Socialism
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Interface: a journal for and about social movements Volume two, issue two
Volume two, issue two of Interface, a peer-reviewed e-journal produced and refereed by social movement practitioners and engaged movement researchers, is now out, on the special theme “Voices of dissent: activists’ engagements in the creation of alternative, autonomous, radical and independent media”. Continue reading
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Putting humans back into socialism By Federico Fuentes
The onset of the global economic crisis in mid 2008, symbolised by the collapse of some of Wall Street’s most iconic companies, led to soaring sales of Karl Marx’s seminal work Das Kapital, as many sought explanations to the tumultuous events unfolding. Although written more than 100 years ago, this devastating and insightful dissection of… Continue reading
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Launch: Alternate Routes
The following video showcased the panel discussion held at the launch of Alternate Routes’ latest issue, “Saving Global Capitalism: Interrogating Austerity and Working Class Responses to Crises.” Continue reading
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Book review by Konrad Read, "A New Vision of Socialist Transition and Development"
It is probably fair to say that revolutionary socialism does not come naturally to everyone. Some of the young and curious pick up a grimy, twenty-page manifesto in a second-hand bookstore and never look back, but for myself it was a long, gruelling process full of twists and hesitations. One of the last barriers to… Continue reading
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Book review by Konrad Read, “A New Vision of Socialist Transition and Development”
It is probably fair to say that revolutionary socialism does not come naturally to everyone. Some of the young and curious pick up a grimy, twenty-page manifesto in a second-hand bookstore and never look back, but for myself it was a long, gruelling process full of twists and hesitations. One of the last barriers to… Continue reading
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David Harvey, "'Introduction' to A Companion to Marx's Capital"
My aim is to get you to read a book by Karl Marx called Capital, Volume I, and to read it on Marx’s own terms. . . . Mostly, though, I want you to come away with your own reading of Capital. There is, and can be, no ultimate and definitive reading precisely because the… Continue reading
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Report on the political and economic situation in Cuba By Gloria La Riva
The Cuban Revolution has had a profound and inspiring impact on the progressive struggles of workers and oppressed peoples around the world, and for the socialist movement. The revolution has made enormous changes for the people of Cuba; it is hard to believe that it is only 51 years old. Continue reading
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A Marxist analysis of Cuba’s new economic reforms By Brian Becker
The Cuban government recently announced a major economic reorganization that will involve the reduction in employment in the state sector by as many as 500,000 workers. The reforms will also promote the enlargement of what is called the ‘private sector,’ which means the formation of privately owned enterprises organized to generate profits for the private… Continue reading
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The Spectre of Barbarism and its Alternative Michael A. Lebowitz
When commentators stress signs of recovery, it is essential to remember that this pattern differs not at all from that of 1929 to 1933 – in other words, the period between the stock market crash and the bank failures – a period before much of the depression of the 1930s. At best, although capitalism itself… Continue reading
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South Africa: COSATU's Zwelinzima Vavi's Ruth First Memorial Lecture
Zwelinzima Vavi presents the 2010 Ruth First Memorial Lecture, Wits University, Johannesburg, August 17, 2010. Vavi is secretary general of the Congress of South African Trade Unions. Ruth First (May 4, 1925–August 17, 1982) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and communist born in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was killed by the apartheid regime with… Continue reading
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A Different Kind of Ownership Society By Marjorie Kelly and Shanna Ratner
Shared ownership, like local ownership, is a valuable tool for enhancing community wealth over the long term. Both represent the innovations in social technologies that must evolve alongside innovations in physical technologies—like wind turbines, organic agriculture, or sustainably managed forests—if we’re to create an economy in which prosperity is both sustainable and shared. Continue reading
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Socialism or Reformism? By Prabhat Patnaik
We live at a time when resistance to the inequities that exist in this world and the struggle for a better world are almost totally detached from any striving for socialism. Climate change, imperialist aggression, forcible dispossession of peasants in the name of “development”, oppression of the tribal population, gender discrimination, and ecological degradation bring… Continue reading
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Douglas W. Greene, "Throwing Down the Gauntlet: A Review of Michael Lebowitz's Socialist Alternative"
Only about ten or fifteen years ago, leftist theory was in a sorry state. It seemed as if socialism had ceased to be a viable project with the fall of the Soviet Union. Instead of an alternative to capitalism, theorists were singing the praises of the third way or the idea of changing the world… Continue reading
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I Read Some Marx (And I Liked It)
10 July, 2010 — MRZine “If Katy Perry read Marx, her music would probably sound something like this.” Video by bphillis. To the tune of “I Kissed a Girl.” Continue reading
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Building Socialism from Below: The Role of the Communes in Venezuela An interview with Antenea Jimenez
We met with Antenea Jimenez, a former militant with the student movement who is now working with a national network of activists who are trying to build and strengthen the comunas. The comunas are community organizations promoted since 2006 by the Chávez government as a way to consolidate a new form of state based upon… Continue reading
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Video: Marx and the Global South
15 May, 2010, Toronto — Socialist Project – Left Streamed Vijay Prashad: George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies, Trinity College, Hartford. Prashad is the author of The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World (The New Press, 2008). Moderated by Shahrzad Mojab. Part 1: http://blip.tv/play/AYHe%2BAcC Continue reading
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Marxism Is the Mother Lode for all Critiques of Capitalism: An Interview with Alexander Saxton by Jonah Raskin
A longtime reader of Monthly Review, and a Marxist for all his adult life, Alexander Saxton might be one of the oldest, continuously active radicals in the United States. Born in Manhattan in 1919, he met the novelist, John Dos Passos, and the poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, when he was a young man, and… Continue reading
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Marx and the philosophy of time By Peter Osborne
What is Marx’s contribution to the philosophy of time? Or, to put it another way, what has a temporal reading of Marx’s writings to contribute to the understanding of the philosophical aspects of his thought? How, for example, might it reconfigure the relationship between the historical, analytical and political dimensions of his work? Continue reading
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The Battle for Democracy By Morris William
The time has passed since it was possible for the one revolutionary socialist party of a nation state, to simply take decisions concerning factions within its own ranks. With constant splits and divisions, the one party has become many and the revolutionary socialist movement, both nationally and internationally, has disintegrated into the disorder of innumerable… Continue reading
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The First Socialist International of the 21st Century By Kiraz Janicke, Federico Fuentes, and Julio Chavez
I believe that the proposal launched by the President Hugo Chávez, to raise at this time a global debate on historical relevance of the need to call on all parties, movements and leftist and anti-imperialist currents of the world to have a full discussion, is based on the characterization and in-depth analysis of the crisis… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 