Category: Monthly Review Press /

Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti reviewed in WorkingUSA

Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti reviewed in WorkingUSA

February 20, 2024

A sense of the arguments and perspective that drive Jeb Sprague's detailed study of paramilitarism in Haiti from the early 1990s to 2004 is given in the following quote, which comes in a closing chapter: "As with all historical processes, Haiti's recent history cannot be reduced to pure good versus pure evil—the popular Lavalas movement had its own contradictions and failures. Even so, right-wing paramilitarism and its backers have produced, by far, the most victims of political violence in Haiti in recent history" (p. 281). Sprague supports this point—and at the same time aims to expose layers of political complexity—with an intriguing assessment of the role of paramilitary organizations in ensuring that popular movements in the Caribbean republic are kept hobbled.

The Ecological Rift by John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark, & Richard York in South Africa's Mail & Guardian

February 20, 2024

Unbelievably the family of sciences that should shoulder the burden of enlightening society in the light of the alarming findings of the natural sciences, seems to be struck by a debilitating paralysis, except that the truth is far worse. In The Ecological Rift – Capitalism's War on the Earth (Monthly Review Press, 2010) John Bellamy Foster and his fellow authors draw one's attention to the scandalous complicity, on the part of the social sciences, with the very economic system that is driving ecological ruin. One might wonder why this is the case. In fact, one might expect human scientists to be more radical in their approach to the matter than their natural science colleagues, while the opposite is in fact the case.

One Day in December reviewed in Z Magazine

One Day in December reviewed in Z Magazine

February 20, 2024

In the opening pages of a new biography, Alice Walker's Foreword sets the stage for the poignant portrayal of a person with scant name recognition in North America. Until, that is, the publication of One Day in December. Author Nancy Stout divides the book into four parts: Pilón, Manzanillo, Sierra Maestra, and Havana, Cuba, the main places where Sánchez and scores of other Cubans resisted, eventually toppling the Cuban government and replacing it with a revolutionary regime.

America’s Education Deficit and the War on Youth reviewed on Counterfire

America’s Education Deficit and the War on Youth reviewed on Counterfire

February 20, 2024

Giroux asserts that a fundamental attack on democracy is currently occurring in the US, and urgent action is needed to defend democratic values against this assault. His view is that an examination of the education system provides evidence for this attack, and that education is itself both a key battleground, and the crucible in which the defence of democracy can be formed.

The Work of Sartre reviewed in LSE Review of Books

The Work of Sartre reviewed in LSE Review of Books

February 20, 2024

Although Jean-Paul Sartre was a popular and influential philosopher, he has not become as common a topic for serious scholarship as some of his peers. While Husserl and Heidegger are engines of continental thought, and Merleau-Ponty has a sizable following, Sartre tends to be used in introductory courses more than dissertations. Nonetheless, many philosophers do consider his work important and look forward to new insights about his legacy. The Work of Sartre promises to be such a book.

Alan Wieder discusses Ruth First and Joe Slovo on imiXwhatilike! Radio

Alan Wieder discusses Ruth First and Joe Slovo on imiXwhatilike! Radio

February 20, 2024

Alan Wieder is the author of Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid, recently released by Monthly Review Press. He is interviewed by Dr. Jared A. Ball for imiXwhatilike! Emancipatory Journalism & Broadcasting, about the lives of Ruth First and Joe Slovo, the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, and revolution.

Lettuce Wars reviewed in the Indypendent

Lettuce Wars reviewed in the Indypendent

February 20, 2024

When Cesar Chavez died in 1993, he was a cultural icon and progressive hero. Cast into poverty at a young age, he worked the fields as a youth before he went on to fuse his brand of Catholicism and grassroots organizing into the United Farm Workers, a union that sought to raise his Mexican farm laborer base out of poverty and into power. Chavez built a fighting union from the ground up — Si se puede! ("Yes we can!") was its battle cry — but by the time of his death he left an organization gutted of its farm worker base, purged of its organizing core and tattered from relentless grower assaults.

One Day in December reviewed in the Morning Star

One Day in December reviewed in the Morning Star

February 20, 2024

"Celia Sanchez is not a familiar name beyond Cuban borders but that should change with this, the first comprehensive biography of her life. As a committed soldier of social justice, she was instrumental in driving the one of the greatest revolutions of the 20th century and US writer Nancy Stout retells the story of an inspirational female revolutionary . . . This is an extraordinary biography, charting Sanchez's involvement from initial organisation of Fidel's landing to her remarkable transformation of a thorny thicket - marabuzal - into a preliminary training ground for rebel soldiers."

Newsletter sign-up

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