• Monthly Review
  • Monthly Review Press
  • MR (Castilian)
  • Climate & Capitalism
  • Money on the Left
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Mastadon
MR Online
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact/Submission
  • Browse
    • Recent Articles Archive
    • by Subject
      • Ecology
      • Education
      • Imperialism
      • Inequality
      • Labor
      • Literature
      • Marxism
      • Movements
      • Philosophy
      • Political Economy
    • by Region
      • Africa
      • Americas
      • Asia
      • Australasia
      • Europe
      • Global
      • Middle East
    • by Category
      • Art
      • Commentary
      • Interview
      • Letter
      • News
      • Newswire
  • Monthly Review Essays

About Chris Gilbert

Chris Gilbert is professor of political science in the Universidad Bolivariana de Venezuela.
  • Mending the nets in a collective shelter. (Rome Arrieche)

    The Ayacucho Commune: Fisherfolk and their cooperative practices (Part II)

    Originally published: Venezuelananlysis on January 24, 2025 (more by Venezuelananlysis)  |

    Venezuelan communards on the Orinoco River talk about their organizing processes in recent years.

  • A Gavidia landscape and campesino home. (Voces Urgentes)

    Growing native potatoes in synergy with the land and its people

    Originally published: Venezuelanalysis.com on October 21, 2023 (more by Venezuelanalysis.com)  |

    Campesinos high up in the beautiful Andean valley of Gavidia are working to preserve the native potato and the way of life that goes with it.

  • Voces Urgentes

    Food for Thought: Pueblo a Pueblo Promotes Grassroots Food Sovereignty (Part IV)

    Originally published: Venezuelanalysis.com on June 2, 2023 (more by Venezuelanalysis.com)  |

    An innovative form of food distribution has been key for schools and communes.

  • Pueblo a Pueblo [People to People]

    Circumventing the Blockade: Pueblo a Pueblo Builds Grassroots Food Sovereignty (Part II)

    Originally published: Venezuelananlysis on May 19, 2023 (more by Venezuelananlysis)  |

    An organization that brings together rural producers with urban consumers breaks with the dictates of the market.

  • A campesino plows the land with animal traction in Carache, the epicenter of Pueblo a Pueblo. (Venezuelanalysis)

    Venezuela: Food is not a commodity, it’s a human right: Pueblo a Pueblo Builds Food Sovereignty (Part I)

    Originally published: Venezuelananlysis on May 14, 2023 (more by Venezuelananlysis)  |

    An organization that brings together rural producers with urban consumers breaks with the dictates of the market.

  • Communard Union congress.

    A milestone: Venezuela’s Communard Union stages its Foundational Congress

    Originally published: Venezuelananlysis on April 19, 2022 (more by Venezuelananlysis)  |

    Chris Gilbert looks at an emergent grassroots movement in Venezuela, as it attempts to build autonomous popular power in a complex relationship with the state.

  • "The Quiet Man"

    Letter from Catalonia: Alarming measures

    Chris Gilbert

    I’m in a small city in Catalonia called Olot, not far from the Pyrenees. I came here because I knew the coronavirus lockdown would be much rougher in Barcelona. Still, people walk around with masks and keep social distances, barely going out.

  • Chavista march in central Caracas

    Defending Venezuela: Two Approaches

    Chris Gilbert

    The law of diminishing returns does not have to operate in the field of international solidarity.

  • Marchers in a rally of the Biplav-led Communist Party of Nepal

    Biplav’s Communist Party of Nepal on the move

    Chris Gilbert

    A five-year-old revolutionary movement in Nepal brings together program and commitment in a way that powerfully prefigures communist society.

  • Meeting Comrade Pasang, Nepal’s Vice President: Dispatch by a far-flung Bolivarian

    Chris Gilbert

    How can politics be a way of pursuing the same goals once pursued in war? And through what form of politics? The career of Pasang, from revolutionary military commander to Vice President of Nepal, raises a host of questions about the transition from war to politics and the conditions of victory in each sphere.

  • Maoist graffiti

    In the wake of Nepal’s incomplete revolution

    Chris Gilbert

    In the aftermath of Nepal’s near revolution, diverse Maoist leaders are attempting to regroup and move forward again.

  • Chavista campesinos march toward Caracas

    How to Reactivate Chavismo

    Chris Gilbert

    Recovering the socialist character of Chavismo in Venezuela depends on activating its latent revolutionary component. This, in turn, hinges on re-encountering the aspiration toward substantive democracy and communal control of production that was once more present in the movement.

