July 1, 2025
Brian M. Napoletano revisits the concept of generalized autogestion, traditionally defined broadly as "self-management," placing it in the context of an ecological path to socialism. Using this orientation, Napoletano leads to reader to consider the potential of socioecological approaches to repairing the metabolic rift and pursuing sustainable human development.
April 1, 2025
This month, MR editors take on the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, a pale imitation of the five authentic Nobel Prizes that is aimed at reinforcing the ideology of neoclassical economics and awarded to mainstream liberal economists who defend the institutions of capitalism. In line with this tradition, the editors note, the most recent winners are keen apologists for settler colonialism and Zionism.
February 1, 2025
Since the 1980s, writes Lu Xinyu, a division between industrial and agricultural labor has grown in China, reflected in the fractured relationship between urban and rural areas. China's successful navigation of the issue, Lu concludes, relies on creating a vigorous alliance between the rural peasantry and urban workers that aids in the ultimate delinking of China from the imperialist, world system. Chinese-style modernization, Lu concludes, represents a path that, while developed in a Chinese context, "represents the aspirations of the Global South to break free from worldwide Western hegemony."
June 1, 2024
In this month’s “Notes from the Editors,” MR editors confront the Tower of Babel that has emerged over Marx’s early “Prometheanism” and later “degrowth communism.” This ahistorical interpretation has engendered further critique of ecosocialism and degrowth on the part of self-identified productivist writers, who attempt incorrectly to paint degrowth as a Malthusian project, rather than a realistic effort to live within Earth’s planetary capacities.
June 1, 2024
Originally published in the German journal Widerspruch, Arman Spéth interviews John Bellamy Foster about the growing interest in degrowth thought and the importance of incorporating democratic planning aimed at true equality into all levels of society. And what of the ecosocialist revolution? "Opportunities," Foster says, "are everywhere. Obstacles, largely a product of the present system, are also everywhere.… Nothing can or will remain the same. That is the very definition of a revolutionary situation."
April 1, 2024
As populations worldwide grow older, politicians are clamoring to raise the retirement age, thus extending people's working lives at their own expense. Using the lens of political economy, Cai Chao examines the false narratives behind capitalists' claims that delayed retirement is necessary to maintain society's productive capacity, and proposes solutions to promote human development at all life stages.
November 1, 2023
Chip War (Simon and Schuster, 2022) by Chris Miller is a detailed accounting of the U.S. efforts to retain control of the computer chip industry—an industry that has become vital to nearly all aspects of modern life. Rahul Varman explores and expands on these themes, asking all the while: What can the escalating wars over this crucial technology teach us about global capitalism?
October 1, 2023
At the center of the United States's New Cold War MR editors write, is the World Trade Organization, "the crown jewel of the liberal international order." After China's admittance into the WTO did not lead to the collapse of socialism in that country, presidents from Obama to Biden have gutted the institution and escalated the tariff war, all in the name of protecting the so-called rules-based international order.
September 1, 2023
Michael Lebowitz expounds on the simple truths found in Marx's theory of value—truths that, nonetheless, have been obscured by decades of incomplete theorizing that has failed to make key distinctions in the relationship between labor, value, and money.
July 1, 2023
Increasingly, scholarship around degrowth and socialism are coalescing around certain shared ideas, namely, that capitalism is at the root of our planetary crisis. Güney Işıkara and Özgür Narin draw out key points of convergence among these thinkers, as well as discrepancies in the two approaches to creating a future egalitarian and sustainable society.
