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“What Is Anti-Racism?” – review
Arun Kudnani traces its roots to the campaigns of 1930s’ cultural thinkers such as anthropologist Ruth Benedict and gay rights activist Magnus Hirschfield, who were theorising the rise of Nazism in Germany and urged the U.S. political elite to educate the working class, believing that without this, economic hardship would make racism more likely.
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Book review: ‘Pragmatism versus Marxism’
Written by Marxist philosopher George Novack (1905-1992) and published in 1975 by Pathfinder Press, “Pragmatism versus Marxism: An appraisal of John Dewey’s Philosophy” sought to explain the origins, emergence, class basis, and norms of pragmatism, which has been the predominant mode of thought in U.S. intellectual and political life.
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From protest movements to revolutionary change
Brazilian informant says, “A lot of my generation were inspired by the Zapatistas… but how did we find out about them? From Rage Against the Machine.”
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“Cobalt Red, How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives”
Siddarth Kara’s book exposes the exploitation behind the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
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“War and Lenin in the 21st Century”
As in Lenin’s time, the conclusion is that socialist revolution will end imperialist war, enabling workers to meet their own needs.
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“A Materialist Guide to Media Literacy”
In exploring the notion of critical media literacy, the Marxist concepts of base and superstructure and Antonio Gramsci’s theory of cultural hegemony provide an essential framework for understanding the complex dynamics of media, power, and ideology.
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“The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence” – book review
Pasquinelli’s “Eye of the Master” provides a materialist analysis of AI and technology, which Kevin Crane finds to be an excellent antidote to all the nonsense and hype spouted about AI.
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‘Sickening Profits: The Global Food System’s Poisoned Food and Toxic Wealth’
The modern food system is being shaped by the capitalist imperative for profit.
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‘She Who Struggles: Revolutionary Women Who Shaped the World’ – book review
This valuable collection of pieces explores the role of women in twentieth-century revolutionary and national-liberation movements throughout the world, finds Ellen Graubart.
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‘Pharmanomics: How Big Pharma Destroys Global Health’ – book review
Pharmanomics is an important book that shows how Big Pharma’s profit seeking damages health care globally, but the solution lies outside the current system, argues John Clarke
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Harry Bridges and the ILWU – then and now
A review of Robert Cherny’s “Harry Bridges Labor Radical, Labor Legend”, University of Illinois Press 2023.
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Revolutionary Rupture: A review of China Miéville’s A Spectre, Haunting
China Miéville is the most important UK author of the early twenty-first century; his Bas Lag fantasy trilogy brought a new kind of socially-conscious weird fiction into the mainstream of British literature.
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‘Killers of the Flower Moon’: U.S. director Martin Scorsese’s film about the “Reign of Terror” against the Osage Indians
The “Reign of Terror,” which lasted from the end of World War I to 1931, involved the murder of at least 60 wealthy, full-blood Osage Natives, but Grann argues that the actual total of suspicious deaths may number in the hundreds.
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How capitalism killed nutrition
Review of ‘Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food … and Why Can’t We Stop?’ By Chris van Tulleken.
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Class Leaders and ‘Tipping Point for Advanced Capitalism’
The basic aim of ‘Tipping Point for Advanced Capitalism: Class, Class Consciousness and Activism in the “Knowledge Economy”’ is to bring class back into thinking about capitalism and alternatives.
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Black Crown: Henri Christophe, the Haitian Revolution and the Caribbean’s Forgotten Kingdom – book review
‘Black Crown’ is a gripping biography of one of the most important leaders of the Haitian Revolution, and it illuminates the history of the revolution, finds John Westmoreland.
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The commune is a comprehensive reworking of social relations: A conversation with Chris Gilbert
A new book exploring the theory, practice and history of socialist commune building in Venezuela.
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Karl Marx’s “degrowth communism”?
A review of ‘Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism’, Kohei Saito (Cambridge University Press, 2022)
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‘Reform, Revolution, and Opportunism: Debates in the Second International, 1900–1910’ – book review
The debates between socialists in the Congresses of the Second International raised issues which remain of central importance to the left today, argues Chris Bambery.
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“The World Bank: A Critical History” – book review
Éric Toussaint’s history of the World Bank shows powerfully how it and other international institutions have enforced imperialist exploitation, finds John Clarke