Category: Monthly Review Press /

Senior Women Web reviews “Mythologies of State and Monopoly Power” by Michael E. Tigar

February 20, 2024

This is a law book written for a general audience. Tigar has been a law professor most of his life; in these pages one can learn much from his vast legal and historical knowledge. ¶ Multiple chapters are spread out over five "mythologies": Racism, Criminal Justice, Free Expression, Worker Rights and International Human Rights. ¶ His discussion of these mythologies is not neutral; he has a point of view and it's generally from the left....

Gerald Horne: The History of Police in the U.S. & Connections to Slavery

February 20, 2024

Gerald Horne, whose book The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century is just out, talks to Margaret Prescod, host of Sojourner Truth Radio, about the legacy of policing in the U.S. How did it start? What impact did its history have on what's happening in policing today? And what is the inter-relationship between the legacy of slavery and genocide against Indigenous people, policing and mass incarceration practices of today?

JONUS, Journal of Nusantara Studies, reviews “Can the Working Class Change the World?”

February 20, 2024

Can the Working Class Change the World? is not written suddenly. Throughout the last decade, capitalism has been increasingly discussed and debated, both by the right and left wing. This is because many people are struggling with economic downturn, wide income gap, unemployment, poverty and environmental crisis. The Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008, almost brought down the global financial system. Later in 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement began and spread to several countries to protest against the 1%. And in 2018, Ray Dalio, a multibillionaire who is also the founder of Bridgewater Associates, himself admits that capitalism does not function for most people. Today, the assets of the 26 richest individuals in the world is equivalent to the assets of half the world’s citizens (Elliott, 2019). But, if capitalism now has failed, the question is: who fix it?

“The pornography of violence ensnaring Black men”–Gerald Horne talks to Katie Halper & Matt Taibbi

February 20, 2024

Historian Gerald Horne, author of dozens of books, including the just-out The Dawning of the Apocalypse, talked recently with Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper on their Rolling Stone podcast, Useful Idiots, in an effort to contextualize the current race protests through a historical lens...

Gerald Horne on Black Power 96 Radio’s “Diasporic Music”

February 20, 2024

On June 14, Norman “Otis” Richmond (aka Jalal), producer/host of Diasporic Music on Black Power 96 Radio, talked to Dr. Gerald Horne, historian and author of dozens of books, most recently, The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century...

KPFK’s “Freedom Now” talks to author Gerald Horne

February 20, 2024

Brandon Sankara, host of radio station KFPK's “Freedom Now,” talks to “everyone's favorite living library,” Dr. Gerald Horne, author, most recently, of The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century, about international responses to the murder of George Floyd and the condition of African Americans today in general..

Marx & Philosophy reviews Michael Heinrich’s “Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society”

February 20, 2024

Michael Heinrich opens the first volume of his biography on Marx and the modern society he grew up in by noting that ‘Marx probably would not have wanted a biography, and certainly not one planned for multiple volumes’. Seeing as Marx did not desire a personal biography, and that dozens already exist, Heinrich’s project raises the question: why write this book at all? While this review will diverge from the ubiquitous praise being offered elsewhere and offer some slightly critical commentary, it can confidently be said that Heinrich’s completed biographical series will easily eclipse previous Marx biographies...

Gerald Horne: US Prof. asks Iranian friends to assist Americans in abolishing culture of slavery

February 20, 2024

“Trump,” says Horne, “is fueling the protests. He is a cornered beast right now and a beast is most dangerous when it is cornered….”

Cal Winslow reflects on the Seattle General Strike of 1919

February 20, 2024

Cal Winslow, author of Radical Seattle: The General Strike of 1919, talks to Sasha Lilley, host of KPFA’s Against the Grain:
While the United States is in the throes of upheaval over police murders, we take a historical look back at another time of great social ferment: a century ago, when the workers of Seattle shut that city down. The first major general strike in the United States coincided with the last widespread pandemic — the Spanish influenza….

General Strike 100 Years Ago Shows Us Hope for Today: Labor Notes reviews “Radical Seattle”

February 20, 2024

For five days in 1919, union members took control of the city of Seattle. They arguably ran it better, and certainly more justly, than it had ever been run before. ¶ The strike began when waitresses, laundry workers, streetcar workers, and more—65,000 union workers in all—walked off the job on February 6, 1919, to support striking shipyard workers. ¶ Thousands of workers volunteered to keep Seattle’s essential services operating. People were fed at 21 different locations; on February 9, volunteers served more than 30,000 meals....