Monthly Review Press

Her Majesty’s African-American Allies: A review by Gerald Horne

Her Majesty’s African-American Allies: A review by Gerald Horne

It is well-established that African-Americans have sought allies abroad as a way to weaken opposition at home. Often, scholars have tackled this important topic as it manifested during the Cold War. The work at hand emulates previous scholarship in detailing this trend during the antebellum and early postbellum era...

The Local Journalism Initiative (LJI): A proposal from MR author Robert W. McChesney

The Local Journalism Initiative (LJI): A proposal from MR author Robert W. McChesney

"In short, the principle is that journalistic organizations will be paid in advance, and what they produce primarily with public monies will be instantly put in the public domain and made available to all for free. The best check on abuses will be popular voting to determine the recipients. The process will be overseen by the U.S. Postal Service, with elections taking place online and with print ballots available at or through the Postal Service. This is a renewal of the Postal Service’s historic mission of sustaining independent and competitive journalism..."

Some ways forward after the devastating decline in union membership (Shaun Richman reviewed for Organizing Upgrade)

Some ways forward after the devastating decline in union membership (Shaun Richman reviewed for Organizing Upgrade)

The ongoing debate about reviving the U.S. labor movement tries to grapple with the devastating decline in the union membership rate from one-third of the workforce in the 1950s to less than 11% today. In this discussion, occasionally a book comes along that is a great combination of labor history, thoughtful analysis of union organizing, and suggestions for ways forward. Shaun Richman’s "Tell the Bosses We’re Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century" is such a book.

Listen: Communes, the rural and the urban, and the shadows of bureaucratization (Authors of “Venezuela, The Present as Struggle” on Cosmonaut)

Listen: Communes, the rural and the urban, and the shadows of bureaucratization (Authors of “Venezuela, The Present as Struggle” on Cosmonaut)

On this recent spot on "Cosmonaut," Chris Gilbert and Cira Pascual Marquina discuss communes in both urban and rural settings, and their role in the transition to socialism, the questions around oil and the economy, the economic problems of the revolution, the shadows of bureaucratization, the differences between the cities and the countryside and possible way forward for the revolution.

Brings homes the seemingly Sisyphean task of a collective revolutionary project, “with theoretical and stylistic aplomb” (Marx & Philosophy Review of Books on “Marx, Dead and Alive”)

Brings homes the seemingly Sisyphean task of a collective revolutionary project, “with theoretical and stylistic aplomb” (Marx & Philosophy Review of Books on “Marx, Dead and Alive”)

"Marx, Dead and Alive" packs an extraordinary amount into its 184 pages, both historical detail and in contemporizing Marx with multifarious global contexts and examples.... it would make an excellent introduction for someone just starting to grasp Marx and wanting clear definitions of alienation, capital, class, commodity fetishism, value and wage labour – amongst other key concepts....