Monthly Review Press

Laurence Shoup interviewed by Z Magazine

February 20, 2024

My interests cluster around understanding and exposing both global power structures and alternatives to the existing system. I approach this from the point of view of someone who wants to help create a socio-economic and political system worthy of humanity’s best inclinations. This would be a society and civilization without racial, class, sexual and gender divisions and conflicts, one based on authentic democracy, equality, civil freedoms, respect for the natural world, generous social arrangements, empathy, peace, social justice, and solidarity.

Politics of the Right “essential reading” —The Progressive Populist

February 20, 2024

Far-right forces are on the move in and out of the US. Socialist Register 2016: The Politics of the Right, edited by Leo Panitch and Greg Albo, delivers crisp analyses of this trend.... A recurring theme in the book is the process of political centrism drifting to the right. This move enhances authoritarianism, a cultural feature of modern politics in the post Sept. 11 era.... Hard right politics dovetails with policing of national minorities. Lesley Wood outlines three related trends: “intelligence-led policing, community policing and strategic incapacitation protest policing,” which confront movements such as Black Lives Matter, pushing back for public control over this state function.

Rage, Rebellion, Revolution … Register? Check out this year’s Left Forum

February 20, 2024

Left Forum is the largest annual gathering of the broad Left in the United States. Each year thousands of conference participants come together to discuss pressing local, national, and global issues; to better understand commonalities and differences, and alternatives to current predicaments; or to share ideas to help build social and political movements to transform the world. Left Forum 2015 drew 4,000 participants for 400 panels and events. Recent speakers include Noam Chomsky, Angela Davis, Harry Belafonte, Arundhati Roy, Naomi Klein, Michael Moore, Bolivian Vice President Álvaro García Linera, Slavoj Zizek, Marina Sitrin, Amy Goodman, Immortal Technique, and Grace Lee Boggs.

Revealed! A Hidden History of the Cuban Revolution

February 20, 2024

The working class of Cuba played a much more decisive role in the Revolution than previously understood. Steve Cushion contends that significant portions of the Cuban working class launched an underground movement in tandem with the guerrillas operating in the mountains. From illegal strikes to sabotage to armed conflict with the state, workers' efforts helped clinch the Revolution's victory. A fresh and provocative take on the place of the working class in Cuban history.

February 3! Gerald Horne to Speak, Sign Books at Eso Won Books, LA

February 20, 2024

If you're in Los Angeles, please stop by
Eso Won Bookstore
4327 Degnan Blvd., LA, CA 90008
Wednesday, February 3, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Marx’s Ecology reviewed by the Freedom Socialist

February 20, 2024

Many environmentalists disdain the ideas of Karl Marx. Some tout the spiritual virtues of environmental ‛ideals.’ Some argue for individual solutions like recycling, reduced consumption and “going back to the land.” Anti-communists claim that the ecological crimes of the Stalinist-era USSR flowed from Marxism itself. John Bellamy Foster’s Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature counters all these ideas. It is a dense and intricate analysis of Marxist theory, its historical and scientific foundations, and how central ecological concerns are to it.

Reconstructing Lenin reviewed in A World to Win

February 20, 2024

Reconstructing Lenin: An Intellectual Biography By Tamás Krausz 552 pp, $34 pbk Reviewed by Corinna Lotz “… So what shaped Lenin to become the man he did? Krausz firmly places... READ MORE

A World to Build reviewed in COUNTERFIRE

February 20, 2024

The reason for socialists to have an interest in the situation in Latin America today is simple; the most significant political advances in the world today are taking place in Latin America. The Chilean revolutionary Marta Harnecker’s book A World to Build is perhaps the most important English language attempt so far to analyse and to move forward the discussion on the left internationally around these changes.

The Socialist Imperative Wins OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE

February 20, 2024

These outstanding works have been selected for excellence in scholarship and presentation, the significance of their contribution to the field, and their value as important—often the first—treatment of their subject.

Laurence Shoup debunks the CFR on Redeye Radio, 100.5 FM

February 20, 2024

News stories and academic studies generally focus on the decisions made by presidents, prime ministers, and other world leaders. But where do those options decided upon come from in the first place? Why are some options never even considered? Behind the scenes, think tanks play a large part in what policies are considered by central governments. In the U.S., the most influential think tank of them all is the Council on Foreign Relations. From the 1920s right up until today, the CFR has been shaping policies, advising presidents, and helping ensure the U.S. remains the dominant superpower in the world.