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  • Monthly Review Essays

About Prabir Purkayastha

Prabir Purkayastha is the founding editor of Newsclick.in, a digital media platform. He is an activist for science and the Free Software movement.
  • Two Native women in traditional robes and beads stand outside the entrance to a hut-like structure on the Menominee Indian Reservation, crica 1913–18; nearby two other women are seated while another stands.

    The Start of Indigenous Agriculture in North America and the American Genocide

    Prabir Purkayastha

    A recent paper in Science addresses an intriguing question: Did North America have settled agriculture before the arrival of Europeans? Or were the people in what would come to be known as North America still in the hunter-gatherer stage—unlike Mesoamericans, who had advanced civilisations, such as the Mayans, Aztecs, and the Incas? The answer is […]

  • Rebellion, Reformism, and Reaction in Latin America- An Interview with Jeffery R. Webber

    The Bloody Rise of the West – Part 2

    Originally published: Peoples Democracy on August 25, 2024 (more by Peoples Democracy)  |

    THE impact of the West’s encounter with the Americas was devastating for its people.

  • India flag emblem (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

    The Bloody Rise of the West – Part I

    Originally published: Peoples Democracy on August 18, 2024 (more by Peoples Democracy)  |

    ON Independence Day–August 15th–we generally take stock of the path we have travelled since 1947. Today, I will take a different tack and focus on how or why a handful of European countries end up controlling major parts of the world.

  • Cybersyn: Allendeho kybernetická revoluce | Levá perspektiva

    Remembering Allende and his project ‘Cybersyn’

    Originally published: Peoples Democracy on October 1, 2023 (more by Peoples Democracy)  |

    FIFTY years back, Pinochet’s coup destroyed Allende’s government and the structure of liberal democracy in Chile. Allende died with a machine gun in his hands, defending his attempt to build socialism in Chile against the combined power of the U.S. and the forces of reaction in Chile, including the military.

  • Image Courtesy: Left Word

    Intellectual Property, Knowledge Monopoly, and the Rent Economy

    Originally published: NewsClick.in on September 9, 2023 (more by NewsClick.in)  |

    Never before has society had the ability it does today to bring together different communities and resources in order to produce new knowledge. It is social, universal labour, and its private appropriation as intellectual property under capitalism stands in the way of liberating the enormous power of the collective to generate new knowledge and benefit people.

  • Robert Oppenheimer

    Oppenheimer Paradox: Power of science, weakness of scientists

    Originally published: NewsClick.in on July 29, 2023 (more by NewsClick.in)  |

    The bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 heralded the atomic age and ushered in the military-industrial complex that took over the United States.

  • Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

    Charles III coronation reminds of Britain’s bloody history of genocide, slavery, and loot

    Originally published: NewsClick.in on May 15, 2023 (more by NewsClick.in)  |

    The coronation ceremony and centuries of plunder by the British Empire cannot be seen in isolation.

  • IT Infrastructure (Photo: policyoptions.irpp.org)

    The West no longer World leaders in 84% of critical technologies

    Originally published: Peoples Democracy on March 12, 2023 (more by Peoples Democracy)  |

    Kailath, originally from Kerala but settled in the U.S., is one of the foremost names in the world in communications, control and signal processing. I remembered his words while reading the recent startling headlines that China has become the world leader in 37 of 44 critical technologies evaluated by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).

  • Representational Image. Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

    Biggest threat from Ukraine war: Last Nuclear Agreement suspended

    Originally published: NewsClick.in on March 5, 2023 (more by NewsClick.in)  |

    War rarely stays within the boundaries set or desired for it. That makes returning to arms control crucial for the survival of humanity.

  • Mapping Faultlines

    Mapping Faultlines: The planning, execution, and aftermath of Nord Stream sabotage

    Originally published: Peoples Dispatch on February 18, 2023 (more by Peoples Dispatch)  |

    In this episode of Mapping Faultlines, NewsClick’s Prabir Purkayastha explains the details of the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines as revealed by journalist Seymour Hersh. He also talks about how benefited from this sabotage.

