For many of us the later writings of a great thinker offer a particular allure—the mature reflections on a life’s work, the winnowing of major themes and long-term passions, the admissions of mistakes or the elation of being proved right all along. Sometimes these swansongs disappoint, but not this one! For those of us who have studied and gained much from Amin’s many writings over the years, the opportunity to have in one relatively compact volume some final thoughts on the key arguments advanced and elaborated over a long and productive career is extremely valuable…. | more…
“Over a century ago a historic general strike took place in Seattle on the Pacific North-West coast the like of which had not been seen before in the United States and it is fair to say, not since. In fact, this kind of total shut down verging on revolution has happened a mere handful of times anywhere….” | more…
Jeremy Scahill, host of Intercepted, a podcast series sponsored by The Intercept, looks to the life of artist and communist thinker Paul Robeson, as a lodestar to guide us through these crisis times. Robeson’s lifelong devotion to empowering workers and overthrowing fascists around the world was connected to the liberation of Black people in the United States. Professor Gerald Horne, author of Paul Robeson: The Artist as Revolutionary and, more recently, The Dawning of the Apocalypse joins Scahill to help elucidate Robeson’s vision and radical contributions… | more…
Since John Bellamy Foster published Marx’s Ecology in 2000, the idea that Karl Marx had little to say on environmental issues has become untenable. Marx’s Ecology has rightly become a classic. Beginning with Marx’s doctoral thesis on ‘The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature’, and tracing the development of his thought throughout his life, Foster’s book demonstrated the way that ecological questions were at the heart of Marxism—a ‘broad ecological worldview’… | more…
“The Cosmonaut team inaugurates the ecology series by discussing John Bellamy Foster’s seminal book Marx’s Ecology on its twentieth anniversary. Join Niko, Ian, Matthew, and Remi as they discuss the context of this work, and how it started a rediscovery of Marx’s ecological politics. They discuss how ecology informed Marx’s understanding of the world since his doctoral thesis, the relationship between Marx, Darwin, and Malthus and the concept of metabolic rift.” | more…
Jennifer Davis, champion of majority rule in South Africa and leader in the anti-apartheid movement in the United States, died last November at the age of 85. On Saturday, July 11 (11:00a.m. EDT), she will be remembered in a memorial sponsored by AllAfrica, a news aggregator of voices by, and about Africa. On July 6, Stephanie Urdang, Jennifer’s lifelong friend and author of a memoir, Mapping My Way Home: Activism, Nostalgia, and the Downfall of Apartheid South Africa, as well as several books on African independence struggles, talked with Walter Turner, host of Africa Today on radio station KPFA… | more…
U.S. labor is in bad shape. Unions have long been on the decline, and the Supreme Court rules against them regularly. So do lower courts. Much of the problem, writes Shaun Richman in his newly published Tell the Bosses We’re Coming, is that labor law is rooted in the Commerce Clause. … But, Richman argues, it has not succeeded. Employers love to have their grievances moved to the courts and this happens regularly. So now unions are stuck with decades of lousy court decisions and a playing field sharply tilted against them… | more…
Cal Winslow, labor activist, educator, and author of the recently released Radical Seattle: The General Strike of 1919, talks about the amazing popular takeover of of Seattle over a hundred years ago, when, on a grey winter morning in February 1919, 110 local unions shut down the entire city. Start listening, about 8 minutes into Letters and Politics, hosted by Mitch Jeserich, on Radio KPFA… | more…
