Historian Gerald Horne, author, most recently, of The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, and Capitalism in Seventeenth-Century North America and the Caribbean, talks to Chuck Mertz about his book — and our history — on This is Hell!, which broadcasts every Saturday, 9AM-1PM (CDT) on WNUR 89.3FM Chicago and podcasts to the world shortly after. | more…

April 27-28, 9AM-8PM | April 29, 9AM-1PM
UE Hall, 37 S Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL 60607
Free and Open to the Public
Speakers include: Michael Löwy (France), Helen Boak (England), Radhika Desai (Canada), Pablo Slavin (Argentina), Drucilla Cornell (USA), Zhang Meng (China), Sobhanlal Datta Gupta (India), Ottokar Luban (Germany), Ankica Čakardič (Croatia), and many others | more…

Prison Radio, an independent, multi-media production studio devoted to challenging mass incarceration, regularly presents the work of imprisoned journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. Here, in a recent broadcast, entitled “The Trump Show” (produced by Noelle Hanrahan), Mumia dismisses whimsical media condescension about Donald Trump and his vast, “sub-intellectual” support base. Trump’s so-called populism “ain’t a joke,” says Mumia; it deserves too be seen according to John Bellamy Foster‘s analysis in Trump in the White House: as neo-fascism. | more…

History…is not a peacefully flowing river, but made up of different moments, separated by tumultuous rapids’ (134). When the USSR broke apart in 1991, an unprecedented ideological campaign was launched, propagating the idea that Soviet collapse implied the collapse of the socialist project as a whole. The ‘end of history’ was said to be at hand. ¶ Amin’s critical reading of Russian history de-bunks this myth, with the compact prose and theoretical precision that is characteristic of Amin’s many writings… | more…

Hear historian Gerald Horne, author, most recently, of The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism and Storming the Heavens, and Paul Coates, founder of the Black Classic Press, in conversation on the past and present of Black Lives in the United States
Baltimore, Wednesday, April 18
6:30pm (doors open at 6:00)
THE REAL NEWS NETWORK
231 Holliday Street
Baltimore, MD 21202 | more…

Terror and killings represent only one aspect of a system of racial oppression manifesting in the United States first as occupation of Native lands and as slavery….It’s clear, therefore, that a system of racial oppression and race hatred has prevailed throughout U.S. history. Its staying power calls for explanation. Historian Gerald Horne offers insights…. | more…

Since the collapse of Eastern European “socialism” and the Soviet Union, the prospect to transcend capitalism has been lost in obscurity. ¶ However, what happened once can happen again, and “since the ‘end of history’ did not occur in 1989, one need not be a prophet to foresee that the need for the revolutionary salvation of the world will arise again” … | more…

Considered by many to be the most innovative British Marxist writer of the twentieth century, Christopher Caudwell was killed in the Spanish Civil War at the age of 29. Although already a published writer of aeronautic texts and crime fiction, he was practically unknown to the public until reviews appeared of Illusion and Reality: A Study of the Sources of Poetry, which was published just after his death. A strikingly original study of poetry’s role, it explained in clear language how the organizing of emotion in society plays a part in social change and development. Culture as Politics introduces Caudwell’s work through his most accessible and relevant writing. Material is drawn from Illusion and Reality, Studies in a Dying Culture, and his essay, “Heredity and Development.” | more…

Gerald Horne introduces his book about 17th century English colonial aggression in the Caribbean and North America by mentioning a three-part ‘Apocalypse.’ He indicates that its ‘three horsemen’—slavery, capitalism, and white supremacy—were present and sowing grief at the formation of the United States. But the first two play only supporting roles in his narrative. They give rise to conflicts and crises that provoke white supremacy, his third protagonist, into existence…. | more…

This fascinating book builds on the work of Marxists such as John Bellamy Foster to argue that Karl Marx’s thought is central to understanding that humanity’s destruction of the planet is due to the capitalist mode of production. It is a further blow against the perception that Marx was a naive Promethean—someone who believed that simply increasing production will solve all humanity’s ills and that therefore Marxism has nothing to say about ecological crisis…. | more…