This book is a collection of essays which look at the inherent contradiction in the rise of China from a class perspective. It argues that China is a bureaucratic capitalist state which is a special kind of state capitalism.
A Bend in the Labyrinth
29 December 2012, byNon-communist radical culture of the anti-fascist years has long been a subject in search of a critic who can boldly embrace the enigmatic. That quest is now ended with the publication of the furiously intelligent The Century’s Midnight.
Che Guevara: His Revolutionary Legacy
22 December 2012, by ,Published by Monthly Review Press, Paperback, 176 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1-58367-177-1 Released: February 2009 Price: $16.95
Anatomy of the Oil States
22 March 2012, byIt’s taken for granted that the upheavals in much of the Middle East — and great-power decisions about which conflicts are worthy of “humanitarian intervention” and/or “regime change” — have a lot to do with oil and who profits from it. But understanding the dynamics behind the headlines requires more detailed and careful analysis. Adam Hanieh’s Capitalism and Class in the Gulf Arab States is a welcome materialist contribution.
Elections in Mexico: Why López Obrador?
22 March 2012, byWhile in Mexico last week as part of a labor union delegation from the United States to meet with Canadian and Mexican union officials, I was given this book by a professor of history and design at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) She is also a labor and political activist, and, in fact, one of the book’s authors. Written in Spanish and difficult to acquire outside of Mexico, it is doubtful that you will ever buy and read it; still I wanted to share my impressions because I think it gives us some insight into how people on the Mexican left who consider themselves to be radicals, leftists or socialist are explaining their support for the campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (or AMLO) for president. And it becomes the occasion here for a discussion of the state of Mexican politics on the left at this moment only a few months from the national presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial elections.
Atzmon’s Mistaken "Identity"
22 March 2012, byGilad Atzmon is one hell of a jazz musician, justly counted among the best global practitioners of the art of bop and post-bop. In fact, the dual status of modern jazz as both a pinnacle of African-American artistry and a world music is illustrated by the fact that international musicians like Atzmon have mastered it — and he could probably write a fine book on that subject.
The Politics of Integrity versus the Politics of Celebrity
22 March 2012, byIn the elections to the Scottish Parliament in May 2003, the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) polled just under a quarter of a million votes and won 6 seats. By any stretch of the imagination this was a remarkable achievement for a party well to the left of the left wing of Labour, and a beacon of hope and inspiration for socialists the world over. By 2011, the SSP’s vote had slumped to below 9000, and the party failed to regain any of the 6 seats it had lost in 2007. The single biggest factor in the SSP’s electoral demise was almost certainly the civil war and split that followed the scandal surrounding the SSP’s former convenor, Tommy Sheridan. In this well-written and often gripping book, Alan McCombes – the SSP’s former Press and Policy Co-ordinator – gives the inside story of the events surrounding the Sheridan scandal and the split in the party.
Arab and Arab American Feminist Narratives
7 March 2012, byNearly ten years in the making, Arab and Arab American Feminisms gathers activists, artists and academics to give voice to the most rapidly changing and complex issues in the Arab world. It builds upon the work of Joe Kadi’s Food for Our Grandmothers and Evelyn Shakir’s Bint Arab, two pioneering Arab feminist anthologies.
Chicano Art vs. Censorship
7 March 2012, byAlthough past controversies about artworks that incorporated sacred icons with perceived profane elements — such as Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ (1987) and Chris Ofili’s The Holy Virgin Mary (1996), referred to as “Dung Virgin” — are often cited as early examples of artistic culture wars, Chicana feminist artists have experienced protests, verbal attacks and even death threats for their reimaginings of the Mexican Virgin of Guadalupe since the 1970s
Why Marx was right
7 March 2012, by“So you’re for the revolutionary Marxist overthrow of parliamentary democracy then”. This was the question flung by presenter Andrew Neil in a discussion on the BBC’s Daily Politics Show at Right to Work campaigner and SWP member Michael Bradley following a successful protest against the British government’s punitive work experience programme. He fielded this and other questions pretty well although his direct comparison between the Egyptian events and Britain was less effective.
