Monthly Review Press

As the Earth Dies… CounterPunch reviews “The Robbery of Nature”

As the Earth Dies… CounterPunch reviews “The Robbery of Nature”

February 20, 2024

“The earth is dying and capitalism is to blame. Facing this, one can opt for hope, as Marxist ecosocialists do, or one can succumb to pessimism fed by dark thoughts on human nature and the intractable, deadly persistence of our economic system of exploitation. Human nature has a destructive and murderous side, while capitalism, expressing that side with its endless growth, endless greed, blights the planet like cancer…”

Gerald Horne: Political crisis deepens as Trump threatens military crackdown on protest movement

Gerald Horne: Political crisis deepens as Trump threatens military crackdown on protest movement

February 20, 2024

Protests are nothing new in American society. And protests for racial justice are certainly nothing new. But has America not learned any lessons from the civil rights movement? Have we learned nothing from decades of the police clashing with peaceful marchers? Why is this still happening in America in the year 2020? Why are our police departments militarized and so willing to use violence against citizens?…

General Strike 100 Years Ago Shows Us Hope for Today: Labor Notes reviews “Radical Seattle”

General Strike 100 Years Ago Shows Us Hope for Today: Labor Notes reviews “Radical Seattle”

February 20, 2024

For five days in 1919, union members took control of the city of Seattle. They arguably ran it better, and certainly more justly, than it had ever been run before. ¶ The strike began when waitresses, laundry workers, streetcar workers, and more—65,000 union workers in all—walked off the job on February 6, 1919, to support striking shipyard workers. ¶ Thousands of workers volunteered to keep Seattle’s essential services operating. People were fed at 21 different locations; on February 9, volunteers served more than 30,000 meals….

It’s About Time America Reckons With Its Racist Founding: Gerald Horne, via The Real News Network

It’s About Time America Reckons With Its Racist Founding: Gerald Horne, via The Real News Network

February 20, 2024

Gerald Horne, radical historian and author of dozens of books including the forthcoming The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century, talks to Jaisal Noor of The Real News Network about the eruption of demonstrations across the United States–and around the world–protesting the murder of George Floyd and countless people of color by police. Watch, below, or at The Real News

New! “Tell the Bosses We’re Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century”

New! “Tell the Bosses We’re Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century”

February 20, 2024

Lengthening hours, lessening pay, no parental leave, scant job security… Never have so many workers needed so much support. Yet the very labor unions that could garner us protections and help us speak up for ourselves are growing weaker every day. In an age of rampant inequality, of increasing social protest and strikes—and when a majority of workers say they want to be union members—why does union density continue to decline? Shaun Richman offers some answers in his book, Tell the Bosses We’re Coming

Marx & Philosophy reviews Michael Heinrich’s “Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society”

Marx & Philosophy reviews Michael Heinrich’s “Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society”

February 20, 2024

Michael Heinrich opens the first volume of his biography on Marx and the modern society he grew up in by noting that ‘Marx probably would not have wanted a biography, and certainly not one planned for multiple volumes’. Seeing as Marx did not desire a personal biography, and that dozens already exist, Heinrich’s project raises the question: why write this book at all? While this review will diverge from the ubiquitous praise being offered elsewhere and offer some slightly critical commentary, it can confidently be said that Heinrich’s completed biographical series will easily eclipse previous Marx biographies…

Cal Winslow reflects on the Seattle General Strike of 1919

Cal Winslow reflects on the Seattle General Strike of 1919

February 20, 2024

Cal Winslow, author of Radical Seattle: The General Strike of 1919, talks to Sasha Lilley, host of KPFA’s Against the Grain:
While the United States is in the throes of upheaval over police murders, we take a historical look back at another time of great social ferment: a century ago, when the workers of Seattle shut that city down. The first major general strike in the United States coincided with the last widespread pandemic — the Spanish influenza….

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