In May 1949 Monthly Review began publication in New York City, as cold war hysteria gathered force in the United States. The first issue featured the lead article Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein. From the first Monthly Review spoke for socialism and against U.S. imperialism, and is still doing so today. From the first Monthly Review was independent of any political organization, and is still so today. The McCarthy era inquisition targeted Monthly Review's original editors Paul Sweezy and Leo Huberman, who fought back successfully. In the subsequent global upsurge against capitalism, imperialism and the commodification of life (in shorthand “1968”) Monthly Review played a global role. A generation of activists received no small part of their education as subscribers to the magazine and readers of Monthly Review Press books. In the intervening years of counter-revolution, Monthly Review has kept a steady viewpoint. That point of view is the heartfelt attempt to frame the issues of the day with one set of interests foremost in mind: those of the great majority of humankind, the propertyless.
In May 1949 Monthly Review began publication in New York City, as cold war hysteria gathered force in the United States. The first issue featured the lead article Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein. From the first Monthly Review spoke for socialism and against U.S. imperialism, and is still doing so today. From the first Monthly Review was independent of any political organization, and is still so today. The McCarthy era inquisition targeted Monthly Review's original editors Paul Sweezy and Leo Huberman, who fought back successfully. In the subsequent global upsurge against capitalism, imperialism and the commodification of life (in shorthand “1968”) Monthly Review played a global role. A generation of activists received no small part of their education as subscribers to the magazine and readers of Monthly Review Press books. In the intervening years of counter-revolution, Monthly Review has kept a steady viewpoint. That point of view is the heartfelt attempt to frame the issues of the day with one set of interests foremost in mind: those of the great majority of humankind, the propertyless. TODAY -- Monthly Review has had but 6 editors. The original editors were Paul Sweezy and Leo Huberman. Leo Huberman died in 1968, and Harry Magdoff became an editor in 1969. Ellen Meiksins Wood served ably as editor in the period 1997-2000. In May 2000 John Bellamy Foster and Robert W. McChesney, themselves of the "1968" generation and educated by Monthly Review, took over the primary editorial responsibilities. Founding editor Paul Sweezy died on February 27, 2004, and a special issue devoted to his work appeared in October 2004. On June 1, 2004 Robert McChesney ceased to be formally designated as an editor, while continuing as a contributor and a Director of the Monthly Review Foundation, the not-for-profit entity that operates both Monthly Review magazine and Monthly Review Press. Harry Magdoff died on New Year's Day, 2006. A special issue focusing on his contribution to the understanding of capitalism and imperialism appeared in October, 2006. John Bellamy Foster, the current editor, continues the tradition of combining accounts of what is new (without falling for fads) with the equally vital task of seeing the longer process. That tradition, as summarized by Paul Sweezy, is to see the present as history. On July 14th, 2006 we began a daily web magazine featuring a broad range of articles, reviews and commentary. Revenues from subscriptions and the sales of books have always fallen short of the demands on Monthly Review's resources. This is inevitable; in today's world any anti-imperialist and socialist enterprise that finds its resources sufficient to the tasks we face must either be moribund or false. The contributions—over and above subscriptions and book sales—of a global community of several thousand people sustain Monthly Review. Monthly Review today places most of its articles on the web and our daily web magazine has attracted a substantial and growing readership. If you have found our website of value, please consider subscribing to the magazine or, better yet, becoming an Associate.
Ike Neham: "For the 28th year in a row, the entire United Nations General Assembly, gathered in one room, voted overwhelmingly against 'the Economic, Commercial, and Financial Embargo Imposed on Cuba by the United States'."
Trump’s Washington Remains Cornered…
Alan MacLeod for the excellent Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting: "The media message from the Bolivia case is clear: A coup is not a coup if we"—the United States—"like the outcome."
Army generals appearing on television to demand the resignation and arrest of an elected civilian head of state seems like a textbook example of a coup. And yet that is certainly not how corporate…
"Morales and the Movement for Socialism’s (MAS) true crime—in the eyes of the salivating gas multinationals and their local lackeys—was the severing of Bolivia’s historically exploitative relationship with the U.S." Council on Hemispheric Affairs.
Sunday November the 10th, at approximately 4pm (eastern standard time) the democratically elected president and vice president of Bolivia, Evo Morales and Álvaro García respectively…
Vijay Prashad: "These counter-revolutionary coups are the most commonplace (and have been very common in Bolivia–1964, 1970, 1980, and 2019)." Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
On November 10, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales Ayma was removed from office.
"Since the vast majority of people motivated to fight for XR’s ideals come from the left, in practice XR’s 'apolitical' approach means censoring messages it considers excessively left-wing." Fightback.
Through the global climate strike and mass demonstrations for the planet launched by Greta Thunberg, an entire generation has gotten a taste of political action, understanding the need for dramatic…
Thursday, Nov. 21, 6:00 pm–8:00 pm
Come discuss The Politics of Immigration with authors Jane Guskin & David L. Wilson!