  • Balloon (britishherald.com)

    Why do we have a balloon hysteria in the U.S.?

    Originally published: Peoples Democracy on February 19, 2023 (more by Peoples Democracy)  |

    THE newsfeeds from the US seem to be completely insane. First, an F22 Raptor, the most expensive U.S. military aircraft, is used to shoot down a Chinese balloon over the Atlantic ocean.

  • Representational use only.Image Courtesy:Maxpixel

    Media in the digital age

    Originally published: NewsClick.in on January 2, 2023 (more by NewsClick.in)  |

    The dramatic changes in the technology of mass communications should be brought in line with the larger goals of humanity and a more humane society.

  • Image Courtesy: Science.Org

    Nuclear Bomb connection in United States fusion breakthrough

    Originally published: NewsClick.in on December 23, 2022 (more by NewsClick.in)  |

    Neither clean energy nor lower temperatures, the latest scientific breakthrough is about testing the condition of the nuclear stockpiles of the United States.

  • Energy storage allows producers to store solar energy and sell it later when the sun is not shining.

    Hypocrisy of the rich countries and the green energy’s storage problem

    Originally published: Peoples Democracy on December 11, 2022 (more by Peoples Democracy)  |

    THE crux of the issue is that non-fossil, or even a low fossil fuel path, will need grid-level storage costs to drop by a factor of 10 times what they are today!

  • Manufacturing #15, Bird Mobile

    Chip wars or the crisis of late capitalism?

    Originally published: Peoples Democracy on August 29, 2021 (more by Peoples Democracy)  |

    If the U.S. wants to be a world leader, it has to match China in investing in knowledge generation for future technology. Why then is the U.S. taking the sanctions route? Sanctions are simpler to implement; building a society that values knowledge is much more difficult. This is the crisis of late capitalism.

  • Richard Lewontin

    Richard Lewontin, dialectical biologist and activist, dies at 92

    Originally published: NewsClick.in on July 18, 2021 (more by NewsClick.in)  |

    A Marxist, activist and scientist, Lewontin fought a lifelong battle against racism, imperialism and capitalist oppression. He is among the most influential scientists in the field of biology and evolution.

  • Why the U.S. Shouldn’t Play Games with Cyberwarfare as Its Power Declines

    Why the U.S. shouldn’t play games with cyberwarfare as its power declines

    Originally published: Janata Weekly on April 18, 2021 (more by Janata Weekly)  |

    Two major cyberhacks—of ‘SolarWinds’ and ‘Microsoft Exchange Server’—have affected a whole range of computer systems worldwide. Both are supply chain hacks, meaning that they appeared to be routine software upgrades for particular components in these systems instead of inserted malicious codes.

  • Hacking

    As U.S. loses its edge, game of cyber chicken could have deadly consequences

    Originally published: NewsClick.in on March 27, 2021 (more by NewsClick.in)  |

    ‘…all countries have offensive and defensive capabilities and ‘stealing” data and knowledge from other countries are time-honoured tasks of spook agencies. It becomes an act of war only if it leads to physical damage to critical equipment or infrastructure.’

  • Wikimedia Commons File:Precinct 61 (24746860626).jpg - Wikimedia Commons

    The world can show how Pharma monopolies aren’t the only way to fight COVID-19

    Prabir Purkayastha

    The U.S. has bought up almost all of the stock of remdesivir from Gilead, making it nearly impossible for this COVID-19 drug to be available anywhere else in the world.

  • Wikimedia Commons File-Vaccine.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

    U.S. declares a vaccine war on the World

    Prabir Purkayastha

    Donald Trump launched a new vaccine war in May, but not against the virus. It was against the world.

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Also By Prabir Purkayastha in Monthly Review Magazine

  • U.S. Control of the Internet July 01, 2014

Books By Prabir Purkayastha

  • Knowledge as Commons: Toward Inclusive Science and Technology August 28, 2024
  • Keeping Up the Good Fight: From the Emergency to the Present Day August 28, 2024

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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