February 20, 2024
This book underscores the depth of the environmental crisis and, with its thorough grounding in the scientific literature, situates the onset of the crisis in geological as well as historical time. These two time-scales now converge, signifying the end of the ecological conditions that allowed the human species to flourish.
February 20, 2024
Samir Amin’s latest book on the revolutionary foments in the Arab world, The Reawakening of the Arab World, provides a timely voice in contrast to the obfuscated discourse of the Western media regarding the Arab Spring and its ensuing political developments. Such discourse is marked by a pronounced contradiction that at once emphasizes the urgency of confronting ISIS (Daesh) as a global terrorist threat while simultaneously decrying the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria…. Amin’s analysis cuts against ideological reactions of this kind with a detailed historical and social examination of the concrete situation in this region, and shows, primarily with regard to Egypt and Syria, how Western imperialism has throughout the 20th century aimed at stifling the modernization of the Arab world.
February 20, 2024
Ian Angus’ book tries to do three things: (1) establish the reality that we’re in a completely new geologic time period (the Anthropocene), and argues that this means that activities of human beings threaten the continued existence of life on this planet; (2) demonstrate that these changes have been brought about by capitalism, and therefore, cannot be solved by capitalism; and (3) suggest strategies for social change to address these first two issues. Let’s discuss these in order. ¶ Based on scientifically-established evidence, Angus argues ‘Earth has entered a new epoch, is likely to continue changing in unpredictable and dangerous ways.’ What is he talking about?
February 20, 2024
Recently, Alan Wieder, author of Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture, but Mostly Conversation, was interviewed by Mark Karlin, the editor of BuzzFlash at Truthout.org:
“Studs Terkel liked to be amazed. He loved stories that took twists and turns and he loved to be surprised. But he also always surprised us. He had been an actor, both in theater and in radio soap operas. In the latter he always played a gangster who was either dead or in jail by the third episode. He listened because he always believed there could be wisdom in the room and he defined room very broadly. Studs had conversations on the bus, at the corner market, on the street, everywhere. People I interviewed talked about when Studs was engaged it was total.
February 20, 2024
Marta Harnecker, author of A World to Build: New Paths toward Twenty-First Century Socialism, recently wrote a piece for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, which was translated by Rachael Boothroyd of VenezuelaAnalysis
"1. When Chávez triumphed in the presidential elections of 1998, the neoliberal capitalist model was already falling apart. The dilemma was none other than to either reform the neoliberal capitalist model, evidently with changes, and amongst those a greater for concern for social issues, but still orientated towards the same profit seeking motive, or to move forward with the construction of another model...."
February 20, 2024
Historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, and frequent contributor to Monthly Review magazine, sat down with Democracy Now‘s Nermeen Shaikh for a quick interview on the real meaning of “Thanksgiving”
February 20, 2024
Here is a volume offering great surprise, at least to this presumably well-educated reader, deeply sympathetic to the Cuban Revolution since its inception or at least since a rollout of toys for Christmas 1959 included some kind of Fidel costume (quickly dropped, thereafter, or did they send those props to the East Bloc?). The author of Hidden History, a retired British professor who worked in factories for considerable periods of his life, seems equally surprised. Perhaps, he opines, the cult of the personality around Che and Fidel is the reason for an absence of real social history on this vital subject? We suspect otherwise, but our suspicions hardly detract from our fascination. The material analyzed here is new and essential to any understanding of Cuban revolutionary history.
February 20, 2024
World leaders have begun to pay tribute to the former Cuban leader and revolutionary Fidel Castro who has died aged 90. ¶ The incumbent Cuban President Raul Castro announced his brother had died at 10:29pm on state television late on Friday night. He ended the announcement by shouting the revolutionary slogan: ‘Toward victory, always!’ ...
February 20, 2024
On the occasion of the demise of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba declares nine days of National Mourning, as from the 06:00 hrs. of November 26 th, until the 12:00 hrs. of December 4th, 2016. For as long as the National Mourning is in place, public activities and shows shall not be held, the national flag shall be flown at half-staff in public buildings and military facilities. The radio and television shall broadcast informative, patriotic and historic programs.
February 20, 2024
Monthly Review and Monthly Review Press are proud to salute the life and legacy of our longtime friend, Fidel Castro. Our 1960 special edition of Monthly Review, “Cuba: Anatomy of... READ MORE