Category: Monthly Review Press Blog

New! Can the Working Class Change the World?

February 20, 2024

In his timely and innovative book, Michael D. Yates asks if the working class can, indeed, change the world. Deftly factoring in such contemporary elements as sharp changes in the rise of identity politics and the nature of work, itself, Yates wonders if there can, in fact, be a thing called the working class. If so, how might it overcome inherent divisions of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, location—to become a cohesive and radical force for change? Forcefully and without illusions, Yates supports his arguments with relevant, clearly explained data, historical examples, and his own personal experiences.

Can the Working Class Change the World? — reviewed by Gabriel Kuhn, via PM Press Blog

February 20, 2024

Since working-class voters have been made responsible for everything from Brexit to the rise of the far right across Europe to Trump in office, the left has rediscovered class. Among the many contributions made to relevant debates in the past two years, some have been very good, some very bad, and many very confused. This text is about one of the best….

Can the Working Class Change the World? reviewed by Left Horizons

February 20, 2024

As the world burned this summer, as millions starve or go short of food around the globe, and as the quality of life for the majority of the population in the western countries tumbles and staggers, asking how we can change things for the better becomes an increasingly critical question….

The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism reviewed by novelist Eve Ottenberg

February 20, 2024

The world is awash in the blood of innocents. Nothing makes this clearer than Gerald Horne’s recently published The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism, which puts the genocide of indigenous Americans at about 90 percent of their population’s total.

Visit the Mumbai launch of India after Naxalbari: Unfinished History

February 20, 2024

On September 18, at the Mumbai Press Club in Mumbai, India, some of Bernard D’Mello’s friends gathered to help launch D’Mello’s book, India after Naxalbari: Unfinished History. Watch this panel discussion, moderated by journalist Stephen Rego, of the ongoing issues surrounding India and the Naxalite movement. The panelists are Manoranjan Mohanty, author and Distinguished Professor, Council for Social Development, New Delhi; John Mage, international lawyer and member of the Monthly Review Foundation’s board of directors; and, of course, author and journalist, Bernard D’Mello.

Countercurrents reviews Can the Working Class Change the World?

February 20, 2024

With the fall of Soviet Union, the revival of Capitalism in China and upsurge of right-wing movements and governments in large parts of the world with the exception of few countries of Latin America, author’s basic concern is whether this neo liberal right-wing trend can be overcome in favour of socialist revival? And who is going to lead this revival…

The UK’s Communist Review considers Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism

February 20, 2024

The subtitle, Capital, Nature and the Unfinished Critique of Political Economy, is a straightforward summary of Saito’s argument. He challenges the repeated criticism, since the 1970s, of Marx for “Prometheanism”, or “hyperindustrialism”, an alleged naïve acceptance of the common 19th century idea advocating the complete human domination of nature. …

New! The Biofuels Deception: Going Hungry on the Green Carbon Diet

February 20, 2024

Combining meticulous scientific narrative with devastating economic analysis, The Biofuels Deception argues that the seemingly innovative, hopeful campaign for “green energy” is actually driven by bio-technology industries and global grain-trading corporations. These corporate players are motivated by a late-capitalist need to cope with a crisis of accumulation; they have no real interest in mitigating climate change, alleviating poverty, or even creating “clean” energy….

India’s independent weekly, Frontier, reviews Michael Yates’s Can the Working Class Change the World?

February 20, 2024

This is the first of eight parts of Farooque Chowdhury’s review of this book for Frontier: An independent weekly since 1968. Look for the rest of the review, in compiled form, coming soon to MR Online…

“Understanding the political economy of what we eat”: Communist Review on A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism

February 20, 2024

Too often, food and agriculture have been left out of left-wing political discourse, as if peripheral to the class struggle. But actually, they are crucial. Family and peasant farmers need to be able to feed themselves and their families, while workers need nutritious diets too. However, capitalism needs a supply of landless labourers who have nothing to sell but their labour power …