  • Chavistas gathered around Venezuela's Legislative Palace to witness the return of Simón Bolívar and Hugo Chávez' portraits

    Venezuela’s embarrassment of riches?

    Chris Gilbert

    Letting the law of capitalist value govern society makes building socialism almost impossible because, even if the general guidelines of capitalist value seem to be acceptable, all it takes is for the market to plunge for you to lose your bearings entirely.

  • Strike at the Helm?  Clamors from a Makeshift Raft

    Chris Gilbert

    In a cabinet meeting in October 2012, months before his death, Hugo Chávez declared that the Bolivarian process needed to make a radical change of course, literally calling for a “golpe de timón” or “strike at the helm.”  From that moment forward the slogan “golpe de timón” began to circulate in the most varied contexts […]

  • Chavism Loses a Battle — Can It Recover and Rectify?

    Chris Gilbert

    Chavism received a serious blow in the parliamentary elections this last Sunday, December 6. The strength of the blow is such that the movement is still reeling. The Venezuelan opposition, loosely organized in an electoral bloc called the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), achieved not just a majority of seats in the National Assembly but also […]

  • “Why Socialism?” Revisited: Reflections Inspired by Albert Einstein

    Chris Gilbert

    Why should one seek socialism?  It is common to adduce that socialism would be more just and fair than capitalism, but that does not fully resolve the issue, since people are not always motivated by social justice.  Moreover motivation — especially for undertakings that are difficult and risky, such as changing a whole society! — […]

  • To Recover Strategic Thought and Political Practice

    Chris Gilbert

    It is common to understand the diverse “processes” in Latin America — in the period marked initially by Zapatismo in the mid-1990s and later by the emergence of left or popular governments in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador along with center-left governments in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina — within the theoretical framework of a return or […]

  • The Americas Summit on the Border of an Imperialist Abyss

    Chris Gilbert

    Two features of contemporary imperialism are key to explaining the importance — or actually the relative unimportance — of the VII Summit of the Americas (organized by the OAS) recently held in Panama.  One is that, in the post-World War II period, imperialism has operated in a context defined by the prevalence of relatively sovereign […]

  • Fracking Patria, Fracking Humanity: Capitalism and Its Doubles

    Chris Gilbert

    Many Venezuelans think that fracking — the dangerous extraction of oil and gas through hydraulic fracturing of sedimentary rocks — is a conspiracy on the part of the United States to drive them into ruin.  That is not the case, but it is an understandable error, in part because of the US’s long history of […]

  • The Light Brigade: Cuban Doctors Fight Ebola

    Chris Gilbert

    The Ebola epidemic . . . whereas most of the world tightens frontier control and essentially flees from the problem, Cuba opens a new chapter of solidarity and faces the danger.  By sending 255 doctors and nurses to West Africa to deal with the latest Ebola outbreak, the heroic island — with few resources except […]

  • 1
  • 2
Next →

Also By Chris Gilbert in Monthly Review Magazine

  • The Dream of a Thing: Refounding the Economy of a Venezuelan Commune June 01, 2024
  • ‘Where Danger Lies…’: The Communal Alternative in Venezuela July 01, 2023
  • Luisa Cáceres: Commune-Building in Urban Venezuela December 01, 2022
  • Mészáros and Chávez: The Philosopher and the Llanero June 01, 2022
  • A Commune Called ‘Che’: A Socialist Holdout in the Venezuelan Andes March 01, 2022
  • Red Current, Pink Tide: A Visit to El Maizal Commune in Venezuela December 01, 2021
  • Walter Benjamin in Venezuela October 01, 2017

Books By Chris Gilbert

  • Commune or Nothing! Venezuela’s Communal Movement and its Socialist Project October 01, 2023
  • Venezuela, the Present as Struggle: Voices from the Bolivarian Revolution October 28, 2020

Monthly Review Essays

  • US Imperialism in Crisis: Opportunities and Challenges to a Global Community with a Shared Future
    Sam-Kee Cheng A late 1940s Soviet poster showing a US military service member lounging on top of a German factory, smoking a cigar. The text beneath reads DER DOLLARIMPERIALISMUS [dollar imperialism].

    1. Introduction The predominance of US economic, political and military power in the world was established at the end of the Second World War.1 With just 6.3 percent of global population, the United States held about 50 percent of the world wealth in 1948. As the only power which had used nuclear weapons on civilian […]

Lost & Found

  • Journalism, democracy, … and class struggle
    Robert W. McChesney Bob McChesney on Saving Journalism

    Our job is to make media reform part of our broader struggle for democracy, social justice, and, dare we say it, socialism.

