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  • Monthly Review Essays
  • The State and the Future of Socialism. Image 2.

    The State and the future of socialism

    Originally published: Socialist Project - The Bullet on April 23, 2023 (more by Socialist Project - The Bullet)  |

    In his recent book, The Communist Hypothesis, Alain Badiou describes the past defeats of May 1968, the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the Paris Commune as well as those of factory occupations and other such struggles as defeats ‘covered with glory’.

  • The Contradictions of “Real Socialism”

    An Interview with Michael A. Lebowitz on ‘Capital’, “Real Socialism,” and Venezuela

    Michael A. Lebowitz and Gülden Özcan

    “While socialists need to begin with the existing concepts of fairness as reflected in the moral economy of the working class, to the extent that those concepts of fairness are contrary to the principle advanced in the Communist Manifesto that ‘the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all,’ they must be rejected.” —Michael Lebowitz

  • Cuban Flag, Museum of the Revolution, Havana, Cuba, 2012

    The Struggle between the Future and the Past: Where Is Cuba Going?

    Michael A. Lebowitz

    I have two favorite sayings. One draws on the dialogue in Shakespeare’s Henry the VI part 2 when Jack Cade envisions that the effect of his plot will be that “all the realm shall be in common.” To this, comrade Dick responds, “the first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

  • Know your enemy: How to defeat capitalism

    Know your enemy: How to defeat capitalism

    Originally published: Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal on June 2021 (more by Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal)  |

    In a capitalist society, there is always a good explanation for your poverty, your meaningless job (if you have a job), your difficulties and your general unhappiness. You are to blame.

  • Red Is the Primary Color of the Rainbow

    Michael A. Lebowitz

    This paper was presented at “Color Revolution and Cultural Hegemony,” the 6th World Socialism Forum in Beijing, China, October 16-7, 2015. The term “color revolution” is code.  It is a code for regime change, and the term is often treated as synonymous with activities of the CIA and its assorted vehicles such as the National […]

  • People’s Power & People’s Protagonism: Linking Practice to Visions of Twenty-First Century Socialism

    LeftRoots and Marta Harnecker and Michael A. Lebowitz

      Register Now – Limited Space Available! SF BAY AREA – SEPTEMBER 13TH, 4-6PM * REGISTER HERE (Presentation Theater, University of San Francisco School of Education, 2350 Turk Boulevard, San Francisco) NEW YORK CITY – SEPTEMBER 18TH, 7-9PM * REGISTER HERE (Verso Loft, 20 Jay St [10th Floor], Brooklyn) We are honored to bring Marta […]

  • The Book Is a Weapon

    Michael A. Lebowitz

    The theme of the following talk, delivered at the Filven, Venezuela’s International Book Fair, in Caracas on 8 November 2008, is central to The Socialist Imperative: From Gotha to Now, published by Monthly Review Press this month, available soon in bookstores. The theme of this book fair, “the book in the construction of Bolivarian socialism,” […]

  • On Capital, Real Socialism, and Venezuela: An Interview with Michael A. Lebowitz

    Michael A. Lebowitz and Gülden Özcan and Bora Erdağı

    Gülden Özcan and Bora Erdağı: In some of the interviews you gave, you talked about your own everyday life experiences that led you to discover that Marx’s total critique of capitalism is an unfinished project.  In this discovery, you emphasized elsewhere that your class background and political struggle you were involved in have played an […]

  • The Relevance of Marxism Today: An Interview With Michael A. Lebowitz

    Michael A. Lebowitz and Zhuo Mingliang

      Do you think Marxism is still relevant today? If so, which parts? I think that Marxism is completely relevant for understanding capitalism now. It’s an error to think that capitalism has changed and that therefore we have to change Marxism. Marx grasped the nature of capitalism; and, although capitalism has changed in some of […]

  • Capitalism, Crises, and a Socialist Alternative: In Conversation With Michael A. Lebowitz

    Rebekah Wetmore and Ryan Romard and Michael A. Lebowitz

      Rebekah Wetmore and Ryan Romard (RW/RR): The crisis of world capitalism starting in 2007 was the most severe crisis of capitalism since the Great Depression and thus far the recovery, both globally and within Canada, has been weak at best.  With this mind, to what extent is the current crisis cyclical and in what […]

  • Latin American Lessons for the European Crisis: Interview with Michael A. Lebowitz

    Moisis Litsis and Michael A. Lebowitz

      Michael A. Lebowitz will deliver the Fourth Annual Lecture in Memory of Nicos Poulantzas (“Building Socialism of the 21st Century: The Logic of the State”) on Wednesday, 8 December 2010, 7 PM, at the auditorium of the Goethe Institute (Omirou St. 14-16) in Athens, Greece. Mr. Lebowitz, is Marxism still relevant today?  I ask […]

  • Exploitation and Exclusion: The International Struggle

    Michael A. Lebowitz

    Everyone who knows Hari knows that his life has been one of struggle against imperialism and in support of the right of the oppressed to struggle for a decent life.  His theme, indeed, might be that of the Communist Manifesto‘s assertion that ‘the free development of each is the condition for the free development of […]

