From her youth, Irish philosopher and historian Helena Sheehan admired ancient Athens, both its democracy and Socratic dialogues. In a rich academic life, she has explored philosophy of history and Marxist theory. In the 1990s she traveled often to our country with her partner Sam Nolan, secretary of Dublin Council of Trade Unions and political activist. She discovered the world of the Greek left and the birth of Synaspismos.… | more…
James Young, author of the forthcoming Union Power: The United Electrical Workers in Erie, Pennsylvania, joins host Charles Showalter to discuss workers, democracy in unions, and the hard-learned lesson of solidarity. Hear them on TheUnionEdge.com, Labor’s Talk Show.… | more…
Donald Trump’s well-publicized deal with the Carrier Corporation last fall was ‘wildly popular’ with US voters, according to Politico. A survey by Politico/Morning Consult on December 1 and 2, 2016, found 60 percent of respondents viewing Trump more favorably because of the November 30 agreement, which the real estate mogul claimed would save 1,100 jobs that the air-conditioner manufacturer had been planning to move from Indiana to a facility in Mexico. ¶ As so often is the case, reality didn’t match up with the president’s assertion.… | more…
Utterly corrupt corporate and government elites bankrupted Greece twice over by profligate deficit spending and by agreeing to an IMF “bailout” of the Greek economy, devastating Greek citizen. Finally, in response to “austerity” measures, the people of Greece stood up, electing, from their own historic roots of resistance, Syriza—the Coalition of the Radical Left. ¶ A seasoned activist and participant-observer, Helena Sheehan adroitly places us at the center of the whirlwind beginnings of Syriza, its jubilant victory at the polls, and finally at Syriza’s surrender to the very austerity measures it once vowed to annihilate. The Syriza Wave is a page-turning blend of political reportage, personal reflection, and astute analysis.… | more…
Radical economist and Monthly Review associate editor Michael Yates grew up in a western Pennsylvania manufacturing town. He spent more than three decades working as a college professor. Yet, despite his own academic career, Yates never lost touch with the life experience of high school classmates, friends, neighbors, and relatives who toiled in blue collar jobs…… | more…
Leo Panitch, Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University, has also been an editor of The Socialist Register for 25 years. With Greg Albo, Panitch edited the 2017 edition of SR, Rethinking Revolution. During a recent trip to Belgrade, Panitch was interviewed by the Serbian left-wing portal, MAŠINA. The Eastern European platform, LeftEast, translated the conversation from Serbian into English.… | more…
“In recent years Michael A. Lebowitz, a writer associated with the Monthly Review current of socialist thought, has produced a number of books regarding practical matters involved with the building of socialism. In his most recent book The Socialist Imperative: from Gotha to Now Mr. Lebowitz has presented a collection of essays expanding upon the themes of his earlier works, including some rather interesting insights into the weakness of the Yugoslavian model as well as making links between his views on a socialist alternative and environmental concerns.… | more…
Alan Wieder recently visited Chicago’s WFMT studios (98.7FM) and joined Tony Macaluso to discuss his book, Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture, but Mostly Conversation. Studs was a long-time WFMT host, free-spirit, and renowned oral historian.… | more…
“I read plenty of articles, short and long, on all sorts of topics, but—I hesitate to mention this to ATC readers—I rarely read full length nonfiction books. But those by Michael A. Lebowitz, including his recent The Socialist Imperative, have been an easy exception. It is a pleasure and a relief to read theory that has such practical application to the questions socialists must address in our work to transform the world. ¶ While not attempting to draw a blueprint for socialism, often scorned as impossible because
Critical ecology publications are finding a growing audience in the United States, as is evident in the success of Naomi Klein’s book This Changes Everything. Within this field there is also an increasing interest in ecosocialist thought, of Marxist inspiration, of which the two authors reviewed here are a part. ¶ One of the active promoters of this trend is Monthly Review and its publishing house. It is this group that has published the compelling book, Facing the Anthropocene by Ian Angus, the Canadian ecosocialist and editor of the online review Climate and Capitalism.… | more…
Scientific researchers studying climate change have come to the conclusion that the effects are so great that the earth has entered a new geological epoch, which they have named the Anthropocene. Ian Angus, in this book, sets out to explain the reason why.… | more…
