Category: Monthly Review Press /

“Venezuela: Economic war or government errors?” by Marta Harnecker

February 20, 2024

Marta Harnecker, author of A World to Build: New Paths toward Twenty-First Century Socialism, recently wrote a piece for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, which was translated by Rachael Boothroyd of VenezuelaAnalysis
"1. When Chávez triumphed in the presidential elections of 1998, the neoliberal capitalist model was already falling apart. The dilemma was none other than to either reform the neoliberal capitalist model, evidently with changes, and amongst those a greater for concern for social issues, but still orientated towards the same profit seeking motive, or to move forward with the construction of another model...."

“Never about Native Americans”: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on Thanksgiving, via Democracy Now!

February 20, 2024

Historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, and frequent contributor to Monthly Review magazine, sat down with Democracy Now‘s Nermeen Shaikh for a quick interview on the real meaning of “Thanksgiving”

“Offering great surprise”: A Hidden History of the Cuban Revolution reviewed by Toward Freedom

February 20, 2024

Here is a volume offering great surprise, at least to this presumably well-educated reader, deeply sympathetic to the Cuban Revolution since its inception or at least since a rollout of toys for Christmas 1959 included some kind of Fidel costume (quickly dropped, thereafter, or did they send those props to the East Bloc?). The author of Hidden History, a retired British professor who worked in factories for considerable periods of his life, seems equally surprised. Perhaps, he opines, the cult of the personality around Che and Fidel is the reason for an absence of real social history on this vital subject? We suspect otherwise, but our suspicions hardly detract from our fascination. The material analyzed here is new and essential to any understanding of Cuban revolutionary history.

Lost Strike Revisited: John Tully’s Silvertown reviewed by Socialism & Democracy

February 20, 2024

The importance of revisiting past strikes lies not only in recovering the often hidden memory of working-class mobilisations, but also in revealing the dynamics of those strikes—whether victorious or not—so as to draw conclusions for future collective action. This is clearly the purpose of John Tully’s study of the great strike of labourers at the Silvertown rubber and electrical factory in London in 1889. Not only is this strike a forgotten chapter in the history of the New Unionism that ultimately gave rise to the modern British labour movement; in addition, the tactics first developed by the employers at Silvertown also ‘became a blueprint for British union busters to follow.

Fidel Castro, Siempre Presente

February 20, 2024

World leaders have begun to pay tribute to the former Cuban leader and revolutionary Fidel Castro who has died aged 90. ¶ The incumbent Cuban President Raul Castro announced his brother had died at 10:29pm on state television late on Friday night. He ended the announcement by shouting the revolutionary slogan: ‘Toward victory, always!’ ...

“Back to the realm of remembering…” The American War in Vietnam reviewed in Counterpunch

February 20, 2024

In classical mythology, the Acheron is one of the rivers of the Underworld. It marks the boundary between the living and the dead. The ferryman Charon ferries the dead across the Acheron to a place where they lose memory. Nothing of what made them human remains—happiness, suffering, love, hatred, guilt, regret, redemption, betrayal, forgiveness. ¶ John Marciano’s recently published book, The American War in Vietnam, functions as such a Charon in reverse. It ferries readers back to the realm of remembering. This slim volume could not have come at a more opportune moment. American political culture is punch-drunk with the pursuit of war. The altered state is reaching the point of delirium tremens. Thwarted in the neocolonial scheme of annexing Syria by Russia’s legal intervention, the American elite are pushing for confrontation.

Official Statement from the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba

February 20, 2024

On the occasion of the demise of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba declares nine days of National Mourning, as from the 06:00 hrs. of November 26 th, until the 12:00 hrs. of December 4th, 2016. For as long as the National Mourning is in place, public activities and shows shall not be held, the national flag shall be flown at half-staff in public buildings and military facilities. The radio and television shall broadcast informative, patriotic and historic programs.

Bill Nigut of GPB News, with Alan Wieder, Remember Studs Terkel

February 20, 2024

Alan Wieder, author of Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture, but Mostly Conversation, and Bill Nigut of Georgia Public Broadcasting, discuss the legendary author and raconteur Louis (Studs) Terkel
Go directly to GPB’s site or click below to listen:

NYC Condolences Book for Fidel Castro at Mission of Cuba to United Nations

February 20, 2024

The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Cuba to the United Nations communicates that following the decease of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba declares nine days of National Mourning, from 06:00hrs on 26 November to 12:00 hrs on 4 December 2016. ¶ The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Cuba informs that a Condolence Book will be placed at the Mission, located at 315 Lexington Avenue, NY 10016, from Monday 28 November until Sunday 4 December, from 9:00 a.m. -1:00 p.m. and 3:00 – 6:00 p.m.

“Studs Terkel and third-party politics” by Alan Wieder, via LINKS.org

February 20, 2024

When Noam Chomsky recently told Amy Goodman that he would hold his nose and vote for Hillary Clinton if he lived in a swing state, it reminded me of Studs’ statements during the 2000 Gore-Bush election for the presidency. In 2000, Studs endorsed Ralph Nader, but like Chomsky at the present time, he suggested that it might be prudent in certain cases to vote for Gore. In 1970, when Chomsky appeared on Studs’ show to discuss his book, The New Mandarins, much of the conversation focused on conquest and corporate power. And the men agreed that grassroots movements, not heroes, changed history…. ¶ So each day when I hear Trump and Clinton speak, I long to hear Studs talking about the coming election.