John Bellamy Foster

Category: Translated

  • Rachel Carson’s Ecological Critique

    Rachel Carson’s Ecological Critique

    “Rachel Carson’s Ecological Critique“, (coauthored with Brett Clark, Foster listed first), Monthly Review vol. 59, no. 9 (February 2008), pp. 1-17. DOI: 10.14452/MR-059-09-2008-02_1

    Rachel Carson was born just over 100 years ago in 1907. Her most famous book Silent Spring, published in 1962, is often seen as marking the birth of the modern environmental movement. Although an immense amount has been written about Carson and her work, the fact that she was objectively a “woman of the left” has often been downplayed. Today the rapidly accelerating planetary ecological crisis, which she more than anyone else alerted us to, calls for an exploration of the full critical nature of her thought and its relation to the larger revolt within science with which she was associated.

    Translations:
    • Bangla translation in Bangla Monthly Review, no. 3 (July 2008).
    • Translated by Protiva Mondol; Turkish translation in Monthly Review, Turkish edition, no. 19 (Istanbul: Kalkedon, 2008), pp. 165-82

     

  • The Latin American Revolt

    The Latin American Revolt

    “The Latin American Revolt: An Introduction“, Monthly Review vol. 59, no. 3 (July 2007), pp. 1-8. DOI: 10.14452/MR-059-03-2007-07_1

    The revolt against U.S. hegemony in Latin America in the opening years of the twenty-first century constitutes nothing less than a new historical moment. Latin America, to quote Noam Chomsky, is “reasserting its independence” in an attempt to free itself from centuries of imperialist domination. The gravity of this threat to U.S. power is increasingly drawing the attention of Washington. Julia Sweig, Latin American program director at the Council on Foreign Relations, argues that the twenty-first century is likely to be known as the “Anti-American Century,” marking a growing intolerance of the “waning” U.S. empire. Outweighing even the resistance to the U.S. war machine in Iraq in this respect, Sweig suggests, is the political realignment to the left in Latin America, which, in destabilizing U.S. rule in the Americas, offers a “prophetic microcosm” of what can be expected worldwide.

    Translations:
    • Spanish translation in America Latina en Movimiento, Barcelona.
    • Translated in Monthly Review, Turkish edition, no. 16 (Istanbul: Kalkedon, 2007).
    • Bangla translation in Bangla Monthly Review, no. 4 (September-November 2007. Translated by Protiva Mondol.

     

  • The Imperialist World System

    The Imperialist World System

    “The Imperialist World System: Paul Baran’s Political Economy of Growth After Fifty Years“, Monthly Review vol. 59, no. 1 (May 2007), pp. 1-16. DOI: 10.14452/MR-059-01-2007-05_1

    The concept of the imperialist world system in today predominant sense of the extreme economic exploitation of periphery by center, creating a widening gap between rich and poor countries, was largely absent from the classical Marxist critique of capitalism. Rather this view had its genesis in the 1950s, especially with the publication fifty years ago of Paul Baran’s Political Economy of Growth. Baran’s work helped inspire Marxist dependency and world system theories. But it was the new way of looking at imperialism that was the core of Baran’s contribution. A half-century later it is important to ask: What was this new approach and how did it differ from then prevailing notions? What further changes in our understanding of imperialism are now necessary in response to changed historical conditions since the mid-twentieth century?

    Translations:
    • Translated in Monthly Review, Turkish edition (Istanbul: Kalkedon, August 2007.

     

  • The Financialization of Capitalism

    The Financialization of Capitalism

    “The Financialization of Capitalism“, Monthly Review, vol. 58, no. 11 (April 2007), pp. 1-12. DOI: 10.14452/MR-058-11-2007-04_1

    Changes in capitalism over the last three decades have been commonly characterized using a trio of terms: neoliberalism, globalization, and financialization. Although a lot has been written on the first two of these, much less attention has been given to the third. Yet, financialization is now increasingly seen as the dominant force in this triad. The financialization of capitalism-the shift in gravity of economic activity from production (and even from much of the growing service sector) to finance—is thus one of the key issues of our time. More than any other phenomenon it raises the question: has capitalism entered a new stage?

