Manufacturing America's Dreams

Auto companies shield their low-tech exploitation of workers behind high-tech displays of mechanical prowess. The less a consumer knows about the blood and guts of manufacturing, the easier it is to buy the dream. So how does America think all this crap gets built?&hellp; Last summer, in a desperate attempt to entice young viewers to buy grandpa's dream car, General Motors (GM) ran a TV ad that featured a chorus line of robot arms dancing to techno music around a series of Cadillacs strutting like runway models on chrome-plated wheels.&hellp; Don't let yourself be seduced and deluded. The auto industry's master talent isn't robotics, it's the ability to automatize humans—including drivers.<a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-67-number-1" title="Vol. 67, No. 1: May 2015" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.</a>

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Marx as a Student of Technology

Monthly Review ◽

10.14452/mr-028-03-1976-07_5 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 56 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Nathan Rosenberg

Keyword(s):

Social Change ◽

Index Volume ◽

Social Consequences ◽

Social Pathology ◽

Monthly Review ◽

The Social ◽

Historical Importance

This paper will attempt to demonstrate that a major reason for the fruitfulness of Marx's framework for the analysis of social change was that Marx was, himself, a careful student of technology. By this I mean not only that he was fully aware of, and insisted upon, the historical importance and the social consequences of technology. That much is obvious. Marx additionally devoted much time and effort to explicating the distinctive characteristics of technologies, and to attempting to unravel and examine the inner logic of individual technologies. He insisted that technologies constitute an interesting subject, not only to technologists, but to students of society and social pathology as well, and he was very explicit in the introduction of technological variables into his arguments.<a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-28-number-3" title="Vol. 28, No. 3: July-August 1976" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.</a>

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Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century

Monthly Review ◽

10.14452/mr-067-03-2015-07_6 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 67 (3) ◽

pp. 82 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

John Smith

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Capital Flows ◽

Driving Force ◽

Index Volume ◽

Opposite Effect ◽

First Century ◽

Monthly Review ◽

Dynamic Transformation ◽

Foreign Labor ◽

Class Status

The globalization of production and its shift to low-wage countries is the most significant and dynamic transformation of the neoliberal era. Its fundamental driving force is what some economists call "global labor arbitrage": the efforts by firms in Europe, North America, and Japan to cut costs and boost profits by replacing higher-waged domestic labor with cheaper foreign labor, achieved either through emigration of production ("outsourcing," as used here) or through immigration of workers. Reduction in tariffs and removal of barriers to capital flows have spurred the migration of production to low-wage countries, but militarization of borders and rising xenophobia have had the opposite effect on the migration of workers from these countries—not stopping it altogether, but inhibiting its flow and reinforcing migrants' vulnerable, second-class status.<a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-67-number-3" title="Vol. 67, No. 3: July 2015" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.</a>

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The Other Side of the Paycheck: Monopoly Capital and the Structure of Consumption

Monthly Review ◽

10.14452/mr-028-03-1976-07_7 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 88 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Batya Weinbaum ◽

Amy Bridges

Keyword(s):

Social Relations ◽

Index Volume ◽

The Other ◽

Accumulation Process ◽

Monthly Review ◽

Economic Organizations ◽

The Social ◽

The Face ◽

Social Importance ◽

Economic Function

The housewife is central to understanding women's position in capitalist societies. Marxists expected that the expropriation of production from the household would radically diminish its social importance. In the face of the household's continuing importance, Marxists have tried to understand it by applying concepts developed in the study of production." Yet obviously, the household is not like a factory, nor are housewives organized in the same way as wage laborers. As Eli Zaretsky has written, the housewife and the proletarian are the characteristic adults of advanced capitalist societies." Moreover, households and corporations are its characteristic economic organizations. Just as the socialization of production has not abolished the housewife, so accumulation has not abolished the economic functions of the household. Harry Braverman has demonstrated how the accumulation process creates new occupational structures, and he has documented the expansion of capital's activity to new sectors. We will argue that these developments also change the social relations of consumption, an economic function which continues to be structured through the household and performed by women as housewives.<a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-28-number-3" title="Vol. 28, No. 3: July-August 1976" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.</a>