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31 Chambers Street, Suite 111, New York, NY 10007
Join authors Jane Guskin & David L. Wilson for a participatory discussion of themes from their book, The Politics of Immigration . Thur...
Hear Zillah Eisenstein on Out of Bound radio with Tish Pearlman
Zillah Eisenstein, professor emerita of political theory at Ithaca College and author of Abolitionist Socialist Feminism: Radicalizing the Next Revolution, recently talked with Tish Perlman…
"At least six of the key coup plotters are alumni of the infamous School of the Americas," while Williams Kaliman, commander of Bolivia’s armed forces, "served in the past as Bolivia’s military and police attachés in Washington." Grayzone Project
Commanders of Bolivia’s military and police helped plot the coup and guaranteed its success. Before they were educated for insurrection through the US military’s notorious School of the Americas and…
New this week! We pay homage to our comrade, Immanuel Wallerstein (1930–2019) with this republication of his, “U.S. Weakness and the Struggle for Hegemony,” which first appeared in the July–August 2003 issue of Monthly Review (55, no. 3).
Monthly Review and Monthly Review Press author and celebrated world-systems theorist Immanuel Wallerstein died on August 31, 2019. In his memory, we republish an article that first appeared in Monthly…
New this week! Andy Merrifield: Perhaps collectivity & individuality "express two different aspects of Marxism’s humanist tradition, of how they ought to go together. It is another way to frame the dialectic of justice and jouissance, a radical hope for equality on the one side, plus a diversity of self-expression on the other."
Collectivity and individuality express two different aspects of Marxism’s humanist tradition, of how they ought to go together. It is another way to frame the dialectic of justice and jouissance…
@Socialism and Democracy reviews "Culture as Politics: Selected Writings of Christopher Caudwell," edited by David Margolies
Ever since he died fighting for the Republican cause in Spain in February 1937, there has been a recurring critical debate about the work of Christopher Caudwell. Indeed, between 1950 and 1951 there…
Helena Sheehan's "Navigating the Zeitgeist" reviewed by the journal, Twentieth Century Communism
Much of the interest in Sheehan’s life-story has concentrated upon her journey from being a young nun in Philadelphia in the early 1960s to her joining the ‘Official’ IRA and subsequently the…
"In this special live episode of Money on the Left, artist and researcher Vienne Chan joins us to talk art, politics, and money—and how Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) reconfigures the boundaries between all three." Money on the Left
In this special live episode of Money on the Left, artist and researcher Vienne Chan joins us to talk art, politics, and money—and how Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) reconfigures the boundaries between…
Glen Ford: "Sanders has been made into a non-person, and his proposals routinely distorted, because the corporate media want Americans to meekly submit to the Race to the Bottom." Black Agenda Report.
Sanders has been made into a non-person, and his proposals routinely distorted, because the corporate media want Americans to meekly submit to the Race to the Bottom.
'Otto Meza, a calm, bespectacled 46-year-old Salvadoran political cartoonist deals with a whole spectrum of domestic issues. Many of the themes Meza uses to label his cartoons provide a stark overview of the issues facing contemporary El Salvador: “Migration,” “Inequality,” “Corruption,” “Transparency,” “Impunity,” “Historical Memory.”'
Otto Meza, a calm, bespectacled 46-year-old Salvadoran political cartoonist deals with a whole spectrum of domestic issues. Many of the themes Meza uses to label his cartoons provide a stark overview…
Our newest Monthly Review Essay by Peter Critchley.
The alternative to the social and ecological pathology which is becoming all-pervasive in the socioinstitutional and economic fabric of modern capitalist society is to be found in the development of…
Vijay Prashad: "The evidence is undeniable. The U.S. sanctions are seriously destroying Iran’s health infrastructure and are leading to immediate deaths and suffering of the Iranian population."
It is a measure of the fortitude of Iran that—despite these unilateral U.S. sanctions—it has been able to maintain production of medical equipment and drugs. Nonetheless, the Human Rights Watch report…
Victor Grossman's thoughts, 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, from Portside
Berlin — Media jubilation reaches a climax on November 9th, thirty years after the bumbling, perhaps even misunderstood decision to open the gate for all East Germans to stream through…
Chesa Boudin is also the translator of the Monthly Review Press book, Understanding the Venezuelan Revolution. We were delighted to hear of his victory! From The Appeal News.
Son of incarcerated parents, backed by Black Lives Matter co-founders, Boudin will be the next DA of San Francisco.
Zillah Eisenstein considers, via the NYU Press blog, how abolitionist socialist feminism could play out in the 2020 presidential election...
I ask us all to think as imaginatively as possible in these next several months before the first primaries. I see these current thoughts as a continuance of the challenge thrown out by me in my recent…
Great piece by Gary Olson Dissident Voice: "The ruling class…expends enormous time & resources to obtain a faux 'consent of the governed' through misinformation conveyed via massive, lifelong ideological indoctrination. For them, citizen’s policing themselves is more efficient than coercion."
