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Notes from the Editors
May 2026 (Volume 78, Number 1)
This month's "Notes from the Editors" dissects recent attacks on historical materialism from so-called social materialism. This way of thinking, the editors write, is profoundly divorced from Marxism, in that it lacks a dialectical foundation and eliminates the ethical domain that is critical to building a revolutionary praxis.
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Article
Engels’s Dialectics of Nature and Marxist Ecology
Yiwen Chen dives deep into Frederick Engels's Dialectics of Nature in order to give context to present-day debates surrounding the juxtaposition of the dialectics of nature Marxist ecology. "It is hardly surprising that Engels's and Marx's ecological ideas are not entirely identical," Chen writes. "Nevertheless, their ideas do possess an inherent consistency."
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Article
Marx on the Circular Economy
Today, many use the term "circular economy" to describe a shift in the use of industrial waste products in a way that does not challenge the present mode of production. Returning to Marx, Benjamin Selwyn is able to show that this usage of the term is designed to facilitate the acquisitive demands of a capitalist economy, rather than a fundamental shift in resource use.
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Article
Slipping into Gogol’s “Overcoat”: A Winter’s Tale
Andy Merrifield reflects on Nikolai Gogol's short story "The Overcoat," tying it to "a distinctively Marxist problematic." In the protagonist of the tale, a Russian counsellor whose life is forever changed by the acquisition of a new overcoat, Merrifield finds a character who, like Marx, knows firsthand what a single coat can tell us about the structures of society.
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Review
Vulnerable Israel
In this review of Ilan Pappé's Israel on the Brink, Tom Mayer considers the famed historian's assessment of the increasingly precarious Zionist state. In the book, Mayer writes, readers will find a thoughtful consideration of the past, present, and potential events that could shape a new vision for Palestine.
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Review of the Month
The Idea of the ‘Uyghur Genocide’ and the Realities of Xinjiang
What is really happening in Xinjiang? Vijay Prashad and Tings Chak write: "There is no evidence of a policy of physical annihilation of the Uyghur peoples by the Chinese government, unlike say, direct evidence of extermination by the Israeli government against the occupied Palestinian people. There are no mass graves and no accusations of systematic killing—the hallmarks of a genocide."
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Article
The Material Basis of a Spectre: Why China’s Youth Are Rediscovering Mao
This article examines the resurgence of interest in Mao Zedong among China's youth, particularly at elite universities. This "Mao fever" reflects a complex mindset: indignation toward social inequality, uncertainty within a brutal job market, and a firm anti-imperialist and patriotic stance amidst the "New Cold War." In Mao’s legacy, a new generation is finding the guidance to navigate the sharpening contradictions of the present day.
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Article
Yellow Shades upon a Global Color Line: Historicizing Filipino America and the “Deadliest Phase of U.S. Imperialism”
Michael Viola explores the building of the Filipino identity in the context of U.S. imperialism. The broad-reaching effects of this "deadliest phase of imperialism," combined with pervasive anti-Asian racism in the United States, fuels the idea of a collective political project that "comes with the praxis, the power, and the price of a unique lineage" extending across an ocean and intimately connected to the dark history of U.S. militarism abroad.
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Article
From Classic Labor to the Labor of the ‘General Intellect’: The Impact of the Digital Intelligence Era on Socialist Labor Theory
Applying Marxist labor theory to the rise of artificial intelligence and its effects on workers, Te Li presents an understanding of labor in the age of increasing reliance on algorithms and digital technologies. As Li argues: "In the civilization of general intellect labor, where the knowledge economy dominates, knowledge-intensive labor such as scientific research, technological innovation, artistic creation, and education and training will become primary forms of labor."
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Review of the Month
French Theory in the Intellectual Cold War
In 1966, Johns Hopkins hosted a seemingly innocuous international conference titled "The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences of Man," featuring leading figures of what would later be known as "French Theory." However, John Bellamy Foster writes, far from a simple meeting of intellectuals, this represented a "politically motivated attempt to create a beachhead for French structuralism in the United States that would counter the radicalization then taking place."
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Article
Could Capitalism Have Thrived Without Colonialism?
Vijay Prashad critiques the argument that colonialism was, at most, ancillary to the transition between capitalism and feudalism in Western Europe. Instead, Prashad argues, "capitalism as it historically emerged—industrial, global, racialized, and imperial—was inseparable from colonial expropriation." This reality must fuel a Marxist conception of the global struggle for reparations for those who have been oppressed and exploited at the hands of empires past and present.
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CLASSICS
Unequal Exchange
Open Veins of Latin America
Labor and Monopoly Capital
Albert Einstein’s “Why Socialism?"
Marx’s Ecology
Discourse on Colonialism
Consciencism
Return to the Source
Racism and The Class Struggle
Anarchism
The Art of Democracy
Fanshen
Hidden History of the Korean War
May 26: Symposium on Foster’s “Breaking the Bonds of Fate”
Stay tuned for a symposium hosted by Daniel Tutt, on John Bellamy Foster’s Breaking the Bonds of Fate: Epicurus and Marx ,featuring philosophers Helena Sheehan, Katarina Kolozova, Thomas Nail and... READ MORE
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WATCH: Ecosocialism Forum hosts Ian Angus, author of “Metabolic Rifts” (Available now!)
Ian Angus introduced his new book Metabolic Rifts: Capitalism’s Assault on the Earth’s System, in an event cosponsored with, and hosted by, Jess Spear of the Global Ecosocialist Network. They... READ MORE
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Forthcoming: The Rainbow Challenge (Excerpt)
From the Preface to the new edition: Jesse Jackson’s first presidential primary race in 1984 should have been a wakeup call for the Democratic Party. Without a large campaign chest,... READ MORE
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In the public eye: Andy Merrifield
The latest: "...we learn how, as a child, Gramsci fashioned crude dumbbells for himself out of round stones to do exercises to compensate for the malformation of his spine. We see him writing letters from prison to his landlady, his mother, and his sons. We learn about his wide-ranging intellectual interests..."
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