Category: Monthly Review Press Blog

A bold call for reorganising the global working class (Global Labour Journal reviews “Can the Working Class Change the World?”)

A bold call for reorganising the global working class (Global Labour Journal reviews “Can the Working Class Change the World?”)

Throughout ‘Can the Working Class Change the World? ‘Yates demonstrates that “Capitalism is a system of stark individualism.” Only radical thinking and acting, he argues, “have any chance of staving off accelerating levels of barbarism.” Therefore, in the last part of the book, Yates offers suggestions about what organisations can do in the class struggle, pointing out that “the ‘I’ must be suppressed and the ‘We’ must come to the fore”…

The Venezuelan microcosm: A U.S. propaganda apparatus at work (Black Agenda Report interviews coauthors of forthcoming book, “Extraordinary Threat”)

The Venezuelan microcosm: A U.S. propaganda apparatus at work (Black Agenda Report interviews coauthors of forthcoming book, “Extraordinary Threat”)

Never “underestimate the need to be extremely careful in assessing governments that the US government vilifies; and to never underestimate how convincing, formidable and dishonest the propaganda apparatus is that supports US imperialism….Moreover, we hope they realize that the allegations, even if true, can rarely justify war or the kinds of economic sanctions the US has imposed on Venezuela, which are essentially criminal acts of war….”

The teeth in the Labor Law trap (Marx & Philosophy Review of Books reviews “Tells the Bosses We’re Coming”)

The teeth in the Labor Law trap (Marx & Philosophy Review of Books reviews “Tells the Bosses We’re Coming”)

….not concerned to diagnose the cause of workers’ problems, Richman’s analysis implicitly centers work law as the principal culprit responsible for the labour movement’s predicament. He makes a strong case that labour law, rather than balancing the power disparities between employees and employers and protecting worker rights, has instead become a ‘trap’ favoring bosses and impeding worker organization. He deftly analyzes the teeth in the trap…

WATCH! MR Conversations: The Labor Guide to Retirement Plans

WATCH! MR Conversations: The Labor Guide to Retirement Plans

When I was still in a 401(k)-like plan and approaching age sixty-five after thirty-seven years of university teaching, I took stock of my future retirement income. I wanted to know what it would look like in terms of achieving the 70 percent of pre-retirement income that retirement experts state is necessary to maintain one’s standard of living…

Horne unmasks U.S. strategies to dominate the globe, starting with Gaza (Listen: The Socialist Program with Brian Becker )

Horne unmasks U.S. strategies to dominate the globe, starting with Gaza (Listen: The Socialist Program with Brian Becker )

As a long-time, consistent analyst of this settler colonialist society, and the writer of books on many disparate topics, Horne is in a position to weigh in with some clear perspective on Israel and Historic Palestine. In an interview with Brian Becker, Horne lay out some of the specific manifestations of a shifting political climate, and argued that if anything, the bombardment of Gaza has severely backfired….

WATCH! MR Conversations: “Extraordinary Threat,” with Emersberger, Podur, Wilpert and Paez-Victor

WATCH! MR Conversations: “Extraordinary Threat,” with Emersberger, Podur, Wilpert and Paez-Victor

In their new book “Extraordinary Threat,” Joe Emersberger and Justin Podur delve into the critical questions: What is the nature of Venezuela’s government? Is it a dictatorship? Are Venezuela’s problems due to misgovernment, or are they due to U.S. interference? What would happen if Venezuela fell to U.S. imperialism? How has the U.S. been able to get away with this? And above all: Taking Venezuela as a case study, how does regime change propaganda work?

Horne and Burden-Stelly on anti-Blackness, anti-radicalism, and the Internationalist counterforce (The E3W Review of Books)

Horne and Burden-Stelly on anti-Blackness, anti-radicalism, and the Internationalist counterforce (The E3W Review of Books)

….Internationalism in the Black American community, in particular, has been critical, not least because of the potency of white supremacy on these shores. Historically, international alliances have allowed us to construct a countervailing power against our domestic foes. You see that, for example, with regards to the Haitian Revolution from 1791 to 1804, which ignites a general crisis of the entire slave system, not least in the Americas, which can only be resolved with its collapse….