Monthly Review Press

Las Vegas Democratic Socialists of America review “What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism”

February 20, 2024

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....

Senior Women Web reviews “Mythologies of State and Monopoly Power” by Michael E. Tigar

February 20, 2024

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....

JONUS, Journal of Nusantara Studies, reviews “Can the Working Class Change the World?”

February 20, 2024

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?

Seattle’s General Strike 100 Years Ago Shows Us Hope for Today: Labor Notes reviews Cal Winslow’s book

February 20, 2024

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....

How Big Agriculture & Capitalism Are Making Pandemics Like Coronavirus More Likely: Rob Wallace on RT

February 20, 2024

Rob Wallace, author of Big Farms Make Big Flu: Dispatches on Infectious Disease, Agribusiness, and the Nature of Science, talks to Afshin Rattans, host of RT's Going Underground, about how, in recent history, deforestation and land use changes driven by global capital have caused more epidemics, and why the emergency response to the latest Coronavirus is ineffective at solving problems such as deadly pathogens...

Gerald Horne on The New Intellectuals: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, & Capitalism

February 20, 2024

Jordan Camp, host of The New Intellectuals, a monthly online program produced for the People's Forum in New York City, talks to historian and author Gerald Horne about Dr. Horne's new book, The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century

Gastronomica reviews “A Foodie’s Guide to Capitalism”

February 20, 2024

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...

KPFK’s “Freedom Now” talks to author Gerald Horne

February 20, 2024

Brandon Sankara, host of radio station KFPK's “Freedom Now,” talks to “everyone's favorite living library,” Dr. Gerald Horne, author, most recently, of The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century, about international responses to the murder of George Floyd and the condition of African Americans today in general..

Gerald Horne talks with Walter Turner, via KPFA’s “Africa Today”

February 20, 2024

Scholar, author, journalist, and host of KPFA Radio's “Africa Today,” Walter Turner talked recently with Dr. Gerald Horne, historian and author of several books, most recently, The Dawning of the Apocalypse, about--among other things--embedded questions of class in America's long history of racism. Listen, below, or at Africa Today

This Is a Reckoning: Gerald Horne talks protests, reparations, & fascism on little cat feet

February 20, 2024

Radical historian and author of the forthcoming The Dawning of the Apocalypse Gerald Horne speaks with Bob Schlehuber and Jamarl Thomas, hosts of Political Misfits...