Q: You are coming to Greece for a Conference on the actuality of Marx’s theoretical system. In the midst of a severe international financial crisis, what lessons can we draw from Marx’s critique of political economy?
MH: I believe it is incredible how Marx anticipated what would happen in the world in regards to the development of the capitalist mode of production. To name only a few things: he announced the tendency to concentrate more and more in less hands (look at transnationals today), the conscious technical application of science to the process of production in general and especially to the exploitation of soil (look at robotic and transgenic agriculture), the entanglement of all peoples in the net of the world market, and, with this, the growth of the international character of the capitalist regime (look at globalization), and so on. | more…
London-based trade union activist Steve Cushion has written an invaluable contribution to our understanding of victory of the Cuban revolutionary forces in 1959 by focusing on the role of organized labor in the defeat of the Batista dictatorship. Leaning heavily on the labor archives of the Institute of Cuban History in Havana and interviews with participants in the struggles, Cushion fashions a well-written and well-researched account of the role of the working class struggles and their interplay with the rural guerrilla army and the armed urban under-ground…. | more…
John Smith opens his study Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century with a flashback to the collapse of Rana Plaza in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in April 2013. With more than 1000 garment workers killed, it was ‘one of the worst workplace disasters in recorded history.’ Smith emphasizes that its occurrence in a country with some of the most exploited workers on the planet is hardly coincidental. Rather, it is a stark reminder of a brutal global regime serving the interests of capital and disregarding the lives of millions of people feeding it, most of whom live in what was once known as the ‘Third World’ and is today commonly referred to as the ‘Global South.’ | more…
Come to a fundraiser for the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund, where Gerald Horne will talk about his book, Confronting Black Jacobins: The United States, the Haitian Revolution, and the Origins of the Dominican Republic, and Pierre Labossiere, co-founder of the Haiti Action Committee, will give an update on the current situation in Haiti. | more…
From her youth, Irish philosopher and historian Helena Sheehan admired ancient Athens, both its democracy and Socratic dialogues. In a rich academic life, she has explored philosophy of history and Marxist theory. In the 1990s she traveled often to our country with her partner Sam Nolan, secretary of Dublin Council of Trade Unions and political activist. She discovered the world of the Greek left and the birth of Synaspismos. | more…
James Young, author of the forthcoming Union Power: The United Electrical Workers in Erie, Pennsylvania, joins host Charles Showalter to discuss workers, democracy in unions, and the hard-learned lesson of solidarity. Hear them on TheUnionEdge.com, Labor’s Talk Show. | more…
Donald Trump’s well-publicized deal with the Carrier Corporation last fall was ‘wildly popular’ with US voters, according to Politico. A survey by Politico/Morning Consult on December 1 and 2, 2016, found 60 percent of respondents viewing Trump more favorably because of the November 30 agreement, which the real estate mogul claimed would save 1,100 jobs that the air-conditioner manufacturer had been planning to move from Indiana to a facility in Mexico. ¶ As so often is the case, reality didn’t match up with the president’s assertion. | more…
Utterly corrupt corporate and government elites bankrupted Greece twice over by profligate deficit spending and by agreeing to an IMF “bailout” of the Greek economy, devastating Greek citizen. Finally, in response to “austerity” measures, the people of Greece stood up, electing, from their own historic roots of resistance, Syriza—the Coalition of the Radical Left. ¶ A seasoned activist and participant-observer, Helena Sheehan adroitly places us at the center of the whirlwind beginnings of Syriza, its jubilant victory at the polls, and finally at Syriza’s surrender to the very austerity measures it once vowed to annihilate. The Syriza Wave is a page-turning blend of political reportage, personal reflection, and astute analysis. | more…
Radical economist and Monthly Review associate editor Michael Yates grew up in a western Pennsylvania manufacturing town. He spent more than three decades working as a college professor. Yet, despite his own academic career, Yates never lost touch with the life experience of high school classmates, friends, neighbors, and relatives who toiled in blue collar jobs… | more…
Leo Panitch, Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University, has also been an editor of The Socialist Register for 25 years. With Greg Albo, Panitch edited the 2017 edition of SR, Rethinking Revolution. During a recent trip to Belgrade, Panitch was interviewed by the Serbian left-wing portal, MAŠINA. The Eastern European platform, LeftEast, translated the conversation from Serbian into English. | more…
“In recent years Michael A. Lebowitz, a writer associated with the Monthly Review current of socialist thought, has produced a number of books regarding practical matters involved with the building of socialism. In his most recent book The Socialist Imperative: from Gotha to Now Mr. Lebowitz has presented a collection of essays expanding upon the themes of his earlier works, including some rather interesting insights into the weakness of the Yugoslavian model as well as making links between his views on a socialist alternative and environmental concerns. | more…
Alan Wieder recently visited Chicago’s WFMT studios (98.7FM) and joined Tony Macaluso to discuss his book, Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture, but Mostly Conversation. Studs was a long-time WFMT host, free-spirit, and renowned oral historian. | more…
“I read plenty of articles, short and long, on all sorts of topics, but—I hesitate to mention this to ATC readers—I rarely read full length nonfiction books. But those by Michael A. Lebowitz, including his recent The Socialist Imperative, have been an easy exception. It is a pleasure and a relief to read theory that has such practical application to the questions socialists must address in our work to transform the world. ¶ While not attempting to draw a blueprint for socialism, often scorned as impossible because
