Monthly Review Press

NEW! Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War against Apartheid by Alan Wieder; foreword by Nadine Gordimer

NEW! Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War against Apartheid by Alan Wieder; foreword by Nadine Gordimer

February 20, 2024

Ruth First and Joe Slovo, husband and wife, were leaders of the war to end apartheid in South Africa. Communists, scholars, parents, and uncompromising militants, they were the perfect enemies for the white police state. Together they were swept up in the growing resistance to apartheid, and together they experienced repression and exile. Their contributions to the liberation struggle, as individuals and as a couple, are undeniable. This book, the first extended biography of Ruth First and Joe Slovo, is a remarkable account of one couple and the revolutionary moment in which they lived. Alan Wieder's heavily researched work draws on the usual primary and secondary sources but also an extensive oral history that he has collected over many years. By intertwining the documentary record with personal interviews, Wieder portrays the complexities and contradictions of this extraordinary couple and their efforts to navigate a time of great tension, upheaval, and revolutionary hope.

John Bellamy Foster at the Left Forum Closing Plenary [video]

John Bellamy Foster at the Left Forum Closing Plenary [video]

February 20, 2024

John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review and author, most recently, of The Endless Crisis (with Robert W. McChesney), gave an address at the closing plenary of the Left Forum on June 9, 2013, in New York City. He was joined by Alvaro Garcia Linera, Vice President of Bolivia; Catherine Mulder, John Jay College of Criminal Justice-CUNY and CUNY's Murphy Institute; and Tadzio Muller, political scientist, climate justice activist, and translator, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.

Read an excerpt from Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War against Apartheid on Truthdig

Read an excerpt from Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War against Apartheid on Truthdig

February 20, 2024

RUTH FIRST IS BURIED in Llanguene Cemetery in a dusty Mozambican suburb. Her grave lies next to those of other members of the African National Congress who were killed by the apartheid government in a 1981 raid, referred to as the Matola Massacre, where South African soldiers in blackface committed cold-blooded murder. Ruth's killing was no less brutal: the South African regime sent a letter bomb that detonated in her hands and sent shrapnel into the bodies of her colleagues at Eduardo Mondlane University. Joe Slovo is one of two white South Africans that lie in rest at Avalon Cemetery in Soweto, one of Johannesburg's massive black townships. His funeral, a national event, took place before a crowd of over 40,000 people packed into Orlando Stadium, home of Soweto's premier soccer club, where he was eulogized by among others, the Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Cyril Harris.

Read another excerpt from Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War against Apartheid on LINKS

Read another excerpt from Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War against Apartheid on LINKS

February 20, 2024

JOE'S FIRST IMPRESSION of Ruth was that she and her intellectual friends at the University of the Witwatersrand were "just too big for their boots." It was 1946, Joe was just returning from the army and the Second World War, and Ruth was in the midst of her social science studies at the university. They were both engaged in political protests and actions through the Communist Party of South Africa,already committed militants and engaged intellectuals, each looking toward a life of struggle for justice and equality.

America's Education Deficit and the War on Youth reviewed on Critical-Theory.com

America's Education Deficit and the War on Youth reviewed on Critical-Theory.com

February 20, 2024

Giroux offers a compelling primer for the chaos that neoliberalism has wrought on our youth and education system. Giroux writes with passion that borders on poetic. And, unlike a lot of critical theory, the book is intelligible and easy to read. It would make a welcome addition any OWS-style people's library or intro-level college class.

Watch Salim Lamrani's Lecture on The Economic War Against Cuba

February 20, 2024

Salim Lamrani is the author of The Economic War Against Cuba. On May 26 he discussed the history, impact, and possible demise of the U.S. imposed economic sanctions against Cuba at Secular Hall in Leicester, UK. The event was a joint meeting of the Leicester Cuba Solidarity Campaign and the Leicester Secular Society and part of a UK speaking tour organized by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign.

José Carlos Mariátegui: An Anthology reviewed in Journal of Latin American Studies

José Carlos Mariátegui: An Anthology reviewed in Journal of Latin American Studies

February 20, 2024

Harry E. Vanden and Marc Becker are well known for their important contributions to the study of Latin American Marxism, Latin American revolutionary politics and Jose Carlos Mariategui's thought. Their new joint contribution is a volume that makes available to English readers a considerable number of Mariategui's shorter texts... Mariategui, an undoubtedly gifted journalist, political author and literary critic, offers readers engaging and rich perspectives—mainly but not exclusively Latin American and Marxist ones—on some of the main issues that concerned European and Latin American progressive public opinion at the time. These translations are a welcome and useful aid for all engaged in teaching Latin American history and literature, the history of socialist ideas, indigenismo, world history, third world studies and so on.

Nancy Stout Interviewed by Hazel Kahan

Nancy Stout Interviewed by Hazel Kahan

February 20, 2024

Nancy Stout is the author of One Day in December: Celia Sánchez and the Cuban Revolution. In this in-depth interview, Stout discusses Sánchez's life, her role in the Cuban revolution, and her relationship with Fidel Castro. The interview was conducted by Hazel Kahan for her Tidings podcast and WPKN in Bridgeport, CT.

Joan Stone's Foreword to Dispersed City of the Plains by Harris Stone

Joan Stone's Foreword to Dispersed City of the Plains by Harris Stone

February 20, 2024

The following is Joan Stone's Foreword to Dispersed City of the Plains by Harris Stone, his final book, published by Monthly Review Press in 1998. It provides a little context for the book's creation and insight into Harris's major aim: examining "the built form of the American city, the built form of monopoly capital."

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