Articles

October 2026 (Volume 78, Number 5)

October 2026 (Volume 78, Number 5)

by The Editors

October 1, 2026

Marking the sixtieth anniversary of Paul A. Baran and Paul M. Sweezy's Monopoly Capital, the MR editors situate this key work of political economy within the contemporary political-economic landscape. The tendency toward the overaccumulation capital, they explain, represents a shift from the "generation of economic surplus…to one of its absorption." In an age of financialization and market bubbles, the editors note, Baran and Sweezy's work stands as a testament to the continuing necessity of incisive political-economic analysis of capitalism, inequality, and the irrationality that pervading the entire system.
Marxian Ecology and the Critique of AI Capital

Marxian Ecology and the Critique of AI Capital

by John Bellamy Foster

October 1, 2026

What is the rise of AI capital, and what does it mean for contemporary work, culture, and the ecological state of our planet? John Bellamy Foster dispels the myth of a "hyperorganized AI capitalism." As Foster writes: "We are not entering a stable new age…but rather a new, capitalist-engendered global disorder in which humanity, according to climate science, is headed ever more rapidly toward a planetary 'point of no return.'" The only way out—the only way, that is, to ensure the survival of humanity—is a radical shift away from the catastrophically destructive regime of capital accumulation and toward sustainable human development through socialism.
Babylon Burning: Reggae and Black Liberation

Babylon Burning: Reggae and Black Liberation

by Christian Noakes

October 1, 2026

Christian Noakes explores the deep connections between the Jamaican Black Power movement and the political roots of its renowned indigenous musical genre, reggae. From the history of capitalist oppression in Jamaica and the indelible influence of Guyanese revolutionary Walter Rodney, Noakes provides essential context for incendiary political radicalism within reggae. Musically innovative and lyrically radical, reggae, he writes, was "instilled with a sense of militant determination that was at once a reflection of the culture it came from and a source of defiant resilience in the face of rampant inequality."
Legal Imperialism: International Law and Dependency in Late Imperialism

Legal Imperialism: International Law and Dependency in Late Imperialism

by Luís Eduardo Fernandes

October 1, 2026

Today's resurgence in U.S. imperialist interventions abroad and the concomitant so-called crisis of the "rules-based order" can be explained, Luís Eduardo Fernandes argues, through the category of "legal imperialism, which refers to how the international juridical form is internalized within societies and in the context of dependency, colonialism, unequal exchange, and monopoly capital. "International law and imperialism," Fernandes writes, "do not stand as opposing poles. They are part of the same unity.… Violence is constitutive of the juridical form."
Why Is “Patient Capital” Patient? Rereading ‘Das Kapital’ through Chinese Modernization

Why Is “Patient Capital” Patient? Rereading ‘Das Kapital’ through Chinese Modernization

by Siyuan Liu

October 1, 2026

Large-scale investment toward the good of all society, Karl Marx once wrote, "presupposes that society be able to wait." The capital that funds just and sustainable human development, in other words, must operate at time scales much longer than short-term gain and transitory profit margins. Siyuan Liu situates this idea within the Chinese notion of "patient capital" and the institutional requirements for planning a just and equitable future—and a changed horizon for capital.
Materializing the Revolution: The Movement toward Ecosocialism

Materializing the Revolution: The Movement toward Ecosocialism

by John Bellamy Foster and Álvaro de Regil Castilla

October 1, 2026

Álvaro de Regil Castilla interviews John Bellamy Foster. In the interview, de Regil Castilla and Foster discuss the existential risk to humanity presented by the ongoing planetary crisis wrought by capitalism and its endlessly destructive impacts on society and the earth. What would an ecosocialist movement look like? How do we pursue an equitable and sustainable path toward the development of all, rather than the privileged few? Do we still have time to organize to save the planet—and indeed, all of humanity?
Christian Revolutionaries, Churched and Unchurched

Christian Revolutionaries, Churched and Unchurched

by Paul Buhle

October 1, 2026

Paul Buhle reviews Emily Pierson: A Yankee Radical, a new biography of the eponymous Christian radical and communist organizer. As a "strong willed" woman born at the nineteenth century and living well into the twentieth, Pierson is a figure whose work spanned the fight for women's suffrage, public health, the labor movement, and the Russian, Chinese, and Cuban Revolutions, traveling to the latter countries toward the end of her life. As a writer, teacher, churchgoer, and worker, Pierson, Buhle writes, was a presence to be reckoned with throughout her lifetime.
September 2026 (Volume 78, Number 4)

September 2026 (Volume 78, Number 4)

by The Editors

September 1, 2026

Taking as a starting point two classic works of the mid-nineteenth century—Benjamin Disraeli's Sybil; or the Two Nations and Frederick Engels's The Condition of the Working Class in England—this month's "Notes from the Editors" explores the way both authors articulated the plight of workers in their own era, drawing key parallels to our own time. The similarities are particularly conspicuous when examining the so-called affordability crisis, exposing the regime of social murder that accompanies the increasing polarization of economic life.
India’s Ruling Classes and the Global Crisis

India’s Ruling Classes and the Global Crisis

by Research Unit for Political Economy (RUPE)

September 1, 2026

In September's Review of the Month, the Research Unit for Political Economy delves into how the crisis pervading the world system, on stark display in the tech sector, global finance, and the sphere of production, lays bare the longstanding vulnerabilities of the Indian economy. As the contradictions in the neoliberal phase become unmistakable, the authors write, it is necessary to take a class-based approach to resolving the questions of how to bring about key questions regarding the productive life and development of India.
José Carlos Mariátegui and Local Traditions of Struggle

José Carlos Mariátegui and Local Traditions of Struggle

by Chris Gilbert

September 1, 2026

The relationship between Marxism and other revolutionary traditions is a key question for our time. If we approach the issue incorrectly, we risk Eurocentrism and underrecognizing Marxism's role in the Global South contexts where it is most vital and active. This article examines and extends José Carlos Mariátegui's dialectical approach to the issue, which demonstrates how Marxism is not diluted but strengthened through engagement with the thought and practice of existing struggles, while those struggles can, in turn, gain greater depth and groundedness through the same relationship.

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