Monthly Review Press

A Freedom Budget for All Americans "Essential" CHOICE Review

February 20, 2024

Le Blanc and Yates do an outstanding job of recapturing the development, as well as the social and political context, of this mostly forgotten chapter of American history. The stories of the movement's leading figures take this book even further in bringing the account of the Freedom Budget back to life. The authors use this historical analysis to frame a valuable overview of current social and economic deficiencies of the contemporary US, making a convincing case that the time has come to resurrect the promise of a renewed Freedom Budget. ... This inexpensive book is a must for virtually any library. Summing Up: Essential.

Save Our Unions reviewed by LSE Review of Books

February 20, 2024

Steve Early is a well-known commentator on the complex world of US trade unionism. His analyses are often provocative and always well-informed as he has worked in and around the US labour movement for more than 40 years. This is his third book since he retired from the Communication Workers of America (CWA) union. Evidently he is a man who intends to use the freedom of retirement to stir up debate... Early is passionate about working people having the opportunity not only to have a say in their working lives, but to act as a countervailing power to corporate America.

Save Our Unions reviewed by the Association for Union Democracy

February 20, 2024

Does Steve Early exist? Or is his the brand name for a syndicate of crack labor journalists who in James Thurber's words "get the story and write the story," but write it from the perspective of working people. That's a talent that often unappreciated, even by many unions. And, yes, he exists.

Save Our Unions reviewed in Jacobin

February 20, 2024

It has been Steve Early's fate to chronicle in excruciating detail the decline of the labor empires that grew up in the flush years that followed the World War II — a task he takes up in his new book Save Our Unions: Dispatches From a Movement in Distress.... Union activists concerned with these questions should read Early's book for essential background on this ongoing crisis of the US labor movement.

Lettuce Wars reviewed in the Huffington Post

February 20, 2024

The author of Lettuce Wars has produced a most compelling work. It will be of particular interest to other former "colonizers" who got active in the labor movement in the 1970s as members of various left-wing groups, including the RCP. Lettuce Wars should be also be read by their younger, union-backed counterparts, who are now "salting" non-union hotels, warehouses, and fast food joints in the pursuit of goals more modest than world revolution.

"Bold New Era or Hard Times for Organized Labor?" Seattle MRP event w/ Steve Early and Arun Gupta

February 20, 2024

Is this a Bold New Era or Hard Times for Organized Labor? Find out at a Monthly Review Press book event and discussion of workers' movements in the U.S. and abroad, on Monday, May 5, 7 P.M., at Elliott Bay Books in Seattle! Meet former CWA organizer Steve Early, author of Save Our Unions, and Arun Gupta, contributor to In These Times and Registering Class, the 2014 edition of Socialist Register. Singers from the Seattle Labor Chorus will perform!

NEW! Magnus Hirschfeld: The Origins of the Gay Liberation Movement by Ralf Dose

February 20, 2024

Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) was one of the first great pioneers of the gay liberation movement. This biography, first published to acclaim in Germany, follows Hirschfeld from his birth in the Prussian province of Pomerania to the heights of his career during the Weimar Republic and the rise of German fascism. Ralf Dose illuminates Hirschfeld's ground-breaking role in the gay liberation movement and explains some of his major theoretical concepts, which continue to influence our understanding of human sexuality and social justice today.

NEW! PolyluxMarx: An Illustrated Workbook for Studying Marx’s Capital

February 20, 2024

by Valeria Bruschi, Antonella Muzzupappa, Sabine Nuss, Anne Stecklner and Ingo Stützle; translated by Alexander Locascio. Reading Capital can be a daunting endeavor and most readers need guidance when tackling this complex work. PolyluxMarx provides such guidance. Developed by scholars and political activists associated with the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (Foundation), one of the leading political education institutions in Germany, this book has been field tested with groups studying Marx's masterpiece over several years. It consists of a large set of PowerPoint presentations, combined with detailed annotations and suggestions for ways to discuss the material.

Registering Class reviewed in The Spokesman

February 20, 2024

The Socialist Register 2014 is the 50th edition of the journal which was founded by Ralph Miliband and John Saville in 1964 to advance socialist analysis and discussion. It was an offshoot of the New Left, but reflected a different approach from that of the New Left Review editors, Perry Anderson and Tom Nairn. Over the years, it has produced a rich collection of contributions on socialist ideas.

Back in Print! Value and Crisis: Essays on Marxian Economics in Japan by Makoto Itoh

February 20, 2024

Value and Crisis opens with a long and highly informative essay on the development of Marxian economics in Japan, and contains a number of the author's important and original contributions to this stream of thought. Itoh discusses the major points of view on Marx's theory of value, on theories of crisis, and on problems of Marx's theory of market value. The essays demonstrate a wide-ranging familiarity with all the major theoretical schools of Marxist thought. In dealing with theories of crisis, for example, Itoh succinctly summarizes and criticizes the points of view of Tugan-Baranovsky, Hilferding, Bauer, Kautsky, Bukharin, and Luxemburg, as well as Grossman, Sweezy, and the Japanese Marxist Kozo Uno, together with the relevant parts of Capital. The book includes a section on the 1930s Great Depression in the context of the theoretical discussion about crisis theory.