Top Menu

Meticulous study of ecological scholarship: ISA reviews “The Return of Nature”

John Bellamy Foster’s ground-breaking Marx’s Ecology in 2000 demonstrated that Marxism, from the beginning, dealt with ecological questions. Its long-awaited sequel, The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology, developed these ideas from the deaths of Marx and Darwin to the 1960s, tracing a continuous thread of dialectical thinking about the environment. It is a meticulous study of the co-evolution of socialism and ecology citing a huge wealth of sources, including the significant contributions of Engels, the ‘Left Darwinist’ Ray Lankester, and the Romantic Marxist, William Morris… | more…

Washington’s lethal war against the world: UK’s Morning Star reviews Prashad’s “Washington Bullets”

In Guatemala, Congo, Vietnam, Korea, Indonesia, Haiti, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Yemen, Sudan, Grenada, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Angola and so many other countries, Washington’s bullets have been deployed in the pursuance of regime change, the protection of US hegemony and opposition to the emergence of truly sovereign post-colonial nations, all in flagrant violation of international law…. | more…

New! “Value and Crisis: Essays on Marxian Economics in Japan” (2nd ed.)

About the time of the First World War, when interest in Marxist theory was virtually nonexistent in the United States, rival schools of thought in Japan emerged, and brilliant debates took place on Marx’s Capital and on capitalism as it was developing in Japan. Forty years ago, Makoto Itoh’s Value and Crisis began to chronicle these Japanese contributions to Marxist theory. Now, in a second edition of Value and Crisis, Itoh deepens his study of Marx’s theories. The promise of these theories has not waned. If anything—considering the failure of Soviet-style socialism and the catastrophe of neoliberalism—it grows daily. | more…

Portrait of the philosopher as a young man: Michael Heinrich’s biography of Marx, Vol. I

Michael Heinrich’s projected biography of Marx that is supposed to consist of four volumes is an extraordinary ambitious undertaking. Only the first volume “Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society” has been published so far. It covers the years before Marx’s birth (because it deals with his parents) and goes up to his doctoral dissertation done in 1841, when he was 23. The biography is extraordinary ambitious for three reasons…. | more…

Gerald Horne: What Does President-Elect Joe Biden’s Pro-Union Stance Bode for US Unions?

Gerald Horne, historian, author, and labor lawyer, recently talked to Wilmer Leon of The Critical Hour about how President-elect Joe Biden’s pro-union stance boosts unions at a critical time. So far, unions have been pleased with Mr. Biden’s picks for top economic jobs, according to a report in The Financial Times. But they’re closely watching the positions of labor secretary and U.S. trade representative… | more…

Crafting a revolutionary healthcare system–NACLA reviews 2 books on Cuban Health Care

The Right to Live in Health and Cuban Health Care, when read together, historicize Cuba’s pathbreaking medical system. … While observers often focus on Cuba’s health infrastructure and policies, Rodríguez and Fitz instead emphasize consciousness and ideology. These two books show that throughout the twentieth century, Cubans voiced new demands and prioritized specific values, and, as a result, crafted a revolutionary healthcare system… | more…

New! “Crisis and Predation: India, COVID-19, and Global Finance”

With the advent of COVID-19, India’s rulers imposed the world’s most stringent lockdown on an already depressed economy, dealing a body blow to the majority of India’s billion-plus population. Yet the Indian government’s spending to cushion the lockdown’s economic impact ranked among the world’s lowest in GDP terms, resulting in unprecedented unemployment and hardship. Crisis and Predation shows how this tight-fistedness stems from the opposition of global financial interests to any expansion of public spending by India, and that Indian rulers readily adhere to their guidance…  | more…

“Colossal intellectual undertaking”: Irish Marxist Review on John Bellamy Foster’s “The Return of Nature”

“John Bellamy Foster is a U.S.-based writer and lecturer whose works are essential reading for all revolutionaries and environmentalists. Over two decades, Foster has produced an immensely important body of work, and alongside a small number of others (like Ian Angus), has clarified and rescued Marxist thinking on key environmental issues in the age of climate catastrophe…” | more…

“Global ecologically sensitive socialism”: Left Unity reviews John Bellamy Foster’s “The Return of Nature”

“This brilliant book—which traces and establishes the link between socialism and ecology—couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time, given the ever-worsening Climate and Ecological Crises, and the mounting health and economic impacts of the closely-linked Covid-19 pandemic. As a result of these combined crises, more people than ever are accepting the need for some fundamental ‘System Change’…” | more…