In this talk given at Peking University in October 2024, John Bellamy Foster shares ten theses describing both the roots and contemporary manifestations of the idea of ecological civilization. Relating the concept’s origins in the writings of Marx and Engels to its expression today in Chinese society, Foster reveals the inherently socialist nature of eco-civilization and the necessity of a worldwide ecological revolution to shift toward sustainable human development. | more…
Against a backdrop of political turmoil and a popular uprising, Aasim Sajjad Akhtar examines how the contradictions of liberal democracy have played out in Pakistan. Exploring the dynamic between the U.S.-backed, militarized Pakistani political elite and the rise of reactionary politician Imran Khan, Akhtar shows how Khan has employed empty anti-imperialist rhetoric to mobilize a discontented populace—and how this could be counteracted with a genuine anti-imperialist movement. | more…
This month, we at MR had the great pleasure of publishing this note on Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz’s Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States: A Graphic Interpretation, written by Dylan Davis and Paul Buhle, with illustrations from the book by illustrator Paul Peart-Smith. | more…
Say Burgin reviews Stayed on Freedom: The Long History of Black Power through One Family’s Journey, an account of the fight for Black Power as told through the Simmons family, and particularly, Michael and Zoharah Simmons, from their first meeting during SNCC’s Atlanta Project to their later painful struggles as a family. The story that shines through, Burgin writes, is a story of Black Power that is deeply personal, often messy, and, above all, a refreshing challenge to popular narratives that serve to demonize the history of Black Power and the radicals who devoted their lives to the struggle. | more…
In this review of Bit Tyrants by Rob Larson, Mateo Crossa finds and expands on how the powerful actors of Silicon Valley have fashioned themselves into the new, unapologetic robber barons, operating in the shadows of political lobbying to maintain their monopolistic practices in the Global North while shamelessly engaging in the naked exploitation of the workers in the Global South. Crossa echoes Larson’s call for liberation from these tyrants, bringing attention to the necessity of socialism—both on- and offline—to agitate for democratic control over the technology and Internet platforms that increasingly penetrate our daily lives. | more…
In August 2020, ecosocialist thinker, MR author, and jazz musician Paul Burkett wrote to MR editor John Bellamy Foster about the latter’s recent book, The Return of Nature (Monthly Review Press, 2020). Burkett’s short correspondence revealed his deep understanding of the throughline tying the ecologically inspired thought of Marx and Engels to the later innovations of Roy Bhaskar, Richard Levins, Richard Lewontin, and others, all the way up to Foster’s own work demonstrating that these developments are not isolated, but part of an evolving ecosocialist tradition. | more…
It is undeniable that the rapidly worsening ecological crisis is threatening not only future generations, but the youth of today. Why, then, is the U.S. educational system failing to teach students the reality of this human-caused catastrophe? “Even science itself,” MR editors write, “is to be sacrificed on the altar of capital.” | more…
Minqi Li and Lingyi Wei look to the Chinese and U.S. economies to illustrate the contradictions of secular stagnation, concluding that both economies will likely face great challenges in the decades to come. However, they write, progressive economic policies could change China’s future, encouraging massive investment into the state sector and bringing about the transition to a fully socialist society. | more…
This month’s “Notes from the Editors” recounts the history of U.S. preparations for “prolonged and limited” nuclear war and Washington’s repeated refusal to abide by international agreements regarding nuclear weaponry. With the recent announcement that the United States will be stationing nuclear-capable Tomahawk missiles on German soil—within minutes’ striking distance of Moscow—this history is now, troublingly, more relevant than ever. | more…
In an interview with Brazilian magazine Margem Esquerda, John Bellamy Foster shares with Fabio Querido, Maria Orlanda Pinassi, and Michael Löwy the formative experiences that contributed to his work as a young activist and, later, a preeminent scholar of ecological Marxism. The interview concludes with a message to the ecological left in Brazil and elsewhere: “Whatever solutions there are to the present planetary crisis must, in historical-materialist terms, arise from concrete social formations, on the basis of which the new revolutionary transformations will take place.” | more…
