Monthly Review Press

“Living Well is the Best Revolution”: The Progressive Populist reviews Creating an Ecological Society

“Living Well is the Best Revolution”: The Progressive Populist reviews Creating an Ecological Society

February 20, 2024

A book for a future society of buen vivir, or living well, with nature and other people? Yes, write Fred Magdoff and Chris Williams in Creating an Ecological Society. How to achieve sustainability with humanity and the planet? Start with context and vision to transcend the status quo of bio-sphere destruction. Reform is a part of the revolutionary process, according to the authors. It is not an either-or binary. The vision thing matters when it comes to the false consciousness of blaming other people for the system’s baked-in flaws. Dividing the working class to weaken it is elites’ go-to tactic. We see that now....

“A vital contribution to the ecosocialist argument”: Counterfire reviews Facing the Anthropocene

February 20, 2024

In August 2016, the International Geological Congress voted formally to recognise that the world has entered a new geological era, the Anthropocene. The effect of human activity on the planet has now become as significant as that of the comet that wiped out the dinosaurs and ended the Cretaceous era. In recognising this, it is important not to fall into a view of human effects on the Earth that idealises a separation between human society and a reified ‘Nature’….

“The most important book…in years is John Smith’s Imperialism in the 21st Century”–OffGuardian review

“The most important book…in years is John Smith’s Imperialism in the 21st Century”–OffGuardian review

February 20, 2024

That first chapter goes on to consider two other products, iPhones and coffee. These too are produced in the global south for consumption in the north. Although very different products, Smith’s teasing out of the socioeconomic relations they embed shows their commonality. All are created under conditions of a super-exploitation which mainstream economics is at pains to conceal or obscure by a ‘value chain’ orthodoxy that would have us believe an iPhone made in China for $80 retails in the west for $800 not through exploitation but because the activities of shipping, advertising and packaging add $720 of value….

Henry A. Giroux | “Thinking Dangerously: The Role of Higher Education in Authoritarian Times”

Henry A. Giroux | “Thinking Dangerously: The Role of Higher Education in Authoritarian Times”

February 20, 2024

What happens to democracy when the president of the United States labels critical media outlets as ‘enemies of the people’ and disparages the search for truth with the blanket term ‘fake news’? What happens to democracy when individuals and groups are demonized on the basis of their religion? What happens to a society when critical thinking becomes an object of contempt? What happens to a social order ruled by an economics of contempt that blames the poor for their condition and subjects them to a culture of shaming? … ¶ What happens is that democracy withers and dies, both as an ideal and as a reality….

Teachers as Agents of Change: Against the Current reviews Educational Justice

Teachers as Agents of Change: Against the Current reviews Educational Justice

February 20, 2024

In his introduction to Educational Justice, Howard Ryan states that he and his coauthors ‘offer theory, strategy and organizing case studies to inform and inspire those who are working to rebuild public education and put an end to the corporate occupation of our schools.’ This is an apt description, and the reason anyone interested in that work should read this book. Ryan’s motivation for writing this ambitious book was his conviction ‘that the fight to defend public schools had particular potential for energizing larger movements for democracy and social justice.’

OrganizeNorthCarolina.org reviews Michael Lebowitz’s The Contradictions of “Real Socialism”

OrganizeNorthCarolina.org reviews Michael Lebowitz’s The Contradictions of “Real Socialism”

February 20, 2024

The leaders of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, 1922-1991) used the terms ‘real socialism’ and ‘actually existing socialism’ to ‘distinguish their real experience from merely theoretical socialist ideas.’ Lebowitz asks how that system actually functioned, how it reproduced itself, and why it ‘yield[ed] to capitalism without resistance from the working classes who were presumably its beneficiaries’. (p. 7) ¶ Interesting questions. Especially to those of us who want to construct a more humane system than the capitalism that defeated the USSR….

Fred Magdoff in Chicago for July 6-9 Socialism2017 Conference

Fred Magdoff in Chicago for July 6-9 Socialism2017 Conference

February 20, 2024

Come to Chicago this weekend for Socialism2017, where thousands of organizers and intellectuals will participate in over 100 meetings—one of which will be with Monthly Review Press author Fred Magdoff and Socialist Worker writer Michael Ware.
Saturday, July 8, 2-3:30pm: Magdoff, author, with Chris Williams, of Creating an Ecological Society: Toward a Revolutionary Transformation, will discuss with Ware how, in fighting for environmental and social justice, reforms are vital but revolution is essential.

“The earth shall rise on new foundations”: preface to Éditions Critiques publication of What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism

“The earth shall rise on new foundations”: preface to Éditions Critiques publication of What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism

February 20, 2024

The following is the preface to the 2017 French-language edition of What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About Capitalism by Fred Magdoff and John Bellamy Foster, originally published by Monthly Review Press in 2011. The French edition will be released by Éditions Critiques in September, and will appear as Ce que tout écologiste doit savoir à propos du capitalisme.

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