work of processing fresh milk into powdered milk, condensed milk, and butter to several other local plants. The brand is owned by Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association, Inc. Officially, the co-op is more than 100 years old and has hundreds of regional dairy farmers as members. In fact, it functions like any profit-seeking corporation. The farmers are beholden to it to buy their milk at the price management sets. But even bigger businesses like supermarket chains and bigger processors keep driving wholesale milk prices lower.
Maryland’s several hundred dairy farmers sell almost 200 million dollars of milk a year. But those with smaller herds are squeezed under strong economic pressures to “get big or get out” as expenses keep rising.
As long as foods like dairy are commodities in a capitalist system, the work of producing food is increasingly exploitative.