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Notes from the Editors

Monthly Review ◽

10.14452/mr-028-03-1976-07_0 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 2

Author(s):

The Editors

Keyword(s):

Index Volume ◽

Special Issue ◽

Monthly Review

This issue of Monthly Review began as an invitation to one writer to review Harry Braverman's Labor and Monopoly Capital shortly after it was published by Monthly Review Press near the end of 1974. It soon became apparent, however, that there was no need to invite a review: a number of economists and sociologists expressed a desire to review the book or elaborate on themes either stressed or touched upon in Harry Braverman's analysis. So we changed the plan from a single review to a special issue of Monthly Review, inviting as authors not only those who had already expressed an interest but also others we thought would have useful contributions to make.<a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-28-number-3" title="Vol. 28, No. 3: July-August 1976" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.</a>

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iCapitalism and the Cybertariat: Contradictions of the Digital Economy

Monthly Review ◽

10.14452/mr-066-08-2015-01_7 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 66 (8) ◽

pp. 42 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Ursula Huws

Keyword(s):

Index Volume ◽

Public Services ◽

Daily Life ◽

Digital Economy ◽

Economic Sectors ◽

Monthly Review ◽

Money Economy ◽

Art And Culture

We have now entered a period…when new waves of commodification set in motion in earlier periods are reaching maturity. The new commodities have been generated by drawing into the market even more aspects of life that were previously outside the money economy, or at least that part of it that generates a profit for capitalists. Several such fields of accumulation have now emerged, each with a different method of commodity genesis, forming the basis of new economic sectors and exerting distinctive impacts on daily life, including labor and consumption. They include biology, art and culture, public services, and sociality.This article can also be found at the <a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-66-number-7" title="Vol. 66, No. 7: January 2015" target="_blank">Monthly Review website</a>, where most recent articles are published in full.<a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-66-number-7" title="Vol. 66, No. 7: January 2015" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.</a>

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Who Was This Pete Fellow?

Monthly Review ◽

10.14452/mr-066-08-2015-01_2 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 66 (8) ◽

pp. 5

Author(s):

Holly Near

Keyword(s):

Index Volume ◽

Hudson River ◽

Next Generation ◽

Monthly Review ◽

Shoe Size ◽

To Come

Pete Seeger was bigger than life. And like a character in a mythological tale, before long his shoe size will grow to such a degree that he will scale snowy mountains and wade across oceans. He will look over the tops of Redwood trees and when he dips his hand down into the Hudson River, the water up to his elbow, his fingers will reach down to the bottom of the deepest pool and pull up a giraffe and a baby grand and we will forever sing about the magic river.… This mythology will be enjoyed by the living for generations to come. A next generation of troubadours will sing deep into the little faces who, with wide eyes, imagine such a music man.This article can also be found at the <a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-66-number-7" title="Vol. 66, No. 7: January 2015" target="_blank">Monthly Review website</a>, where most recent articles are published in full.<a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-66-number-7" title="Vol. 66, No. 7: January 2015" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.</a>

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The "New Turkey": Fetishizing Growth with Fatal Results

Monthly Review ◽

10.14452/mr-067-02-2015-06_3 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 67 (2) ◽

pp. 40 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Zuhal Ye ilyurt Gündüz

Keyword(s):

Index Volume ◽

Prime Minister ◽

Monthly Review ◽

Resistance Movements ◽

Justice And Development Party ◽

Neoliberal Economics ◽

Neoliberal Policies ◽

Ruling Party

Turkey's ruling party has turned the country, which it calls "the new Turkey," into a capitalist nightmare: a triad of neoliberal economics, political despotism, and Islamist conservatism. This article provides an overview of neoliberalism in Turkey, then looks at the government's extraction policies, highlighting the Soma mine massacre as one tragic example of the destructive policies of the governing party, the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP, Justice and Development Party). It also examines the extreme authoritarianism of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (formerly prime minister), and the growing cultural-relgious conservatism, which the AKP has interlaced with Islamist rhetoric. This hegemonic triad of neoliberalism, despotism, and conservatism is an especially dangerous one. However, it is being increasingly criticized, and resistance movements against neoliberal policies are growing. All of this gives some hope for Turkey's future.<a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-67-number-2" title="Vol. 67, No. 2: June 2015" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.</a>

