Category: Monthly Review Press Blog

The Syriza Wave reviewed by New Politics

The Syriza Wave reviewed by New Politics

February 20, 2024

For activists in solidarity with the struggles in Greece over the last decade, the initial chapters of The Syriza Wave read like the diary of a fellow-traveler, in the best sense of the word. U.S.-born Sheehan is an intellectual, academic, and longtime activist of the Irish left. Incorporating these identities, her account of the dynamics of the now famous Democracy Rising conference in Athens provides an example of Sheehan’s incisiveness. The conference took place in July of 2015 and opened mere days after the announcement that an agreement had been reached for a third austerity memorandum between the Troika and the Syriza government.

“Crucial Critique of Free-Market Fundamentalism”: America’s Addiction to Terrorism review by Counterfire

“Crucial Critique of Free-Market Fundamentalism”: America’s Addiction to Terrorism review by Counterfire

February 20, 2024

As well as explaining in detail some of the biggest issues faced by society today, Giroux very eloquently connects the dots between them and highlights their roots within the neoliberal project. Giroux discusses torture, militarisation, surveillance, racism, education and austerity among other things and draws the links to the military-industrial-academic complex. In this review, I will go through some of Giroux’s arguments and his suggestions for working-class resistance against them.

“What does it mean to smash the state?”: Leo Panitch interviewed by LeftEast

“What does it mean to smash the state?”: Leo Panitch interviewed by LeftEast

February 20, 2024

Leo Panitch, Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University, has also been an editor of The Socialist Register for 25 years. With Greg Albo, Panitch edited the 2017 edition of SR, Rethinking Revolution. During a recent trip to Belgrade, Panitch was interviewed by the Serbian left-wing portal, MAŠINA. The Eastern European platform, LeftEast, translated the conversation from Serbian into English.

“Thinking Past Fidel”: A Hidden History of the Cuban Revolution reviewed in Jacobin

“Thinking Past Fidel”: A Hidden History of the Cuban Revolution reviewed in Jacobin

February 20, 2024

In the aftermath of Fidel Castro’s death, and with the blustery threats of the incoming Trump administration, it’s tempting to speculate about the future of Cuba. Yet this may also be an important time to rethink the origins of the revolution, so often seen as the handiwork of one man. ¶ While Fidel Castro’s extraordinary influence and power can never be ignored, we still know far too little about how or why many thousands of ordinary Cubans participated in making the revolution. This is particularly true of the Cuban labor movement.

“Why Inequality Matters”: Steve Early, in Counterpunch, reviews Michael Yates’s new book

“Why Inequality Matters”: Steve Early, in Counterpunch, reviews Michael Yates’s new book

February 20, 2024

Radical economist and Monthly Review associate editor Michael Yates grew up in a western Pennsylvania manufacturing town. He spent more than three decades working as a college professor. Yet, despite his own academic career, Yates never lost touch with the life experience of high school classmates, friends, neighbors, and relatives who toiled in blue collar jobs…

New! Educational Justice: Teaching and Organizing against the Corporate Juggernaut

New! Educational Justice: Teaching and Organizing against the Corporate Juggernaut

February 20, 2024

Educational Justice offers hope that there’s still time to take on corporatized schools and build democratic alternatives. Forcefully written by educator and journalist Howard Ryan, with contributing authors, the book deconstructs the corporate assault on schools, assesses the prevailing teachers union responses, and documents best teaching and organizing practices. Reports from various educational fronts include innovative union strategies against charter school expansion, as well as teaching visions drawn from the social justice and whole language traditions. Bold, informative, clearly reasoned, this book is an education in itself—a democratic one at that.

New! Catch The Syriza Wave: Surging and Crashing with the Greek Left

New! Catch The Syriza Wave: Surging and Crashing with the Greek Left

February 20, 2024

Utterly corrupt corporate and government elites bankrupted Greece twice over by profligate deficit spending and by agreeing to an IMF “bailout” of the Greek economy, devastating Greek citizen. Finally, in response to “austerity” measures, the people of Greece stood up, electing, from their own historic roots of resistance, Syriza—the Coalition of the Radical Left. ¶ A seasoned activist and participant-observer, Helena Sheehan adroitly places us at the center of the whirlwind beginnings of Syriza, its jubilant victory at the polls, and finally at Syriza’s surrender to the very austerity measures it once vowed to annihilate. The Syriza Wave is a page-turning blend of political reportage, personal reflection, and astute analysis.

Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture, but Mostly Conversation reviewed by Counterfire

Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture, but Mostly Conversation reviewed by Counterfire

February 20, 2024

Alan Weider has written a biography of Studs Terkel, but in keeping with the man himself, it is not a study of a lone individual, but of the environment and society in which he lived and acted. Studs was what is termed in the US a third-party guy, neither a Democrat nor Republican supporter, an important stand given the current debacle in the US with the election of Trump after Clinton’s lacklustre campaign. He supported all the main third-party candidates from Henry Wallace in 1948 running on a ticket advocating universal healthcare and an end to segregation, to Ralph Nader in his various campaigns.

Monthly Review Needs Your Help!

Monthly Review Needs Your Help!

February 20, 2024

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“We Told Him All”: Alan Wieder talks to PopMatters about Studs Terkel

“We Told Him All”: Alan Wieder talks to PopMatters about Studs Terkel

February 20, 2024

At this writing we Americans find ourselves at the ass end of 2016 after a slog of an election year in which we elected a bankrupted reality TV star as the president elect… The people of the United States have spoken and they do not want progressive, liberal ideas at this time. ¶ For the rest of us, Studs Terkel—the great oral historian, champion of the common man, political activist, radio host, and listener—couldn’t be more relevant now. Author Alan Wieder recently released a timely and engaging biography, Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture, but Mostly Conversation. Mr. Wieder and I engaged in some conversation about Terkel’s life and work.

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