Category: Monthly Review Press /

“The revolutionary life and times of Ruth First, and her legacy” by Ronnie Kasrils

February 20, 2024

Ronnie Kasrils, activist and the author of The Unlikely Secret Agent, the story of his wife as an underground agent for the African National Congress, recently wrote about anti-apartheid leader Ruth First, who was killed by a letter bomb on August 17, 1987. Kasrils's article about First, commemorating the 38th anniversary of her death, is based on a lecture he presented on 23 August 2020. It first appeared in Umsebenzi Online, an online voice of the South African working class...

Healthcare for the People–CounterPunch reviews “Cuban Health Care”

February 20, 2024

If they are paying attention, progressives worldwide know that Cuba provides healthcare that saves lives and prevents disease more effectively than does the United States, its major capitalist enemy. They know that Cuban health workers have been caring for people throughout the global South and, during the Covid -19 pandemic, in Europe too. And the word is out that Cuba educates vast numbers of physicians for much of the world…

Coastal fires, George Jackson, fascism: Gerald Horne on Diasporic Music/BlackPower96

February 20, 2024

If you’re living in a settler-colonialist society–which is virtually all of the Americas–the seeds of fascism have been implanted because of the violent uprooting of the Indigenous population that helps to create a culture of mega-violence… They really drank the kool-aid with regard this idea of the United States being this democracy with a sturdy constitution…

Red Library’s Cosmopod considers Kohei Saito’s “Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism”

February 20, 2024

Red Library: A Political Education Podcast for Today's Left offers a program called the "Lost Futures Series." In the latest podcast, Comrade Adam (a.k.a. Chairman Bane) joins podrades Remi and Niko from Cosmonaut's Ecology Cast series to discuss Kohei Saito's Karl Marx’s Ecosocialism: Capital, Nature, and the Unfinished Critique of Political Economy. Included in the conversation: the concept of metabolism, Marx's evolution of thought on ecology being the core realm of capitalist crisis, agricultural chemistry, the role of a Marxist ecosocialist perspective to stop the destruction of capital across the planet, and more...

New York Labor History Association reviews Cal Winslow’s “Radical Seattle”

February 20, 2024

The Seattle General Strike lasted only five days, but people have been fighting over what it means for a hundred years. Cal Winslow raises this discussion to a new level. Sticking close to the workers themselves, he shows us why the strike matters....

Capitalism and Racism Entwined: Gerald Horne on Black Agenda Report

February 20, 2024

"If you want to understand why Black Lives don't Matter under the current system, look to the events of five hundred years ago," says historian and University of Houston African American Studies professor, Gerald Horne. Drawing from his most recent book, The Dawning of the Apocalypse, Dr. Horne speaks with Margaret Kimberley of Black Agenda Report about these five hundred years--and their impact on our lives today...

“From settler colony to slaveholder republic”–Gerald Horne Talks to Democratic Left

February 20, 2024

Magro: The 1619 Project—and much of your work—puts settler colonialism, slavery, and white supremacy at the center of the unfolding history of the United States. It seems straightforward, so how do we account for resistance to the Project among some historians?
Horne: The 1619 Project stirred controversy in part because it unsettled the widely accepted “creation myth” of the founding of the United States.

Equal Rights, Justice, and Gerald Horne on WBAI

February 20, 2024

Mimi Rosenberg, host of Equal Rights and Justice, broadcasting from WBAI in New York City, talks with historian Gerald Horne, author, most recently, of The Dawning of the Apocalypse, about our need to acquire a detailed understanding of the past in order to comprehend a present--which includes "the oaf in the Oval Office"...

Kenosha, after police shooting of Jacob Blake–Gerald Horne, “Loud & Clear”

February 20, 2024

Walter Smolarek, host of Loud & Clear, via Radio Sputnik, is joined by Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of history at the University of Houston and the author of many books, including The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century. Dr. Horne discusses the RNC and the unfolding crisis in Kenosha...

Not a Simple Story: The Stansbury Forum reviews Cal Winslow’s “Radical Seattle”

February 20, 2024

In December of 1997 I was hired by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) to become their first Director of Organizing. At its International Convention in Hawaii in June of that same year the union had decided to dedicate 30% of its revenue to organizing and build out a department.... When we got to the dock in West Seattle, I stepped off the launch, lost my footing and fell halfway into the drink. Great start for an Organizing Director! ¶ Cal Winslow’s important book Radical Seattle reintroduces me to the region through the lens of the history of one of labor’s great moments, the Seattle General Strike of 1919....