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Volume 76, Number 5 (October 2024)

Monthly Review Volume 76, Number 5 (October 2024)

October 2024 (Volume 76, Number 5)

It is undeniable that the rapidly worsening ecological crisis is threatening not only future generations, but the youth of today. Why, then, is the U.S. educational system failing to teach students the reality of this human-caused catastrophe? “Even science itself,” MR editors write, “is to be sacrificed on the altar of capital.” | more…

New this week!
Statue of Richard III in Leicester, England

Richard III, the Tudor Myth, and the Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism

Shakespeare’s Richard III famously immortalized the eponymous as a scoundrel and tyrant, thirsty for power and blood. Using economic data spanning centuries, Thomas Lambert questions the truth of this spurious reputation: Was Richard III indeed a murderous despot bent on absolute rule? Or a myth propagated by Tudor allies aiming to ingratiate themselves to the new dynasty? | more…

Surplus Absorption, Secular Stagnation, and the Transition to Socialism: Contradictions of the U.S. and the Chinese Economies since 2000

This article will be released in full online October 7, 2023.

Minqi Li and Lingyi Wei look to the Chinese and U.S. economies to illustrate the contradictions of secular stagnation, concluding that both economies will likely face great challenges in the decades to come. However, they write, progressive economic policies could change China’s future, encouraging massive investment into the state sector and bringing about the transition to a fully socialist society. | more…

Marxist Ecology in China: From Marx’s Ecology to Socialist Eco-Civilization Theory

This article will be released in full online October 14, 2023.

Since the 1980s, Chinese writers and thinkers have been engaging with Marxist ecology, constructing a theoretical system that starts with interpretation of Marx and Engels themselves. Chen Yiwen takes stock of how this framework progressed toward an overarching theory of ecological civilization, generating new questions to be answered at every stage of development. | more…

Applying/Misapplying GramsciÕs Passive Revolution to Latin America

This article will be released in full online October 21, 2023.

Steve Ellner deconstructs the argument that Pink Tide governments elected since 2018 are in a state of “passive revolution,” having betrayed their progressive roots through concessions to conservative elements and capital. This analysis, Ellner finds, fails to capture the material impacts of Pink Tide governments, their strategic importance, or their potential to pull societies toward a more radical leftist future. | more…