Monthly Review Press

Reason for common cause: A review of “The Robbery of Nature,” from Against the Current

Reason for common cause: A review of “The Robbery of Nature,” from Against the Current

"Foster and Clark show that the exploitation of wage labor in the capitalist production process is essentially tied to the expropriation of the natural world, the refusal to socially acknowledge care labor as socially necessary labor, the privatization of our common cultural heritage, the treatment of non-white communities as places where the social pathologies of capitalism (unemployment, poverty, and so on) can be concentrated, and so on. From this perspective workers, environmentalists, feminists, community activists, and anti-racists have good reason to make common cause."

Patnaik on Neoliberalism to Neofascism (Listen: Alternative Radio)

Patnaik on Neoliberalism to Neofascism (Listen: Alternative Radio)

From Modi’s India to Erdogan’s Turkey neofascist autocratic regimes have taken hold...The result: widespread immiseration and discontent. In its wake, demagogues exploit the situation. They are coming to power by scapegoating, instigating violence against minorities, coupled with loud calls for 'getting our country back,' and lots of flag waving...

Of men who do nasty things: CounterPunch reviews Vijay Prashad’s “Washington Bullets”

Of men who do nasty things: CounterPunch reviews Vijay Prashad’s “Washington Bullets”

So far, Biden’s foreign policy does not differ seismically from Trump’s. Indeed Biden’s first move–recognizing the unelected pretender to the Venezuelan presidency, Juan Guaido–was as lousy as anything Trump did. It raises the specter of CIA coups, assassinations, regime changes and Washington-orchestrated color revolutions, which Biden’s two dreadful foreign policy appointees, Victoria Nuland and Samantha Power, embraced ardently in the past. Of course … this has been how the U.S. has exercised power in the world (mostly the Global South) since at least the dawn of the twentieth century….

“Washington Bullets” offers hope: People’s World on Vijay Prashad’s new book

“Washington Bullets” offers hope: People’s World on Vijay Prashad’s new book

The 20th century saw a wave of anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, national liberation movements transform the world, often with the aid of Soviet, Eastern European, and Cuban Communists. Just as often, these revolts against the old world–the racist, sexist world of subjugation and oppression of entire peoples–were violently suppressed.... Unfortunately, historically, inevitably right-wing opposition takes the shape of bullets–bullets emanating from Washington!...

“A Poisonous Legacy New York City and the persistence of the Middle Passage”–Gerald Horne in The Nation

“A Poisonous Legacy New York City and the persistence of the Middle Passage”–Gerald Horne in The Nation

“In the middle of 1856, the soon-to-be-celebrated poet Walt Whitman visited an impounded slave ship in Brooklyn. The taking of the ship was an unusual occurrence, as it was one of the few illegal slavers seized by an otherwise lethargic Washington, D.C., and Whitman wanted to give his readers a tour of the vessel, which had been designed to add even more enslaved laborers to the millions already ensnared in this system of iniquity, including of its hold, where those victimized were to be 'laid together spoon-fashion.'”

Extraordinary Achievements: Don Fitz’ “Cuban Health Care”

Extraordinary Achievements: Don Fitz’ “Cuban Health Care”

Comparing the health systems of Cuba and the United States, Don Fitz' book "Cuban Health Care" presents a startling statistic: The cost of healthcare per person in Cuba is one twentieth that of the US. "Why?" Peter Arkell asks, and Fitz answers: “Poor countries simply cannot afford such an inefficient health system"...