Over the past few months President Trump has unilaterally by Tweet and telephone begun to dismantle the U.S. military’s involvement in the Middle East. The irony is amazing, because in a general…
Marx & Philosophy Society / Review of Books considers Ian Angus's "A Redder Shade of Green"
A Redder Shade of Green is one of the more grounded books I have encountered this year. Ian Angus’s concerns are earthly, practical, and immediate, all of which are virtues given how his eco-socialism…
Jason Hickel: "rising global inequality is driven in large part by power imbalances in the global economy, in that rich countries have disproportionate influence when it comes to setting the rules of international trade and finance."
In my research I have argued that rising global inequality is driven in large part by power imbalances in the global economy, in that rich countries have disproportionate influence when it comes to…
MR author Atilio Borón: "The Bolivian tragedy eloquently teaches several lessons that our peoples and popular social and political forces must learn and record in their consciences forever." Orinoco Tribune
The Bolivian tragedy eloquently teaches several lessons that our peoples and popular social and political forces must learn and record in their consciences forever. Here, a brief enumeration…
Evo Morales: "Mesa and Camacho, discriminators and conspirators, will go down in history as racists and coup plotters." teleSUR English
Mesa and Camacho, discriminators and conspirators, will go down in history as racists and coup plotters,” Morales said in a tweet early Monday morning.
Jane Guskin, author, with David L. Wilson, of "The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers" (2nd Edition), writes a piece for Labor Notes, arguing that Professional Staff Congress (American Federation of Teachers Local 2334) vote NO on a new contract with the City University of New York (CUNY)...
The Professional Staff Congress, American Federation of Teachers Local 2334, reached a tentative agreement in October on a new contract with the City University of New York (CUNY). The agreement covers 30,000 workers at the university, including part- and full-time faculty, professional staff, lab t...
Highly recommended: "The climate crisis is closely linked to excessive consumption of the wealthy lifestyle. The most affluent countries are mainly responsible for the historical GHG emissions and generally have the greatest per capita emissions." From Bioscience.
Most public discussions on climate change are based on global surface temperature only, an inadequate measure to capture the breadth of human activities and the real dangers stemming from a warming…
"I don't mean to sound intolerant or coarse, but f**k this Nazi and f**k the gentle, inquisitive tone of this Nazi normalizing barf journalism, and f**k the photographer for not just throwing the camera at this Nazi's head and laughing." Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting.
The article was met with howls of protest across Twitter, but among the many apt responses, Bess Kalb’s description (11/25/17) captured my heart and gave me the single most useful phrase of the Trump…
Dossier 22 from Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research: "Critical thought in our current political conjuncture faces a debate about the characteristics of the neoliberal and neofascist offensive and the challenges that these offensives raise. This debate engages three important dimensions: the character of contemporary capitalism, the new monsters that drive it, and the possibility of necessary alternative futures."
Critical thought in our current political conjuncture faces a debate about the characteristics of the neoliberal and neofascist offensive and the challenges that these offensives raise.
Vijay Prashad: "The slogan is pithy—Neoliberalismo nunca más (Neoliberalism Never Again). It was chanted in the streets of Santiago, Chile; it was drawn on the walls in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and in a more sober register, it is mentioned in a seminar in Mexico City, Mexico."
The slogan is pithy—Neoliberalismo nunca más (Neoliberalism Never Again). It was chanted in the streets of Santiago, Chile; it was drawn on the walls in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and in a more sober…
Victor Grossman: "A stern, history-based evaluation awakens doubts that, despite the paeans in the world media, the fall of the Berlin Wall was not purely a peaceful revolution, a choice of freedom by the masses, another successful victory for freedom and justice as in past centuries."
A stern, history-based evaluation awakens doubts that, despite the paeans in the world media, the fall of the Berlin Wall was not purely a peaceful revolution, a choice of freedom by the masses…
Excellent piece from our comrade David Ridley: "Democratic socialist governments should not limit themselves to nationalising economically inefficient companies or sectors subject to ‘market failure’ such as energy, transport and healthcare, but should rather aim public ownership at the ‘commanding heights’ of the economy, taking over profitable firms and growing them through targeted investment and expansion."
Stuart Holland’s Meso-Socialism.
Workers World Party newspaper reviews Victor Grossman's "A Socialist Defector: From Harvard to Karl-Marx-Allee"
This Nov. 9, the world’s imperialists and big capitalists will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. They will fill the media, all too available to them…
Atilio A. Borón: "It’s not easy to guess what is going to rise from the ashes of neoliberalism. It will be dictated by the ups and downs of social struggles and the sagacity of their leading forces; by their audacity facing all sort of eventualities and preserving the precious unity of democratic and left-wing political and social forces; and by the efficiency when organizing and raising awareness among the diverse and tumultuous popular forces. It will be a challenging but not impossible task." From Resumen English
After nearly half a century of pillage, outrage and crimes of all kinds against society and the environment, we witness the downfall of the ruling model promoted enthusiastically by the governments of…
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