This Labor Day, we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of Monthly Review, whose book publishing arm, Monthly Review Press, is distributed by 蜜桃传媒. For seventy-five years, Monthly Review has been one of the most widely recognized and respected sources of contemporary socialist analysis. Founded in 1949 by journalist and historian Leo Huberman and Harvard economist Paul M. Sweezy, Monthly Review was born out of the turbulent McCarthy years. Both men were called before the House Un-American Activities Committee for their outspoken stand on McCarthyism and the government鈥檚 restriction of free speech. Today Monthly Review and its book publishing arm, MR Press, serve as an open forum for some of the world鈥檚 most respected writers and thinkers on such topics as global imperialism, racial capitalism, economic stagnation and financialization, and the planetary ecological crisis.
Contributors have included Albert Einstein — who wrote the article 鈥淲hy Socialism?鈥� for the magazine鈥檚 first issue — Malcolm X, Alice Walker, Isabel Allende, Kurt Vonnegut, Che Guevara, Eduardo Galeano, and Adrienne Rich.
Monthly Review continues to champion justice and equality and the humanistic ideals associated with the socialism. To celebrate Labor Day, we’re highlighting five titles that range from personal narratives to political theory, offering new perspectives on global labor movements. Their authors consider the role of capital in our lives, putting our Labor Day celebrations into their proper context.
Why Unions Matter
By Michael D. Yates
Union membership in America has been declining since its heyday in the 1950s. In Why Unions Matter, Michael Yates presents a “clear, well-written, and eloquent” argument for why we still need them (Science and Society). Through a combination of concise writing and clear data, readers will learn more about the power of collective bargaining, how unions are formed, and how they operate as a unifying force across political lines.
Let Me Speak!
Testimony of Domitila, A Woman of the Bolivian Mines
By Domitila Barrios de Chungara and Moema Viezzer
Originally published in Spanish, Let Me Speak! is the testimonial of a valiant fighter for indigenous and workers鈥� rights in the mines of Bolivia. The Guardian lauds this “lucid and moving account of a working class woman鈥檚 life,” reminding us all that “working women鈥檚 lives have been changed by reading this book.”
Ron Carey and the Teamsters
How a UPS Driver Became the Greatest Union Reformer of the Twentieth Century by Putting Members First
By Ken Reiman
Ron Carey and the TEAMSTERS provides the first in-depth portrait of Ron Carey, who became President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 1991, when it was the nation’s largest union. Carey began his career as a UPS driver and local union officer. As he rose through the ranks, he combatted corruption and organized crime in order to transform the lives of workers. Author Ken Reiman depicts his meteoric rise and fall, considering the lasting impact of his time with the TEAMSTERS.
Labor and Monopoly Capital
The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century
By Harry Braverman
First published in 1974, Labor and Monopoly Capital went against the established ideology of the time and has become a foundational work for academic sociology. Braverman examines the relationship between innovation and labor, from topics of managerial control to social mobility and technology to the removal of skill from work. A new foreword by John Bellamy Foster places the work within a historical and theoretical context that will provide new readers with a better understanding of this pivotal work.
Save Our Unions
Dispatches from a Movement in Distress
By Steve Early
With union-busting efforts on the rise again, Steve Early tracks the challenges facing workers today as they try to organize. In a series of essays, readers are taken through the everyday lives of union members, from conventions to funerals to strikes. Save Our Unions was celebrated by Noam Chomsky as a “very important work,” and it is an essential read for those interested in the modern labor movement.
The Strength, Resilience, and Agency of Metis Matriarchs by Cheryl Troupe and Doris Jeanne MacKinnon