Monthly Review Press

“Better than any author, Sheehan captures the profound disillusion of Syriza activists”: The American Hellenic Institute Fdn Policy Journal on The Syriza Wave

“Better than any author, Sheehan captures the profound disillusion of Syriza activists”: The American Hellenic Institute Fdn Policy Journal on The Syriza Wave

February 20, 2024

Helena Sheehan’s ‘Syria Wave’ moves from artistic culture to the mass culture that created and then abandoned (or was abandoned by) Syriza. The author, an Irish journalist and political activist who visits Greece frequently, offers a unique view of the Syriza phenomenon. The first of her six essays was written in 2012 and the last in 2016. Since the essays have not been revised, they convey the euphoria and heartbreak of the movement as they were occurring….

International Socialist Review: Helena Sheehan’s The Syriza Wave

International Socialist Review: Helena Sheehan’s The Syriza Wave

February 20, 2024

Anyone interested in a comprehensive account of what happened in Greece between 2012 and 2016—the struggles of the Left; the social devastation as a result of austerity; the rise, election, and capitulation of Syriza—should pick up Helena Sheehan’s latest book. Those already familiar with the period’s political drama, in search of an opportunity to reengage with the debates of the time, should also read The Syriza Wave, for the book opens multiple windows on a story that is still unraveling…

Hellenic News of America reviews The Syriza Wave: Surging and Crashing with the Greek Left

Hellenic News of America reviews The Syriza Wave: Surging and Crashing with the Greek Left

February 20, 2024

Reports have it that Greece has begun to reenter the European bond market, where it has for the past decade been crucified on what the American statesman William Jennings Bryan once called a cross of gold…. ¶ The election of Syriza in a Europe none of whose other nations had dared to empower a government committed to breaking the stranglehold of the banks was its gesture of defiance. And all Europe took hope from it. Its consequent failure was, as Helena Sheehan’s The Syriza Wave makes clear, a major international event…

“Good ancestors” must be red and green: a colorful review of A Redder Shade of Green by Green Left Weekly

February 20, 2024

Two decades ago, barely anyone called themselves an ecosocialist. Yet today the term is widespread on the left. ¶ This comes from an awareness that any viable alternative to capitalism must do away with the current destructive relationship between human society and the wider natural world. It also stems from a recognition that too many socialists in the 20th century failed to take environmental issues seriously. ¶ Climate and Capitalism editor and ecosocialist activist Ian Angus’s latest book, A Redder Shade of Green, is an impressive contribution to this vibrant trend in radical politics…

Calling out the corporate program to deform schools: Educational Justice reviewed by Counterfire

Calling out the corporate program to deform schools: Educational Justice reviewed by Counterfire

February 20, 2024

Howard Ryan is an educationalist and journalist, who has written a handbook that offers ‘theory, strategy and organizing case studies to inform and inspire those who are working to rebuild public education and put an end to the corporate occupation of our schools’. The book can be read as a whole, or can be used as a reference guide to explore some key ideas, as the book is neatly divided up into sections…

Super-Size that Commodity: A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism reviewed by Resilience

Super-Size that Commodity: A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism reviewed by Resilience

February 20, 2024

Don’t expect a whole lot of taste when you sit down to a plateful of commodities. That might be a fitting but unintended lesson for foodies who work through the new book by Eric Holt-Giménez. A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism will reward a careful reader with lots of insights—but it won’t do much for the taste buds. While A Foodie’s Guide is lacking in recipes or menu ideas, it shines in helping us to understand the struggles of the men and women who work in the farms and packing plants…

Is Capitalism a Barrier to Food Justice? Author Eric Holt-Giménez interviewed by Civil Eats

Is Capitalism a Barrier to Food Justice? Author Eric Holt-Giménez interviewed by Civil Eats

February 20, 2024

No consumer, farmer, or activist participates in the food system without also participating in capitalism. To Eric Holt-Giménez, the director of Food First, this is a basic truth that’s too often overlooked in the struggle to change our broken food system. In his new book, A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism, Holt-Giménez delineates the basic truths of capitalism and how they are connected to the history of our food system. Part history book, part practical guide, the book links many of the injustices associated with food to other inequities, arguing that capitalism fuels and is fueled by oppression. If we better understand “the rudiments of how capitalism operates,” he explains, ‘we can better grasp why our food system is the way it is, and how we can change it

New! Rethinking Democracy: Socialist Register 2018

New! Rethinking Democracy: Socialist Register 2018

February 20, 2024

For years, intellectuals have argued that, with the triumph of capitalist, liberal democracy, the Western World has reached “the end of history.” Recently, however, there has been a rise of authoritarian politics in many countries. Concepts of post-democracy, anti-politics, and the like are gaining currency in theoretical and political debate. Now that capitalist democracies are facing seismic and systemic challenges, it becomes increasingly important to investigate not only the inherent antagonism between liberalism and the democratic process, but also socialism. Is socialism an enemy of democracy? Could socialism develop, expand, even enhance democracy?

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