Monthly Review Press

SR 2021: Ursula Huws on “Reaping the Whirlwind,” via Marxist Education Project

February 20, 2024

Sunday, January 31 @ 1:30pm-4:00pm: Join this online reading group and discussion of the most recent issue of Socialist Register dedicated to Leo Panitch. This first session begins with Ursula Huws' essay, "Reaping the Whirlwind: Digitalization, Restructuring, and Mobilization in the Covid Crisis." This work addresses the changes currently sweeping through global labor markets during the coronavirus pandemic....

Spend February 14 with a book you’ll love: Socialist History Society launches “The Return of Nature” by John Bellamy Foster

February 20, 2024

Twenty years ago, John Bellamy Foster’s Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature introduced a new understanding of Karl Marx’s revolutionary ecological materialism. More than simply a study of Marx, it commenced an intellectual and social history, encompassing thinkers from Epicurus to Darwin, who developed materialist and ecological ideas. Now, with The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology, Foster continues this narrative. In so doing, he uncovers a long history of efforts to unite issues of social justice and environmental sustainability that will help us comprehend and counter today’s unprecedented planetary emergencies….

New! “Value and Crisis: Essays on Marxian Economics in Japan” (2nd ed.)

February 20, 2024

About the time of the First World War, when interest in Marxist theory was virtually nonexistent in the United States, rival schools of thought in Japan emerged, and brilliant debates took place on Marx’s Capital and on capitalism as it was developing in Japan. Forty years ago, Makoto Itoh’s Value and Crisis began to chronicle these Japanese contributions to Marxist theory. Now, in a second edition of Value and Crisis, Itoh deepens his study of Marx’s theories. The promise of these theories has not waned. If anything—considering the failure of Soviet-style socialism and the catastrophe of neoliberalism—it grows daily.

“Reconstructing Lenin” beyond the lies and distortions: LeftEast interviews Tamás Krausz

February 20, 2024

Tamás Krausz, author of Reconstructing Lenin: An Intellectual Biography, recently talked to Alex Anfruns of LeftEast about the premise of Krausz’s book, which asserts that Vladimir Lenin’s theoretical and political legacy is of real interest to the political left--and that only after the disappearance of the USSR can we better understand Lenin's thought and actions...

Left Socialist Blog reviews “Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society”

February 20, 2024

“'A man dressed like Karl Marx' Michael Heinrich observes 'would hardly arouse attention walking through the streets of Paris of London today.' Some biographers assert that Marx was a product of a past epoch, the early 19th century 'increasingly distant from our age.' (Jonathan Sperber 2013) By contrast the first volume of a projected account of Marx’s life sees his reflections on the 'epochal rupture' that created modern capitalism, to be, if more arresting than his clothing, recognisably part of today’s world....”

“Colossal intellectual undertaking”: Irish Marxist Review on John Bellamy Foster’s “The Return of Nature”

February 20, 2024

"John Bellamy Foster is a U.S.-based writer and lecturer whose works are essential reading for all revolutionaries and environmentalists. Over two decades, Foster has produced an immensely important body of work, and alongside a small number of others (like Ian Angus), has clarified and rescued Marxist thinking on key environmental issues in the age of climate catastrophe..."

Marx & Modern Society: Journal of the History of Ideas interviews Michael Heinrich

February 20, 2024

In 2019, Michael Heinrich published Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society: The Life of Marx and the Development of His Work. It was the first installment of a biography slated to stretch across three volumes. Kathrin Witter interviewed Heinrich about his book for the Journal of the History of Ideas...

Crafting a revolutionary healthcare system–NACLA reviews 2 books on Cuban Health Care

February 20, 2024

The Right to Live in Health and Cuban Health Care, when read together, historicize Cuba’s pathbreaking medical system. ... While observers often focus on Cuba’s health infrastructure and policies, Rodríguez and Fitz instead emphasize consciousness and ideology. These two books show that throughout the twentieth century, Cubans voiced new demands and prioritized specific values, and, as a result, crafted a revolutionary healthcare system...

“Stop Centering White People”–Zillah Eisenstein via Portside

February 20, 2024

"Stop centering white people—there are so many other newer faces to see and they are already here..." Zillah Eisenstein, author, most recently, of Abolitionist Socialist Feminism: Radicalizing the Next Revolution, has, in the wake of the presidential election, written "The New US: While Calling Out Trump White Women" for Portside, a leftist news aggregator and alternative communication medium...

Maduro’s Government and the Left: CounterPunch looks at “Venezuela, the Present as Struggle”

February 20, 2024

“Nicolas Maduro’s government in Venezuela poses a unique dilemma for some on the left. They have criticisms of it, but decided against voicing them too obstreperously now, for the obvious reason that that could aid and comfort a mortal enemy–the most powerful military empire of all time, namely the United States...