    Translations:
    • Chinese Translations by Wang Nianyong and Chen Jiali Foreign Theoretical Trends (China), no. 7 (2007) and Wu Wei, Marxism and Reality (2008).
    • Translated in Monthly Review, Turkish edition, August 2007.
    • Spanish translation in Monthly Review, Selecciones en Castellano, no. 8 (March 2008).
    • Bangla translation in Bangla Monthly Review, no. 4 (September-November, 2007). Translated by Arindam Bandopaddhay.

     

  • The Ecology of Destruction

    The Ecology of Destruction

    “The Ecology of Destruction“, Monthly Review vol. 58, no. 9 (February 2007), pp.1-14. DOI: 10.14452/MR-058-09-2007-02_1

    I would like to begin my analysis of what I am calling here “the ecology of destruction” by referring to Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1969 film Burn!. Pontecorvo’s epic film can be seen as a political and ecological allegory intended for our time. It is set in the early nineteenth century on an imaginary Caribbean island called “Burn.” Burn is a Portuguese slave colony with a sugar production monoculture dependent on the export of sugar as a cash crop to the world economy. In the opening scene we are informed that the island got its name from the fact that the only way that the original Portuguese colonizers were able to vanquish the indigenous population was by setting fire to the entire island and killing everyone on it, after which slaves were imported from Africa to cut the newly planted sugar cane.

    Reprints:
    • Reprinted and published in Norwegian in Torstein Dahle (and to artikler av John Bellamy Foster, Ødeleggelsens Økonomi (Tidsskrifter Rødt!, 2008), 100-16.
    Translations:
    • Chinese translation by Dong Jinyu, Foreign Theoretical Trends (China), no. 6, 2008, and translated separately by Liang Yongqiant, Internet Fortune (China), no. 4, 2009.
    • Persian translation in Paul M. Sweezy, et. al., Capitalism and the Environment (Tehran: Digar Publishing House, 2008.
    • French translation in La Brèche-Carré Rouge, December 2007-January February 2008, pp. 46-53.
    • German translation in Perspectiven: Magazin Für Linke Tehoerie Und Praxis, 2007, no. 2 (Vienna);
    • Portuguese translation in O Comuneiro, no. 4, 2007, www.ocomuneiro.com.
    • Norwegian translation in Rødt–special edition in Norwegian daily Klassekampen (Class Struggle), June 2007.
    • Translated in Monthly Review, Turkish edition, 2007.
    • Korean translation October 15, 2009, at http://programto.net/wordpress/.
    • Bangla translation in Bangla Monthly Review, no. 3 (June 2007). Translated by Tushar Chakrabarty.

     

  • Monopoly-Finance Capital

    Monopoly-Finance Capital

    “Monopoly-Finance Capital“, Monthly Review, vol. 58, no. 7 (December 2006), pp. 1-14. DOI: 10.14452/MR-058-07-2006-11_1

    The year now ending marks the fortieth anniversary of Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy’s classic work, Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order (Monthly Review Press, 1966). Compared to mainstream economic works of the early to mid-1960s (the most popular and influential of which were John Kenneth Galbraith’s New Industrial State and Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom), Monopoly Capital stood out not simply in its radicalism but also in its historical specificity. What Baran and Sweezy sought to explain was not capitalism as such, the fundamental account of which was to be found in Marx’s Capital, but rather a particular stage of capitalist development. Their stated goal was nothing less than to provide a brief “essay-sketch” of the monopoly stage of capitalism by examining the interaction of its basic economic tendencies, narrowly conceived, with the historical, political, and social forces that helped to shape and support them.

    Translations:
    • Chinese translation by Research Center on Marxism, Yunnan Normal University, Foreign Theoretical Trends (China), no. 3, 2007.
    • Turkish translation in http://www.sendika.org, October 16, 2008.
    • Arabic translation by Thamer Al-Saffar in Civilized Dialogue 1925, May 24, 2007, http://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=97582

     

  • The Optimism of the Heart

    The Optimism of the Heart

    “The Optimism of the Heart“, (memorial to Harry Magdoff), Monthly Review, vol. 58, no. 5 (October 2006), pp. 10-26. DOI: 10.14452/MR-058-05-2006-09_2

    The following intellectual biography of Harry Magdoff is a slightly revised and expanded version of a piece that was posted on MRzine a few days after Harry’s death on January 1, 2006. It evolved out of an earlier biography I wrote for the Biographical Dictionary of Dissenting Economists in 2000. Since the aim of this biography was to present the basic facts of Harry’s intellectual career, personal feelings and observations were largely excluded. A brief word on Harry’s character and the warm emotions he engendered within those who knew him therefore seems essential here.

