Monthly Review Press

The Rise of the Tea Party reviewed in The Progressive Populist

February 20, 2024

Anthony DiMaggio is a social justice activist who has written a timely book on the myths and realities of the Tea Party, with its ties to corporate and GOP interests, and sheen of a grassroots social movement. He disentangles big money and media errors of fact in The Rise of the Tea Party: Political Discontent and Corporate Media in the Age of Obama (Monthly Review Press). DiMaggio carefully looks at the reporting on the Tea Party and flawed assumptions. They yield mistaken conclusions.

The People's Lawyer reviewed on Counterfire

February 20, 2024

The People’s Lawyer is Albert Ruben’s neatly condensed history of the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR). The CCR was founded in 1966 with a goal of ‘advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’. What marks it out from other civil rights legal firms established in the sixties was its commitment to using politically motivated cases as an organising tool within the wider social movements. Cases may not end in victory for the CCR but they could play a key role in educating the public in ‘the creative use of law as a positive force for social change’.

Frank Bardacke at Two Rivers Bookstore in Binghamton NY

February 20, 2024

Join Frank Bardacke, author of Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers (from Verso Books), and translator of and contributor to Shadows of Tender Fury: The Letters and Communiqués of Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, for a discussion of his new book.

The Ecological Rift reviewed on Hot Topic blog

February 20, 2024

Why do we continue with business as usual when we know that it is leading us to disastrous climate change? According to the authors of The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth it is because our capitalist economic system is driven by forces which cannot stand back and weigh the consequences of their drive. The blind accumulation of private wealth at the expense of the environment has enormous momentum which the system is not geared to control.

An except from the José Carlos Mariátegui Anthology

February 20, 2024

“Pessimism of the Reality, Optimism of the Ideal,” is excerpted from José Carlos Mariátegui: An Anthology, edited and translated by Harry E. Vanden and Marc Becker, and newly published by Monthly Review Press. Mariátegui is one of Latin America’s most profound and yet overlooked thinkers. A self-taught journalist, social scientist, and activist from Peru, he was the first to emphasize that those fighting for the revolutionary transformation of society must adapt classical Marxist theory to the particular conditions of Latin America. He also stressed that indigenous peoples must take an active role in any revolutionary struggle.

Fred Magdoff at Occupy Boston [VIDEO]

February 20, 2024

On October 30, Fred Magdoff spoke at Occupy Boston, as part of the Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture Series. His talk draws on his new book What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism (written with John Bellamy Foster). Watch the video here

Thoughts on the Tea Party: Interview with Anthony DiMaggio

February 20, 2024

The problem with the Tea Party “movement” is that its members’ anger gets manipulated by a small group of partisan and media elites who are essentially Republican Party operatives. This is the dirty little secret of the Tea Party; it’s not really a social movement, but a cluster of elitist interest groups operating locally and nationally, which is quite lacking in participatory elements, and largely driven by a top-down approach, determined and dictated by Republican partisan officials and business elites of the Koch variety.

NEW! The Rise of the Tea Party by Anthony DiMaggio

February 20, 2024

In this definitive socio-political analysis of the Tea Party, Anthony DiMaggio examines the Tea Party phenomenon, using a vast array of primary and secondary sources as well as first-hand observation. He traces the history of the Tea Party and analyzes its organizational structure, membership, ideological coherence, and relationship to the mass media. And, perhaps most importantly, he asks: is it really a movement or just a form of “manufactured dissent” engineered by capital? DiMaggio’s conclusions are thoroughly documented, surprising, and bring much needed clarity to a highly controversial subject.

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