John Bellamy Foster and Gabriel Rockhill assess the history and influence of Western Marxism, defined not geographically, but by a rejection of the Marxism developed in the Soviet Union, in the Global South, and even in classical Marxism. This strain of Marxist thought, birthed in the imperial core, represents a concession to the dominance of U.S. ideology, rather than to correct the pressing issues confronting society today. | more…
In this excerpt from Ellen Meiksins Wood’s In Defense of History, Wood appraises the state of postmodern thought in the late twentieth century. “Today’s postmodernism,” Wood writes, “for all of its apparently defeatist pessimism, is still rooted in the ‘Golden Age of Capitalism.’ It’s time to leave that legacy behind and face today’s realities.” | more…
Torkil Lauesen delves into the legacy of celebrated Arghiri Emmanuel, whose theory of unequal exchange resonates well into the twenty-first century. Introduced in 1962, Emmanuel’s critique of Ricardian and neoliberal capitalism further illuminated the Marxist concept value as it relates to global exchange and the ongoing exploitation of the Global South by the Global North. | more…
Using data from Brazil’s Integrated System of Household Surveys, Renata Falavina and Gabriel Ulbricht employ Marxist categories in order to illuminate the concept of the reserve army of labor in the context of underemployment and informal labor in modern-day Brazil. This view, the authors write, shows that the dichotomy of full employment and unemployment fails to capture the complexity of unstable labor dynamics in a world of informal and precarious work. | more…
A new poem by Marge Piercy. | more…
The editors recall the life and accomplishments of Amiya Kumar Bagchi, a leading light among contemporary Marxist political economists. Bagchi’s insights challenged prevailing Eurocentric ideas about economic history while providing a path forward through a collective, united, anti-imperialist resistance. | more…
Over the last quarter century—and especially since the beginning of Israel’s latest genocidal incursion into Palestine in October 2023—the term “settler colonialism” has proliferated in academic and popular discourse. In February’s “Review of the Month,” John Bellamy Foster connects readers to thinkers from around the globe and across time to illustrate the phenomenon of settler colonialism as a dimension of imperialism, and thus capitalism, driven by a rapacious extractivism that threatens the whole of humanity. | more…
Monthly Review editors take on the results of the 2024 election, exploring how the lackluster reformist policies of the Biden administration and unfocused nature of the Harris campaign served to drive away much of the working class, as reflected in part by the expansion of the Party of Nonvoters. As neoliberal positions occlude the possibility of a Popular Front against Trump’s fascism, any substantive victory must come from a revolutionary restructuring of society. | more…
In January’s Review of the Month, John Bellamy Foster and Brett Clark revisit the legacy of scientist and MR author Richard Levins, from his “red diaper” infancy to his agroecological work in Cuba and his contributions to Marxian ecological thinking as a whole. “As a dialectical ecologist,” they write, “Levins proposed that we ask the big questions, as part of understanding why the world came to be organized in a particular way, and how it might be different.” | more…
In this interview with Claudia Antunes of Brazilian magazine Sumaúma, Ian Angus takes stock of our current planetary crisis, from its origins in Marx’s ecological thought and the present debate over its designation to the future of human civilization as we know it. “The key question is,” he concludes, “Are we going to see large number of people moving for change?” | more…
In this talk given at Peking University in October 2024, John Bellamy Foster shares ten theses describing both the roots and contemporary manifestations of the idea of ecological civilization. Relating the concept’s origins in the writings of Marx and Engels to its expression today in Chinese society, Foster reveals the inherently socialist nature of eco-civilization and the necessity of a worldwide ecological revolution to shift toward sustainable human development. | more…
Against a backdrop of political turmoil and a popular uprising, Aasim Sajjad Akhtar examines how the contradictions of liberal democracy have played out in Pakistan. Exploring the dynamic between the U.S.-backed, militarized Pakistani political elite and the rise of reactionary politician Imran Khan, Akhtar shows how Khan has employed empty anti-imperialist rhetoric to mobilize a discontented populace—and how this could be counteracted with a genuine anti-imperialist movement. | more…