October 1, 2025
Paul Buhle reviews two books by renowned leftist Tariq Ali. In these two texts, Buhle writes, one can read and discern a history of the UK left. Through Ali's autobiography, Buhle writes, readers can experience the ups and downs of various factions, from the Labour Party to Trotskyist journals; through his memoirs, we get a sense of Ali's deep insights, drawn from his extensive travels and a life deeply embedded in history.
October 1, 2025
Oscar R. Ralda reviews Vanessa Christina Wills's Marx's Ethical Vision (2024). Wills's text, Ralda notes, demonstrates a "facility with which [she] deals with Marx's works, as well as a "strong philosophical case…for the ongoing relevance of a coherent Marxian moral theory." The latter, Rada notes, sheds light on the moral imperative to work toward socialist liberation from a foundation of resolute Marxian values.
September 1, 2025
In order to understand the crisis of the imperialist world system in the twenty-first century," MR editors write in this month's "Notes from the Editors," "it is crucial to see this in terms of the present as history, that is, as an outgrowth of a centuries-long historical process." Following this thread from the long sixteenth century through to the present day, the editors dissect the material conditions leading the emergence to a new and decidedly anti-imperialist revolutionary subject.
September 1, 2025
Andy Merrifield explores Nikolai Gogol's short story "The Nose," a satirical tale featuring a puffed-up government official who finds himself suddenly nose-less. As the official pursues his formerly attached schnozz through the streets of St. Petersburg, Gogol bestows upon readers a twisted parable revealing the pettiness and indolence pervading the corridors of power.
September 1, 2025
"Assume a ship under the command of a mad captain headed for certain shipwreck. What would freedom mean to the people on board?" asked MR cofounder Paul M. Sweezy in this previously unpublished discussion piece. "There can hardly be any doubt about the answer…the essence of freedom for the people on the ship is the ability to control their collective fate."
July 1, 2025
This month's "Notes from the Editors" discusses the accelerating progress of China toward sustainability. China's decline in carbon emissions and rapidly decarbonizing energy sector demonstrates the importance of societal realignment and extensive planning to shift toward the ecological modernization that has continued to elude monopoly-capitalist regimes.
July 1, 2025
Inspired by the Venezuelan project of building socialism via the commune, this special issue looks at attempts to use communal models in socialist projects in a range of different contexts, as well as the theoretical bases for such an endeavor. In their introduction, guest editors Chris Gilbert and Cira Pascual argue that the theme of Communes in Socialist Construction is an important opportunity for engaged Marxist reflection of a kind that offers valuable contributions to the universal body of socialist thought.
July 1, 2025
Ángel Prado, a founder of El Maizal Commune and Minister of Communes since 2024, discusses Venezuela's communal project as both a response to urgent material needs and a long-term strategy for building socialism. Drawing on his experience as a grassroots organizer, he explores how communes are structured, how they relate to the state, and how they embody a vision of popular power. He also reflects on the need for unity within the Chavista movement.
July 1, 2025
Chris Gilbert proposes to answer the question: When is a socialist commune anti-imperialist? His response follows Karl Marx's line of thought, looking at the latter's approach to the commune from the Grundrisse through his late notes and letters on rural communes. After reconstructing the Marxist communal strategy, Gilbert argues that real-world projects in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil in recent times conform to this overall Marxist approach, combining communal construction with an anti-imperialist drive for national liberation.
July 1, 2025
In this innovative study, John Bellamy Foster gets to the heart of Marx's writing on communal societies—an aspect of Marx's work that is often overlooked, despite its importance to the socialist project. Tying together Marx's studies of anthropology, history, and ethnology, Foster illuminates the centrality of communalism to Marx's overall critique of class-based societies.