Category: Monthly Review Press Blog

"Violence, USA": an excerpt from Henry A. Giroux's America's Education Deficit and the War on Youth

February 20, 2024

Since 9/11, the war on terror and the campaign for homeland security have increasingly mimicked the tactics of the enemies they sought to crush. Violence and punishment as both a media spectacle and a bone-crushing reality have become prominent and influential forces shaping U.S. society. As the boundaries between “the realms of war and civil life have collapsed,” social relations and the public services needed to make them viable have been increasingly privatized and militarized. The logic of profitability works its magic in channeling the public funding of warfare and organized violence into universities, market-based service providers, Hollywood cinema, cable television, and deregulated contractors. The metaphysics of war and associated forms of violence now creep into every aspect of U.S. society.

Clairmont Chung discusses Walter Rodney on Against the Grain

February 20, 2024

Clairmont Chung is the editor of Walter A. Rodney: A Promise of Revolution, published by Monthly Review Press, and director of the film W.A.R. Stories: Walter Anthony Rodney. He discusses the life and legacy of revolutionary and scholar Walter Rodney with C.S. Soong on KPFA’s Against the Grain radio program.

Walter A. Rodney book signing and film screening in Atlanta

February 20, 2024

Join Clairmont Chung, editor of Walter A. Rodney: A Promise of Revolution and director of the documentary W.A.R. Stories, for a film screening and book signing during Atlanta’s Caribbean Film Festival, 2 PM, Sunday June 9.

The Ecological Rift reviewed in Science & Society

February 20, 2024

Marxist ecologists John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark, and Richard York compellingly argue that our perpetual ecological crises are a direct product of global capitalism. The relationships of dominance within capitalism are the main obstacle to ecological sustainability. At over 400 pages in length (and an additional 90 pages in footnotes alone), The Ecological Rift uses the disciplines of political economy, human ecology and sociology to mount a powerful indictment of capitalism’s destructive effects upon our fragile ecosystems.

Horace Campbell, author of Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya, on "Benghazi, Petraeus, and the CIA" for CounterPunch

February 20, 2024

Two years after the failed NATO intervention, Libyan society is in chaos. Over 50,000 were killed in a mission that was meant to protect civilians, and there are reportedly more than 1,700 competing militias marauding the streets. One outcome of this chaos was the attack on U.S. mission in Benghazi which led to the death of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens on September 11, 2012. There have been Congressional hearings on this attack, and on May 8, U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, the California Republican who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, called another inquiry into the September 11, 2012 event.

Alan Wieder interviewed on Ruth First and Joe Slovo

February 20, 2024

Alan Wieder is the author of Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid, forthcoming from Monthly Review Press. He was interviewed by Portland’s KBOO Community Radio about his book and the lives of Ruth First and Joe Slovo.

One Day in December Starred Review in Library Journal

February 20, 2024

The Cuban revolution so closely associated with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara also involved those such as Camilo Cienfuegos, Eloy Menoyo, Frank Pais, and Celia Sanchez, all revolutionary heroes in their own right. Sanchez was Castro’s supporter, confidante, and—depending on the source—his lover. In this impressive biography Stout (reference librarian, Fordham Univ. Libs.; Havana: La Habana) utilizes interviews, Cuban archives (to which she was granted special access by Castro himself), letters, and other documents to provide an accurate portrait of Sanchez, who ran the planning organization of the revolution after the death of Pais in 1957… Highly recommended for readers and scholars of Cuban history.

The Economic War Against Cuba reviewed in Cuba Si

February 20, 2024

Salim Lamrani presents a comprehensive and systematic study of the United States’ economic sanctions against Cuba and the harm they cause the Cuban people. Lamrani delicately combines a heartrending catalogue of human suffering with robust analysis—including the examination of official U.S, government documentation—as he considers the origins, provisions and legality of the blockade.

Alan Wieder on the Rivonia Raids & South African Non-Violent Struggle, KBOO Radio

February 20, 2024

Alan Wieder is the author of Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid, forthcoming from Monthly Review Press. In this segment he remembers the Rivonia Raid fifty years after it happened. The South African government in the early 1960s attacked the Rovonia farm, then occupied by the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party. These two groups, from which Nelson Mandela and Joe Slovo came, were against the apartheid government.

Monthly Review at the Left Forum, New York City, June 7 to 9

February 20, 2024

Don’t miss the closing plenary featuring John Bellamy Foster, plus panels on Lettuce Wars and the struggles of farmworkers today, Global NATO and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya and an appraisal of the Libya invasion, a Socialist Register panel considering The Question of Strategy, and a discussion of István Mészáros, TINA, and OCCUPY. Don’t forget to visit the MR Press table for discounts on a wide range of titles, new and old!