He hoped that, if he kept his head down and his mouth shut, then he could live out his military career in peace and quiet. Conscription had been renewed for Korea, but he was fortunate enough to be sent to Germany. This was also the time of peak McCarthyism…. | more…
Michael Heinrich’s projected biography of Marx that is supposed to consist of four volumes is an extraordinary ambitious undertaking. Only the first volume “Karl Marx and the Birth of Modern Society” has been published so far. It covers the years before Marx’s birth (because it deals with his parents) and goes up to his doctoral dissertation done in 1841, when he was 23. The biography is extraordinary ambitious for three reasons…. | more…
As digital technology becomes ever more integral to the capitalist market dystopia, it refashions our ways of working, consuming, and communicating. Essays in Beyond Digital Capitalism explore alternative ways of living: from artificial intelligence to the arts, from transportation to fashion, from environmental science to economic planning—all against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic… | more…
Gerald Horne, historian, author, and labor lawyer, recently talked to Wilmer Leon of The Critical Hour about how President-elect Joe Biden’s pro-union stance boosts unions at a critical time. So far, unions have been pleased with Mr. Biden’s picks for top economic jobs, according to a report in The Financial Times. But they’re closely watching the positions of labor secretary and U.S. trade representative… | more…
The interview was recorded online in August 2020. Promjena okvira is produced by the portal Slobodni Filozofski and its video-addendum SkriptaTV, and this episode was first aired on August 19th 2020 on the Croatian regional television KanalRi from Rijeka. All episodes that have so far been published online are available on this playlist… | more…
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… | more…
With the advent of COVID-19, India’s rulers imposed the world’s most stringent lockdown on an already depressed economy, dealing a body blow to the majority of India’s billion-plus population. Yet the Indian government’s spending to cushion the lockdown’s economic impact ranked among the world’s lowest in GDP terms, resulting in unprecedented unemployment and hardship. Crisis and Predation shows how this tight-fistedness stems from the opposition of global financial interests to any expansion of public spending by India, and that Indian rulers readily adhere to their guidance… | more…
“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…” | more…
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… | more…
“This brilliant book—which traces and establishes the link between socialism and ecology—couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time, given the ever-worsening Climate and Ecological Crises, and the mounting health and economic impacts of the closely-linked Covid-19 pandemic. As a result of these combined crises, more people than ever are accepting the need for some fundamental ‘System Change’…” | more…
“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… | more…
Gerald Horne, author of several books, including The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century, talked a few days ago to Brian Becker, host of The Socialist Program, about the story of the creation of Thanksgiving. This isn the first installment of an ongoing series where The Socialist Program examines the real origins of U.S. society… | more…
Gerald Horne, author of The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century, talked with Margaret Prescod of Sojourner Truth Radio about the current Ethiopia / Tigray conflict, its history, and its implications for the region… | more…