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“A skillful, researched warning against the blind acceptance of wartime propaganda” (The Hidden History of the Korean War to appear in ‘Foreword Reviews’)

The presentation is novelistic: there is a rising action as tensions build before the war begins. Once the conflict starts, there’s gripping escalation, then brief falling action as the war concludes. Questions posed throughout keep engagement high while also allowing time for contemplating new pieces of information. The result is illuminating… | more…

Value Chains reviewed in Indonesian for ‘The Suryakanta’

(Read on, if you know Indondesian) Dalam ekonomi global saat ini, sebagian besar produksi terjadi di negara-negara “berkembang” seperti Tiongkok, India, dan Indonesia. Namun, sebagian besar keuntungan dari produk-produk yang dihasilkannya tetap menggunung dalam dompet para kapitalis di Eropa, Amerika, dan Jepang. Enak saja! Kok bisa? | more…

Dispelling folkloric stories of “spitting” soldiers (from the co-author of Dissenting POWs)

There is no evidence that Vietnam veterans were spat on. Nor could they have been, at least not in the manner described in the most often told stories. Those stories tell of landing at San Francisco Airport and being met by groups of spitters, often hippies. But flights from Vietnam landed at military airbases like Travis outside San Francisco; protesters could not have gotten on the airbase, much less near deplaning troops. | more…

An inspiration and a warning (Ross’ How the Workers’ Parliaments Saved the Cuban Revolution reviewed in ‘Morning Star’)

Cuba’s continuing economic crisis has produced a social malaise that manifests itself in many ways. One of them has been a political detachment including a decrease in political and electoral participation. Ross’s account of Cuba’s survival is at the same time an inspiration to everyone struggling for socialism, and a warning of the challenges to be faced in building it… | more…

Many millions gone (Endless Holocausts reviewed in ‘Counterpunch’)

Ron Jacobs, of Counterpunch: “David Michael Smith and Monthly Review Press have done us a favor by publishing this book. Not only is it honestly refreshing, it is perhaps the most important history of the United States published in recent years. There are no excuses here, no rationales; just an accounting of the essential truth in the making and maintenance of the US empire. It is harsh. It is relentless. It cannot be any other way. The endless death described in its pages does not allow another interpretation.” | more…

An invaluable warning against the State as a neutral tool (Beyond Leviathian reviewed by ‘Counterfire’)

The state cannot be ‘reformed’ since it is not, despite what liberal theory would insist, a neutral institution. The state historically developed in order to enshrine class power, and so traps us ‘within the paralyzing confines of the hierarchical and antagonistic framework of the political/military domain’. This can only be broken through a ‘radical transformation’ in ‘our social metabolism’, that is in the relations of production of capitalism. | more…

“A lofty dream” (Work Work Work reviewed in ‘Dissident Voice’ and ‘Countercurrents’)

‘Work Work Work’ sounds similar for working boys in many countries. Anyone can find them at any hub of exploitation and profit making. A visit to the Tipu Sultan Road or the Dolaai Khaal or Taatee Bazaar area in the capital city of Dhaka, a visit to automobile repair shops around Dhaka or to the marine vessel making yards along the Buriganga near Dhaka will find them. Boys picking torn papers, discarded plastic pieces of innumerable shapes and sizes from street sides, tearing down old posters from walls of the city buildings, looking for whatever is saleable in garbage heaps, selling kitchen items or flowers from morning to night, until may be 10 or 11 PM…. | more…

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