The blow by blow accounts in this book make fascinating reading, I was particularly impressed by the discussion of the Cigar Workers’ Parliament. It provided the cigar workers an opportunity to raise grievances about the management of the factory, to condemn the thefts of raw materials and to propose solutions to the country’s economic woes. Pedro Ross was able to use his direct contact with Fidel Castro to resolve some of the problems with inefficiency and corruption. | more…
“Her perspective as an anti-racial capitalism activist and writer gives her a comprehensive, dare I say a dialectical, analysis of domestic and foreign policies. The bombs that Uncle Sam dropped on the people of Vietnam also exploded on Americans living in urban and rural communities experiencing poverty, as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. came to understand in no small part because of Braden’s advocacy.” -Seth Sandronsky | more…
Each phase of Carey’s rise and fall, as recounted in “Putting Members First,” is worthy of close study by those seeking to follow in his footsteps as a shop-floor militant, an opposition candidate for local union office, and a coalition builder with other reformers. Last, and most impressive, was Carey’s role as a national labor leader faced with the daunting challenge of transforming a dysfunctional organization in the face of employer hostility and the internal resistance of union officials protecting their own perks, political power, and personal fiefdoms. Read on for some of the critical components of union revitalization, as recounted in this biography, that have continuing relevance to present-day reform struggles…. | more…
March 26th, live and in person at The People’s Forum, Michael Heinrich joins us to present his biography-in-progress of Karl Marx, which gained glowing reviews from Marxist scholars the world over. | more…
Reading Ross’s account one is struck by the dichotomy between the popular demonology of Cuba as a totalitarian dictatorship in U.S. political discourse, and the radically democratic functioning of the workers’ parliaments. | more…
Different views on the degree to which relations between the local bourgeoisie and foreign capital were antagonistic pitted dependency writer Fernando Henrique Cardoso, ECLA economists, and various communist parties, on the one hand, against the more leftist dependency economists like Marini and Dos Santos, on the other hand… | more…
‘Dialectics’ should have been translated in the previous century. Nevertheless, Latimer’s translation comes at an appropriate time, coinciding with the revival of interest in dependency theory in the Global North and an increasing problematization of recent development experiences in the Global South. | more…
ncounters with many characters involved in left wing politics are recorded in such a way that make the reader feel more like a participant than an observer. Helena weaves anecdotes into a broader record of events, and in doing so brings them to life. She also puts on the record her many decades of involvement in politics outside of Ireland, and one would wonder how she managed to find the time to pack so much into her life and work. | more…
..Hat tip to Wallace for shining light on Darwin’s continuing importance to understanding the modern world under a social system that prioritizes the growth of wealth for a few over an equitable and sustainable life for many… | more…
In writing this book, Chris Gilbert has given the worldwide left a ray of hope. The trick now is to act upon it. | more…
“¡Brigadistas! is the best English-language comic dealing with the Spanish Civil War, and for that reason it gets my endorsement.” -Hank Kennedy, for The Comics Journal | more…
He said, well if you’re not busy, on Thursday we have a demonstration in front of the Israeli embassy. He added, “we actually do this every Thursday.” Then Natalie added, “and have done so every Thursday for the last 13 years.” Mind you, this was December. | more…
By examining the Special Period that Cuba went through, Ross gives us an example of how during periods of austerity, workers do not and should not need to pay the price of the crisis. For those who still think that Cuba is far from their ideal, I would like to paraphrase Marx. In theory, we assume that the laws of the socialist mode of production develop in their pure form. In reality, this is only an approximation; the approximation is all the more exact, the more socialism is developed and the less it is adulterated by survivals of earlier economic conditions with which it is amalgamated. | more…