Monthly Review Press

Hungry for change in our food system? Truthout turns to A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism

February 20, 0572

The centenary of the Russian Revolution has no doubt produced a cascade of lugubrious foodistas, made melancholy by the moribund march past 100. There is widespread disaffection with the fact that ‘capitalism is … assumed to be immutable and [is] rarely questioned’ according to Holt-Gimenez—and rightly so. But the solemnity of the centenary was made much less draining by the availability of Eric Holt-Gimenez’s A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism. Beneath the cringe-worthy title is a serious attempt to reintroduce the ‘C-word’ into the food discourse…

Steve Brouwer on Health Care in Venezuela & Cuba, NYC, 9/2

February 20, 0552

Drawing on long-term participant observations as well as in-depth research, author and journalist Steve Brouwer tells the story of the innovative and inspirational health care programs pioneered in Cuba and being adapted to the needs of Venezuela today.

David Wilson: “Renegotiating NAFTA Will Serve the Rich—Like It Always Has”

February 20, 0522

David L. Wilson, author, with Jane Guskin, of The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers (2nd Edition), looks at NAFTA, and why it’s back in the news

Rob Wallace on who’s to blame (Listen: Background Briefing)

February 20, 0482

"...the thought was, this is the cost of doing business, and that they would externalize the cost, not just on the people of China, but on the rest of the world...China is not alone in that. The U.S. has done that, Europe has done that...the Swine flu, H1N1 that emerged in 2009 outside Mexico City, our team calls that the NAFTA flu, (from) the U.S. meat dumped onto the Mexican market....In other words we did it ourselves, in 2009, this very thing that China has also been doing for several decades."

One Day in December reviewed in The Spokesman

February 20, 0440

Celia Sánchez was Fidel Castro's right-hand woman. She was the daughter of a country doctor, something of a radical himself, a single woman dutifully devoted to looking after daddy and doing good works with a Catholic organisation. It was a superb cover for her underground work. She was in on the Cuban Revolution from the very beginning. Her handler was a remarkable young man, Frank País (later murdered by Batista's goons) who deserves to be as iconic as 'Che' Guevara. (But then so do many others, brave young women and men who were killed in the early days – because of the Cuban Revolution's success and survival they tend to be forgotten).

Africa Is a Country reviews “Mapping My Way Home”

February 20, 0422

Stephanie Urdang didn’t leave South Africa at the age of 23 because she was forced into exile. She left because she ‘hated Apartheid.’ It was the late 1960s—mid-hiatus between the Rivonia Trial, the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and other anti-Apartheid leaders (in 1964), the burgeoning of Black Consciousness (from the late 1960s onwards), the resurgent trade union movement (1973), and the Soweto uprising (1976). Avenues for fighting Apartheid had narrowed; the comforts of whiteness expanded….

Imperialism in the 21st Century reviewed in Michael Roberts Blog

February 20, 0418

John Smith’s book is a powerful and searing indictment of the exploitation of billions of people in what used to be called the Third World and is now called the ‘emerging’ or ‘developing’ economies by mainstream economics (and is called ‘the South’ by Smith). But the book is much, much more than that. After years of research including a PhD thesis, John has made an important and original contribution to our understanding of modern imperialism, both theoretically and empirically.

35% Off July Book of the Month! Race in Cuba by Esteban Morales Domínguez

February 20, 0398

Available for the first time in English, the essays collected in Esteban Morales Domínguez's "Race in Cuba" describe the problem of racial inequality in Cuba, provide evidence of its existence, constructively criticize efforts by the Cuban political leadership to end discrimination, and point to a possible way forward. To buy his book, use the coupon code BOM715 and receive 35% off at check out.

The People's Lawyer author Albert Ruben on the CCR's suit against the Pope

February 20, 0381

When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger celebrated his Papal inaugural mass in 2005 it's reasonable to assume he didn't expect in the course of his reign to be facing charges in the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. If the Center for Constitutional Rights prevails, that is precisely what awaits him.

The Devil's Milk reviewed in Red Pepper

February 20, 0340

Socialist historian and novelist John Tully's well-researched history of rubber shines a spotlight on a material most of us take for granted. The result is an accessible, well-written and absorbing account of rubber's blood-soaked history, from the plunder of the Amazon and the Congo basin to slave labour in Nazi work camps. At first glance, a 360-page book on a single commodity might put off a potential reader. However it soon becomes clear why rubber is such a worthy subject. An essential commodity in the development of industrial capitalism, the drive to acquire rubber was central to European imperialism – with its catastrophic effects for indigenous populations.

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