  • Socialism: The Goal, the Paths, and the Compass

    Michael A. Lebowitz

      On the occasion of the presentation of El socialismo no cae del cielo: un nuevo comienzo at the 2010 Havana Book Fair, 18 February 2010 There’s an old saying that if you don’t know where you want to go, any road will take you there.  As I’ve said on many occasions, this saying is […]

  • The Capitalist Workday, the Socialist Workday

    Michael A. Lebowitz

    As May Day approaches, there are four things that are worth remembering: For workers, May Day does not celebrate a state holiday or gifts from the state but commemorates the struggle of workers from below. The initial focus of May Day was a struggle for the shorter workday. The struggle for the shorter workday is […]

  • Building It Now in Venezuela: Socialism for the 21st Century (Parts 1-8)

    Michael A. Lebowitz

    Michael A. Lebowitz is professor emeritus of economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and the author of Beyond Capital: Marx’s Political Economy of the Working Class, winner of the Isaac Deutscher memorial prize for 2004, and Build It Now: Socialism for the Twenty-First Century, just published by Monthly Review Press.  The videos were […]

  • Human Development and Practice

    Michael A. Lebowitz

    Opening comments at Conference on Participation, Change, and Human Development at the Centro Internacional Miranda in Caracas, Venezuela on 27 March 2007 The Bolivarian Constitution, in my view, is unique in its explicit recognition (in Article 299) that the goal of a human society must be that of “ensuring overall human development.”  From the declaration […]

  • Why Aren’t You in a Hurry, Comrade?

    Michael A. Lebowitz

    “What’s the rationale for allowing Chavez to govern by decree?”  Why such a “precipitous approach”?  As the apparent resident apologist (or, let’s just say, on-site interpreter) for the Bolivarian Revolution, I get questions like this regularly from friends who don’t know much about Venezuela but do know what they don’t like (from reading the always […]

  • “It’s My Party, and I’ll Cry If I Want to”: Chavez Moves Forward

    Michael A. Lebowitz

    Annual Fundraising Appeal Friends of MRZine and Monthly Review! The continuing existence of MRZine and Monthly Review depends on the support of our readers.  Unlike many other publications, we make all new Monthly Review articles, as well as MRZine articles, available online, free of charge.  We do so without drawing any advertising money at all […]

  • Completing Marx’s Project: An Interview with Michael A. Lebowitz

    Mark Fischer and Michael A. Lebowitz

      Michael A. Lebowitz, the author of Beyond Capital: Marx’s Political Economy of the Working Class, argues that Capital, taken alone, is one-sided, given Marx’s intention to also write a book on wage-labor.  The incompleteness of Marx’s work has helped produce a left whose theory is distorted and characterized by economism and programmatic narrowness.  I […]

  • Constructing Co-Management in Venezuela: Contradictions along the Path

    Michael A. Lebowitz

    [Below is a talk that Michael A. Lebowitz gave at el Encuentro Nacional de Trabajadores Hacia la Recuperación de Empresas (the National Meeting of Workers for the Recovery of Enterprises), organized by la Unión Nacional de Trabajadores (UNT, the National Union of Workers) in Caracas, Venezuela, 22 October 2005. The meeting was preparatory to el […]

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Also By Michael A. Lebowitz in Monthly Review Magazine

  • What Every Child Should Know about Marx’s Theory of Value September 01, 2023
  • Protagonism and Productivity November 01, 2017
  • What Is Socialism for the Twenty-First Century? October 01, 2016
  • If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? April 01, 2015
  • Proposing a Path to Socialism: Two Papers for Hugo Chávez March 01, 2014
  • What Makes the Working Class a Revolutionary Subject? December 01, 2012
  • The Unifying Element in All Struggles Against Capital Is the Right of Everyone to Full Human Development November 01, 2011
  • Exploring the Dialectic of the Bolivarian Revolution February 01, 2010

Books By Michael A. Lebowitz

  • Between Capitalism and Community January 12, 2021
  • The Socialist Imperative: From Gotha to Now June 30, 2015

Monthly Review Essays

  • The Migrant Genocide: Toward a Third World Analysis of European Class Struggle
    Iker Suarez A banner at a memorial rally for victims of the 2014 massacre of migrants at Tarajal, 2021.

    Over 10,000 people died in transit to Spain in 2024 alone.[1] On June 2022, the border fence of Melilla, one of two Spanish enclaves in Morocco, was witness to a massacre that killed or disappeared over a hundred African migrants.[2]  A recent BBC investigation revealed that Greek border guards systematically repeal immigrants already on Greek […]

Lost & Found

  • Strike at the Helm: The First Ministerial Meeting of the New Cycle of the Bolivarian Revolution
    Hugo Chávez Mural of Chávez in Caracas. (Univision)

    On October 7th, 2012, after hearing of his victory as the nation‘s candidate with 56 percent of the vote, President Hugo Chávez Frias announced from a balcony in his hometown that a new cycle was beginning the very next day, October 8th.

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