Articles

Imperialism and White Settler Colonialism in Marxist Theory

Imperialism and White Settler Colonialism in Marxist Theory

by John Bellamy Foster

February 1, 2025

Over the last quarter century—and especially since the beginning of Israel's latest genocidal incursion into Palestine in October 2023—the term "settler colonialism" has proliferated in academic and popular discourse. In February's "Review of the Month," John Bellamy Foster connects readers to thinkers from around the globe and across time to illustrate the phenomenon of settler colonialism as a dimension of imperialism, and thus capitalism, driven by a rapacious extractivism that threatens the whole of humanity.
Chinese-Style Modernization: Revolution and the Worker-Peasant Alliance

Chinese-Style Modernization: Revolution and the Worker-Peasant Alliance

by The Editors

February 1, 2025

Since the 1980s, writes Lu Xinyu, a division between industrial and agricultural labor has grown in China, reflected in the fractured relationship between urban and rural areas. China's successful navigation of the issue, Lu concludes, relies on creating a vigorous alliance between the rural peasantry and urban workers that aids in the ultimate delinking of China from the imperialist, world system. Chinese-style modernization, Lu concludes, represents a path that, while developed in a Chinese context, "represents the aspirations of the Global South to break free from worldwide Western hegemony."
Emerging Oceanic Struggles for No-Nukes in Japan

Emerging Oceanic Struggles for No-Nukes in Japan

by Lau Kin Chi and Sit Tsui

February 1, 2025

In this deeply stirring account, Sit Tsui and Lau Kin Chi share their field research, conducted over years of travel and relationship-building, into the Japanese antinuclear movement. As the people and environment of Fukushima continue to be impacted by the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in March 2011, the No-Nukes movement has grown in response, encompassing aspects of society ranging from artists and monks to fisherfolk and intellectuals.
January 2025 (Volume 76, Number 8)

January 2025 (Volume 76, Number 8)

by The Editors

January 1, 2025

Monthly Review editors take on the results of the 2024 election, exploring how the lackluster reformist policies of the Biden administration and unfocused nature of the Harris campaign served to drive away much of the working class, as reflected in part by the expansion of the Party of Nonvoters. As neoliberal positions occlude the possibility of a Popular Front against Trump's fascism, any substantive victory must come from a revolutionary restructuring of society.

The Dialectical Ecologist: Richard Levins and the Science and Praxis of the Human-Nature Metabolism

The Dialectical Ecologist: Richard Levins and the Science and Praxis of the Human-Nature Metabolism

by Brett Clark and John Bellamy Foster

January 1, 2025

In January's Review of the Month, John Bellamy Foster and Brett Clark revisit the legacy of scientist and MR author Richard Levins, from his "red diaper" infancy to his agroecological work in Cuba and his contributions to Marxian ecological thinking as a whole. "As a dialectical ecologist," they write, "Levins proposed that we ask the big questions, as part of understanding why the world came to be organized in a particular way, and how it might be different."
Free Cash, Mergers, and Capital Spillage

Free Cash, Mergers, and Capital Spillage

by Craig Medlen

January 1, 2025

Craig Medlen draws on decades of data to reveal how the creeping stagnation of the past half-century has led to the increasing consolidation of corporate monopoly power and concentration of firms by way of mergers and, importantly, the free cash that funds them. This stunning rise in free cash, fueled in part by government deficits, starkly reveals how the ruling class continues to enrich themselves and strengthen their position on the top of the economic heap.

An Ecological Civilization Will Have to Be Socialist

An Ecological Civilization Will Have to Be Socialist

by Claudia Antunes and Ian Angus

January 1, 2025

In this interview with Claudia Antunes of Brazilian magazine Sumaúma, Ian Angus takes stock of our current planetary crisis, from its origins in Marx's ecological thought and the present debate over its designation to the future of human civilization as we know it. "The key question is," he concludes, "Are we going to see large number of people moving for change?"

Some Preliminary Theses on the Concept of Eco-Civilization

Some Preliminary Theses on the Concept of Eco-Civilization

by John Bellamy Foster

January 1, 2025

In this talk given at Peking University in October 2024, John Bellamy Foster shares ten theses describing both the roots and contemporary manifestations of the idea of ecological civilization. Relating the concept's origins in the writings of Marx and Engels to its expression today in Chinese society, Foster reveals the inherently socialist nature of eco-civilization and the necessity of a worldwide ecological revolution to shift toward sustainable human development.

The Delusions of Liberal Democracy: Imperialism and Militarism in Pakistan

The Delusions of Liberal Democracy: Imperialism and Militarism in Pakistan

by Aasim Sajjad Akhtar

January 1, 2025

Against a backdrop of political turmoil and a popular uprising, Aasim Sajjad Akhtar examines how the contradictions of liberal democracy have played out in Pakistan. Exploring the dynamic between the U.S.-backed, militarized Pakistani political elite and the rise of reactionary politician Imran Khan, Akhtar shows how Khan has employed empty anti-imperialist rhetoric to mobilize a discontented populace—and how this could be counteracted with a genuine anti-imperialist movement.

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