Quiet as it’s kept inside the United States, the Cuban revolution has achieved some phenomenal goals, reclaiming Cuba’s agriculture, advancing its literacy rate to nearly 100 percent—and remaking its medical system. Cuba has transformed its health care to the extent that this “third-world” country has been able to maintain a first-world medical system, whose health indicators surpass those of the United States at a fraction of the cost. In Cuban Health Care, Don Fitz combines his broad knowledge of Cuban history with his decades of on-the-ground experience in Cuba to bring us the story of how Cuba’s health care system evolved and how Cuba is tackling the daunting challenges to its revolution in this century…. | more…
A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism is at once a primer on the world’s dominant economic structure and a broad analysis of the food system that it has created. Eric Holt-Giménez persuades his readers that fluency in capitalism is essential to anyone seeking to effect change within the food system… | more…
Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster’s excellent 2011 book, What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism, is essential reading for ecosocialists and environmentalists of any political tendency. At 160 pages, the book does an exceptional job of describing how capitalism is directly connected to ecological degradation and why its abolition is necessary in preventing ecological catastrophe. This review will attempt to summarize the fundamental arguments of the book and its case for ecosocialism. The book goes over more than discussed below, so make sure to read the whole thing for more useful information and details…. | more…
This is a law book written for a general audience. Tigar has been a law professor most of his life; in these pages one can learn much from his vast legal and historical knowledge. ¶ Multiple chapters are spread out over five “mythologies”: Racism, Criminal Justice, Free Expression, Worker Rights and International Human Rights. ¶ His discussion of these mythologies is not neutral; he has a point of view and it’s generally from the left…. | more…
Can the Working Class Change the World? is not written suddenly. Throughout the last decade, capitalism has been increasingly discussed and debated, both by the right and left wing. This is because many people are struggling with economic downturn, wide income gap, unemployment, poverty and environmental crisis. The Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008, almost brought down the global financial system. Later in 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement began and spread to several countries to protest against the 1%. And in 2018, Ray Dalio, a multibillionaire who is also the founder of Bridgewater Associates, himself admits that capitalism does not function for most people. Today, the assets of the 26 richest individuals in the world is equivalent to the assets of half the world’s citizens (Elliott, 2019). But, if capitalism now has failed, the question is: who fix it? | more…
For five days in 1919, union members took control of the city of Seattle. They arguably ran it better, and certainly more justly, than it had ever been run before. ¶ Thousands of workers volunteered to keep Seattle’s essential services operating. People were fed at 21 different locations; on February 9, volunteers served more than 30,000 meals. Milk distribution was organized at 35 locations. Garbage was picked up. No crime was reported during these five days…. ¶ Contrast Seattle 1919 with today’s unfolding horror. We’re all witnessing what it looks like when a shutdown and the provision of essential services are administered by capital and a pro-corporate government. ¶ The Seattle General Strike was not just an event in labor history. It was a testament to what workers can achieve when they organize, and it has sharp lessons for today…. | more…
Dr. Gerald Horne, author, most recently, of The Dawning of the Apocalypse, spoke to Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman, hosts of By Any Means Necessary, via Radio Sputnik, Washington DC, about the “incomplete” narrative of Juneteenth embraced by the political establishment, the role of class collaboration in the construction of white supremacy in the US, and why corporate moves to dispose of racist iconography reflect the growing power of the anti-racist movement. Listen to the whole show, or begin with Gerald Horne, at hour two… | more…
Margaret Prescod, host of Sojourner Truth Radio, interviews Dorothy Roberts, author, author of Killing the Black Body, Ash-Lee Henderson, Affrilachian (Black Appalachian) activist, and historian Gerald Horne, author, most recently, of The Dawning of the Apocalypse… | more…
Author and historian Gerald Horne, author of the just published The Dawning of the Apocalypse, talks with Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!: “June 19 is Juneteenth, celebrating the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Black people in the United States learned they had been freed from bondage. We speak with Gerald Horne, who says that while the story of Juneteenth is ‘much more complicated and much more complex than is traditionally presented,’ increased recognition of the day ‘provides an opportunity to have a thorough remembrance of this horrific system that was slavery.’” | more…
Bhaskar Sunkara, editor and publisher of Jacobin magazine and Catalyst journal, joins Gerald Horne, Professor of History and African-American Studies at the University of Houston, to discuss the police brutality that led to the Watts rebellion in 1965 and how its legacy can be understood in light of today’s recent events. Watch, below or at Jacobin (Also keep in touch with Jacobin‘s ongoing live-stream lectures) | more…