    Online draft, placed on www.monthlyreview.org

    Translations:
    • Translated in Monthly Review, Turkish edition, no. 2 (2006), pp. 9-22.
    • Bangla translation included in in the Rank of the Wretched: A collection of Short Biographies of Albert Einstein, Paul M. Sweezy, and Harry Magdoff. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Shrabon Prokashoni, 2006.
    • Chinese translation by Shoutao Sun in Foreign Theory Dynamics, 3 (2006).

     

  • Aspects of Class in the United States

    Aspects of Class in the United States

    “Aspects of Class in the United States: An Introduction“, Monthly Review, vol. 58, no. 3 (July-August 2006), pp. 1-5. DOI: 10.14452/MR-058-03-2006-07_1

    If class war is continual in capitalist society, there is no doubt that in recent decades in the United States it has taken a much more virulent form. In a speech delivered at New York University in 2004 Bill Moyers pointed out that the effects of this relentless offensive by the vested interests against the rest of the society are increasingly evident. In 2005 the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal each published a series of articles focusing on class in the United States.

    Reprints:
    • Reprinted in Michael Yates, ed., More Unequal: Aspects of Class in the United States (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2007), pp. 15-18.
    Translations:
    • Translated in Monthly Review, Turkish edition, no. 9 (Istanbul: Kalkedon, 2006).

     

  • A Warning to Africa

    A Warning to Africa

    “A Warning to Africa: The New U.S. Imperial Grand Strategy“, Monthly Review vol. 58, no. 2 (June 2006), pp.1-12. DOI: 10.14452/MR-058-02-2006-06_1

    Imperialism is constant for capitalism. But it passes through various phases as the system evolves. At present the world is experiencing a new age of imperialism marked by a U.S. grand strategy of global domination. One indication of how things have changed is that the U.S. military is now truly global in its operations with permanent bases on every continent, including Africa, where a new scramble for control is taking place focused on oil.

    Reprints:
    • Reprinted in Itinerários (Portugal), 2010. Reprinted in Pambazuka News: World Forum for Social Justice in Africa, www.pambazuka.org published by Fahamu in Oxford, U.K.
    Translations:
    • Chinese translation by Qi Jianjun, Social Sciences Abroad (China), no. 3, 2009.
    • French translation in Mondialisation.ca, March 13, 2007.
    • Arabic translation in Donia-Alwatan (Gaza-Palestine), www.alwatanvoice.com, January 15, 2007.
    • Korean translation in Monthly Review Korean Edition, no. 1 published by Philmac Publishing, Seoul Korea, May 2007, 40-57.
    • Italian version appears at Arianna Editrice.it, March 13, 2007.

     

  • Naked Imperialism

    Naked Imperialism

    Buy at Monthly Review Press

    “Naked Imperialism: The U.S. Pursuit of Global Dominance,” (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2006), 192 pp.

    (Consists of previously published articles/chapters from Monthly Review between 2000 and 2005 with a new preface by the author.)

    During the Cold War years, mainstream commentators were quick to dismiss the idea that the United States was an imperialist power. Even when U.S. interventions led to the overthrow of popular governments, as in Iran, Guatemala, or the Congo, or wholesale war, as in Vietnam, this fiction remained intact. During the 1990s and especially since September 11, 2001, however, it has crumbled. Today, the need for American empire is openly proclaimed and defended by mainstream analysts and commentators.

    Editions:

    • Indian edition (Delhi:Aakar Books, 2006).
    Translations:
    • Japanese translation by Watanabe Keiko, published by arrangement through Sakai Agency, 2009.
    • Korean translation, Renaissance Publishing Co. Korea, 2008.
    • Preface translated into Bangla in Bangla Monthly Review, no. 1 (December 2006). Translated by Indrani Nandi.