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The Scars of the Ghetto

Monthly Review ◽

10.14452/mr-067-01-2015-05_3 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 67 (1) ◽

pp. 32

Author(s):

Lorraine Hansberry

Keyword(s):

Pancreatic Cancer ◽

New York ◽

Index Volume ◽

Small Body ◽

Terminally Ill ◽

The Sun ◽

Short Life ◽

Monthly Review ◽

Hospital Bed ◽

Lorraine Hansberry

<div class="ed-auth-intro">The article that appears below is reprinted from the February 1965 issue of Monthly Review. Despite her small body of work and short life, Lorraine Hansberry (1930–1965) is considered one of the great African-American dramatists of the twentieth century. Her play A Raisin in the Sun (1959) is required reading, and performed regularly, in high schools and colleges nationwide, as well as on Broadway and London's West End. Hansberry's association with the left, and especially with Monthly Review, began in her teenage years. When she moved to New York, she became good friends with Leo Huberman and Paul M. Sweezy. In spring 1964, although terminally ill with pancreatic cancer, she left her hospital bed to speak at a benefit for Monthly Review Press; her speech appeared posthumously as the article below.</div><a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-67-number-1" title="Vol. 67, No. 1: May 2015" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.</a>

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Interview with Bill Gallegos

Monthly Review ◽

10.14452/mr-067-05-2015-09_3 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 67 (5) ◽

pp. 18

Author(s):

Elly Leary ◽

Anne Lewis

Keyword(s):

Social Movements ◽

Environmental Justice ◽

Golden Age ◽

Executive Director ◽

Index Volume ◽

Monthly Review ◽

The 1960S

As we veteran activists of the 1960s and early '70s enter our años del retiro, it is time for reflection, summation, and most importantly sharing what we have learned with those reaching to grab the baton. Many of us, now grandparents, are getting questions from our grandkids and kids about our lives in the "golden age" of U.S. social movements. … Bill Gallegos has been an activist since the 1960s, when he became involved in Crusade for Justice, a revolutionary Chicano nationalist organization. He has since emerged as a leading socialist environmental justice activist, and is the former executive director of Communities for a Better Environment.<a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-67-number-5" title="Vol. 67, No. 5: October 2015" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.</a>

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Marx's Ecological Notebooks

Monthly Review ◽

10.14452/mr-067-09-2016-02_3 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 67 (9) ◽

pp. 25 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Kohei Saito

Keyword(s):

Theoretical Basis ◽

Index Volume ◽

Karl Marx ◽

Global Scale ◽

Global Capitalism ◽

Capitalist Mode ◽

Monthly Review ◽

First Time ◽

Mode Of Production

Karl Marx has long been criticized for his so-called ecological "Prometheanism"—an extreme commitment to industrialism, irrespective of natural limits. This view, supported even by a number of Marxists, such as Ted Benton and Michael Löwy, has become increasingly hard to accept after a series of careful and stimulating analyses of the ecological dimensions of Marx's thought, elaborated in Monthly Review and elsewhere. The Prometheanism debate is not a mere philological issue, but a highly practical one, as capitalism faces environmental crises on a global scale, without any concrete solutions. Any such solutions will likely come from the various ecological movements emerging worldwide, some of which explicitly question the capitalist mode of production. Now more than ever, therefore, the rediscovery of a Marxian ecology is of great importance to the development of new forms of left strategy and struggle against global capitalism.… Yet there is hardly unambiguous agreement among leftists about the extent to which Marx's critique can provide a theoretical basis for these new ecological struggles.… This article… [takes] a different approach… [investigating] Marx's natural-scientific notebooks, especially those of 1868, which will be published for the first time in volume four, section eighteen of the new Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe(MEGA).<a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-67-number-9" title="Vol. 67, No. 9: February 2016" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.</a>

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