Articles

Workers Suffer as Wealth Accumulates: Finance as Grift and Other Revelations

Workers Suffer as Wealth Accumulates: Finance as Grift and Other Revelations

by Fred Magdoff

June 1, 2026

Fred Magdoff presents an incisive, data-driven analysis of the current state of the worker laboring under the domineering system of financialization and, in particular, private equity. In his conclusion, Magdoff asks: "Is there a way out of twenty-first-century 'normal' for labor?" "The key way out," he answers, "is an extraordinary growth of workers' power in order to combat the extraordinary power of capital"—one rooted in fully democratic socialist production and fundamental equality.
Digital Imperialism and Emotional Tribute in East Asia

Digital Imperialism and Emotional Tribute in East Asia

by Jianlu Bi and Ting Zhou

June 1, 2026

"In the contemporary era of stagnant monopoly-finance capital," Jianlu Bi and Ting Zhou begin, "the maintenance of global hegemony…necessitates the systemic colonization of digital consciousness. In examining the presentation of Sino-Japanese political tension across three media outlets, the authors describe digitally manufactured hatreds that "serve a vital imperialist function: the prevention of horizontal class solidarity" that may threaten U.S. hegemonic power in East Asia.
Capitalism and the Crisis of Meaning in Our Times

Capitalism and the Crisis of Meaning in Our Times

by Helena Sheehan

June 1, 2026

Philosopher and frequent MR contributor Helena Sheehan considers the implications of living in a world in which a lack of meaning runs rampant, as well as how it is expressed in the literary world. If we lack coherent analysis, the varied crises of our times can seem disconnected and overpowering. A materially grounded Marxist worldview, she notes, allows us to clear away the fog of meaninglessness engulfing contemporary society and chart a path toward socialism.
The Fetishism of AI

The Fetishism of AI

by John Bellamy Foster

May 1, 2026

John Bellamy Foster takes on sweeping questions of artificial intelligence and its role in today's capitalist society. "The Great Houses of AI are divided against themselves and cannot stand," he writes, "If humanity is to flourish, the forces and relations of production must be revolutionized together…creating a world of sustainable human development."
Engels’s Dialectics of Nature and Marxist Ecology

Engels’s Dialectics of Nature and Marxist Ecology

by Chen Yiwen

May 1, 2026

Yiwen Chen dives deep into Frederick Engels's Dialectics of Nature in order to give context to present-day debates surrounding the juxtaposition of the dialectics of nature and Marxist ecology. "It is hardly surprising that Engels's and Marx's ecological ideas are not entirely identical," Chen writes. "Nevertheless, their ideas do possess an inherent consistency."
Marx on the Circular Economy

Marx on the Circular Economy

by Benjamin Selwyn

May 1, 2026

Today, many use the term "circular economy" to describe a shift in the use of industrial waste products in a way that does not challenge the present mode of production. Returning to Marx, Benjamin Selwyn is able to show that this usage of the term is designed to facilitate the acquisitive demands of a capitalist economy, rather than a fundamental shift in resource use.
Slipping into Gogol’s “Overcoat”: A Winter’s Tale

Slipping into Gogol’s “Overcoat”: A Winter’s Tale

by Andy Merrifield

May 1, 2026

Andy Merrifield reflects on Nikolai Gogol's short story "The Overcoat," tying it to "a distinctively Marxist problematic." In the protagonist of the tale, a Russian counsellor whose life is forever changed by the acquisition of a new overcoat, Merrifield finds a character who, like Marx, knows firsthand what a single coat can tell us about the structures of society.

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