Trending

  • Langley/Burkina Faso
    The U.S./EU/NATO’s Regime change playbook for Burkina Faso and Captain Ibrahim Traoré
  • Tump and Putin
    Russia rejects Trump’s freeze of the war in Ukraine
  • Trump's Tariffs: Economic Warfare or Winning Strategy?
    The Trump Tariffs and the U.S. Labor Movement
  • Karl Marx
    Marx’s ontology: A clarification
  • An aerial view showing destruction in Rafah, Gaza, January 2025.
    The Genocide in Palestine Is Powered by Zionism, Not “AI”
  • US military prepares for war on China
    As U.S. military prepares for war on China, Silicon Valley tech oligarchs are profiting
  • The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) is in a difficult political situation, but it continues to carry on the class struggle against the capitalists who looted the Soviet people while also navigating the complexities of the war in Ukraine. | Putin photo via AP; Other photos: C.J. Atkins / People's World; Montage design: PW
    Amidst capitalist crisis and war, Russian Communists struggle against Putin and the oligarchs
  • Iroquois helicopter pushed overboard from the USS Blue Ridge during the evacuation of Saigon, April 29, 1975.
    The Fall of Saigon, 1975: Fifty Years of Repeating What Was Forgotten
  • Of Presidential Crooks, Bigots, and Incompetents: Trump Combines All Three
    Trump is the symptom, U.S. imperialism is the disease
  • Feds Threaten Wikipedia
    Feds threaten Wikipedia after Right-Wing media uproar

Popular (last 30 days)

  • Langley/Burkina Faso
    The U.S./EU/NATO’s Regime change playbook for Burkina Faso and Captain Ibrahim Traoré
  • Def. Ministry delivers Nasir cruise missiles to IRGC Navy. Source: Mehd News Agency - wikicommons / cropped form original / CC BY 4.0
    Trump’s war plans for Iran: opening the other gates of hell
  • Tump and Putin
    Russia rejects Trump’s freeze of the war in Ukraine
  • National Museum of African American History and Culture
    Trump orders purge of Black History from Smithsonian, targets African American Museum
  • Refugees walk down a road in Gaza, surrounded by ruined buildings.
    War Above, War Below
  • A late 1940s Soviet poster showing a US military service member lounging on top of a German factory, smoking a cigar. The text beneath reads DER DOLLARIMPERIALISMUS [dollar imperialism].
    US Imperialism in Crisis: Opportunities and Challenges to a Global Community with a Shared Future
  • Trump's Tariffs: Economic Warfare or Winning Strategy?
    The Trump Tariffs and the U.S. Labor Movement
  • Image of President Donald Trump and Brad Karp, Chairman of Paul Weiss. Steven Ferdman/Getty Images; Business Insider
    Trump exposes the elite classes
  • Illustration by MintPress News
    Wiz acquisition puts Israeli Intelligence in charge of your Google data
  • President Donald Trump / PM Benjamin Netanyahu
    ‘Let all Hell break loose’: The Gaza ceasefire and how we all got played

RSS MR Press News

  • JOIN US MAY 17: The Marxist Education Project to host the author of Roses for Gramsci April 22, 2025
  • On the brilliant Bob McChesney April 21, 2025
  • NEW! ROSES FOR GRAMSCI by Andy Merrifield (EXCERPT) April 7, 2025
  • EXCERPT: Colonial dreams, racist nightmares, liberated futures (from the introduction to A Land With A People) April 4, 2025
  • Towards inclusive science and technology (Knowledge as Commons reviewed in ‘Counterfire’) April 1, 2025

RSS Climate & Capitalism

  • Ecosocialist Bookshelf, April 2025 April 10, 2025
  • Against the Crisis: Economy and Ecology in a Burning World April 2, 2025
  • Will Mpox be the next global threat to human health? April 2, 2025
  • Under Trump, climate denial is official US policy March 26, 2025
  • Growth or Degrowth? Ecosocialism confronts a false dichotomy March 26, 2025

 

RSS Monthly Review

  • May 2025 (Volume 77, Number 1) May 1, 2025 The Editors
  • The MAGA Ideology and the Trump Regime May 1, 2025 John Bellamy Foster
  • Neoliberalism and Neofascism May 1, 2025 Robert W. McChesney
  • Decolonization and Its Discontents May 1, 2025 Pranay Somayajula
  • China’s “Triple Revolution Theory” and Marxist Analysis May 1, 2025 Cheng Enfu

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons License

Monthly Review Foundation
134 W 29TH ST STE 706
New York NY 10001-5304

Tel: 212-691-2555