Articles

The Return of the Dialectics of Nature: The Struggle for Freedom as Necessity

The Return of the Dialectics of Nature: The Struggle for Freedom as Necessity

by John Bellamy Foster

December 1, 2022

John Bellamy Foster takes readers back to Marx's understanding of the dialectics of nature and society. As Marx and Engels noted, humanity must not only struggle for the advancement of human freedom, but also the capitalist destruction of the earth. Today, the struggle for freedom and the struggle for necessity coincide everywhere on the planet for the first time in human history, creating a prospect of ruin or revolution.

Crypto Convulsions, Digital Delusions, and the Inexorable Logic of Finance Capitalism

Crypto Convulsions, Digital Delusions, and the Inexorable Logic of Finance Capitalism

by Ramaa Vasudevan

December 1, 2022

The crypto winter, Ramaa Vasudevan writes, is here. Cryptocurrency, far from being a democratizing force in finance, has led to only further concentrations of wealth and power and increased precarity within the financial sector. The recent fall of Sam Bankman-Fried is only the beginning.

Mining Capital and the Indonesian State

Mining Capital and the Indonesian State

by Arianto Sangadji

December 1, 2022

Arianto Sangadji traces the relationship between the state and mining capital in Indonesia throughout the historical capitalist development of the country from Dutch colonialism to the contemporary practices of multinational mining corporations. While these powerful firms have generated significant profits, they are also associated with dispossession, environmental degradation, and ruthless labor exploitation, spurring resistance from the local populations.

Notes from the Editors, November 2022

Notes from the Editors, November 2022

by The Editors

November 1, 2022

buy this issue

The latest Review of the Month, written by Spanish geologist Carles Soriano, considers the implications of idea of the Capitalocene, the historical determinations affecting the study of the Earth Sciences, and how our views of the current planetary crisis are often shaped by inadequate narratives. Current approaches, he writes are "non-dialectic and non-materialist regarding the study of social reproduction modes, and this renders the whole understanding of the planetary crisis not only incomplete but idealist, for the capitalist mode is assumed as absolute rather than historical."

Anthropocene, Capitalocene, and Other “-Cenes”: Why a Correct Understanding of Marx’s Theory of Value Is Necessary to Leave the Planetary Crisis

Anthropocene, Capitalocene, and Other “-Cenes”: Why a Correct Understanding of Marx’s Theory of Value Is Necessary to Leave the Planetary Crisis

by Carles Soriano

November 1, 2022

The perception that we are living in a critical historical period regarding the conditions of habitability on Earth—not only for humans but for many other living organisms too—is gaining more and more adepts among common people, academics, politicians, and social movements. This critical period has been typified as the planetary crisis of the Anthropocene Epoch and studies undertaken in the present century show that habitability on Earth is progressively deteriorating.

What Comes after a Cycle of Protests? The Case of the 2020 Women’s Protests in Poland

What Comes after a Cycle of Protests? The Case of the 2020 Women’s Protests in Poland

by Grzegorz Piotrowskiand Magdalena Muszel

November 1, 2022

Two years after the peak of the 2020 street protests for reproductive rights in Poland, Magdalena Muszel and Grzegorz Piotrowski explore the movement's effects on Polish society. Despite the dissipating energy of the participants and continued intransigence of most major parties, this cycle of protests shifted the values and political preferences of specific gender and age groups, as well as affecting the common perception of protest movements in Poland.

Bhima KoregaonÑBefore the Law

Bhima KoregaonÑBefore the Law

by Saroj Giri

November 1, 2022

Bhima Koregaon is that rare sequence in Indian politics today that can challenge reveal the true powers of being able to retroactively "change the past" in order to liberate the future, much in the manner of Marx's historical materialism. The case, Saroj Giri writes, forces us to revisit the question of historical oppression based on caste from within the present, and beckons us to reject the capitalist accelerationist-futurist "progressive politics" of much of the left, taking us closer to the class struggle of Marx.

End of Cold War Illusions

End of Cold War Illusions

by Harry Magdoffand Paul M. Sweezy

November 1, 2022

In this reprint of the February 1994 "Notes from the Editors," former MR editors Harry Magdoff and Paul M. Sweezy ask: "The United States could not have won a more decisive victory in the Cold War. Why, then, does it continue to act as though the Cold War is still on?"

Newsletter sign-up

Keep up to date with all the latest socialist news from MR