The global economic crisis that closed the first decade of the 21st century has demonstrated that the contradictions of capitalism cannot be overcome. The challenge for socialist analysis is to reveal both the nature of these contradictions in the neo-liberal era of globalized finance, and their consequences in our time. This volume, a companion to The Crisis This Time: Socialist Register 2011, examines the response of the international Left and asks, how has the Left responded and can it offer an alternative to faltering capitalism? | more…

Mészáros is a master dialectician. Having been mentored by Lukács, he is one of a few contemporary philosophers to have a viable sense of the depth of connection between Marx and Hegel and his contribution to Marxist thought over many decades has been seminal, earning him a variety of accolades including the Deutscher prize. | more…

Tully (politics and history, Victoria Univ., Australia), narrates the unhappy story of rubber’s incorporation into the industrializing world, ranging across the centuries of sacrifices of life and spirit in extracting and processing “the devil’s milk.” Predictably, his work exposes an all-too-human record of avarice, cruelty, and suffering against a background of environmental degradation. | more…

In his ambitious new book John Tully provides a six-continent tour of imperialism, capitalist expansion, and workers’ experiences along the rubber production chain from raw latex extraction to tire building and synthetic rubber fabrication. This book fits in a tradition marked by Sidney Mintz’s Sweetness and Power and like that classic it explores production and consumption across huge geographical divides to reveal the ties betweencdifferent sorts of exploited (and sometimes bonded) workers. | more…

Monthly Review Press, and Michael Ratner and Karen Ranucci, invite you to a special event celebrating the publication of The People’s Lawyer: The Center for Constitutional Rights and the Fight for Social Justice, From Civil Rights to Guantánamo by Albert Ruben, in New York City, December 8. | more…

In this definitive socio-political analysis of the Tea Party, Anthony DiMaggio examines the Tea Party phenomenon, using a vast array of primary and secondary sources as well as first-hand observation. He traces the history of the Tea Party and analyzes its organizational structure, membership, ideological coherence, and relationship to the mass media. And, perhaps most importantly, he asks: is it really a movement or just a form of “manufactured dissent” engineered by capital? DiMaggio’s conclusions are thoroughly documented, surprising, and bring much needed clarity to a highly controversial subject. | more…

The Occupy Wall Street uprising has taken the nation by storm, beginning in the Financial District in Manhattan and then spreading to cities and towns in every part of the country and around the world. The anger over growing inequality and the political power of the rich that has been bubbling under the surface for the past several years has finally burst into the open. Suddenly, everything seems different, and a political opening for more radical thinking and acting is certainly at hand. | more…

Join the author of Revolutionary Doctors: How Venezuela and Cuba are Changing the World’s Conception of Health Care for a special talk in Washington DC. RSVP required. | more…

Join Steve Early, labor journalist and author of Embedded With Organized Labor, for a discussion of “What Organized Labor Can Learn from the Occupy Movement,” at Liberty Plaza in New York City. | more…

It is the erroneous idea that more university graduates will solve America’s economic and social woes with which Marsh has a problem. He dissects this idea so forensically, with the help of a range of data on poverty in the US, that his case becomes unanswerable. The research is rigorous and the author’s handling of it ensures the book never becomes dry. Marsh teaches English literature and has a non-specialist’s eye for the need to make economic data and analysis fresh and engaging. His lively writing style is a great strength, with an ability to interweave hard data with illuminating examples from his own life, others’ experiences and history. | more…

On October 30, Fred Magdoff spoke at Occupy Boston, as part of the Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture Series. His talk draws on his new book What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism (written with John Bellamy Foster). Watch the video here | more…

“Pessimism of the Reality, Optimism of the Ideal,” is excerpted from José Carlos Mariátegui: An Anthology, edited and translated by Harry E. Vanden and Marc Becker, and newly published by Monthly Review Press. Mariátegui is one of Latin America’s most profound and yet overlooked thinkers. A self-taught journalist, social scientist, and activist from Peru, he was the first to emphasize that those fighting for the revolutionary transformation of society must adapt classical Marxist theory to the particular conditions of Latin America. He also stressed that indigenous peoples must take an active role in any revolutionary struggle. | more…