John Bellamy Foster

Tag: Reprints

  • The Cultural Apparatus of Monopoly Capital

    “The Cultural Apparatus of Monopoly Capital: Critical Views from the 1960s—An Introduction” [PDF], (coauthored with Robert W. McChesney, Foster listed first), Monthly Review vol. 64, no. 8 (July-August 2013), pp. 1-32.

    The past half-century has been dominated by the rise of media to a commanding position in the social life of most people and nations, to the point where it is banal to regard this as the “information age.” The once-dazzling ascension of television in the 1950s and ‘60s now looks like the horse-and-buggy era when one assesses the Internet, smartphones, and the digital revolution. For social theorists of all stripes communication has moved to center stage. And for those on the left, addressing the role of communication in achieving social change and then maintaining popular rule in the face of reactionary backlash is now a primary concern.… political economists of communication, including one of us, identified themselves as in the tradition of radical political economy, but with a sophisticated appreciation of media that had escaped.… [the stellar critique of journalism produced… by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky]. Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy were occasionally held up by political economists of communication as representing the sort of traditional Marxists who underappreciated the importance of media, communication, and culture.… We were never especially impressed by this criticism. To us, Monopoly Capital, and the broader political economy of Baran and Sweezy, far from ignoring communication, provided key elements for a serious study of the subject.

    Reprints:
    • Reprinted in Savaş Çoban, ed., The Media and the Left (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2014), pp. 67-103;
    • Reprinted in Robert W. McChesney, Blowing the Roof Off the Twenty-First Century: Media, Politics, and the Struggle for Post-Capitalist Democracy (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2014, 188-218.
    Translations:
    • Turkish translation in Monthly Review, Turkish edition (May 2014), pp. 53-68.
  • Capitalism and Degrowth

    Capitalism and Degrowth

    “Capitalism and Degrowth: An Impossibility Theorem“, Monthly Review, vol. 62, no. 8 (January 2011), pp.26-33. DOI: 10.14452/MR-062-08-2011-01_2

    Almost four decades after the Club of Rome raised the issue of “the limits to growth,” the economic growth idol of modern society is once again facing a formidable challenge. What is known as “degrowth economics,” associated with the work of Serge Latouche in particular, emerged as a major European intellectual movement in 2008 with the historic conference in Paris on “Economic De-Growth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity,” and has since inspired a revival of radical Green thought, as epitomized by the 2010 “Degrowth Declaration” in Barcelona.… Ironically, the meteoric rise of degrowth (décroissance in French) as a concept has coincided over the last three years with the reappearance of economic crisis and stagnation on a scale not seen since the 1930s. The degrowth concept therefore forces us to confront the questions: Is degrowth feasible in a capitalist grow-or-die society—and if not, what does this say about the transition to a new society?

    Reprints:
    • An earlier, slightly different version of this article was published in the December/January 2011 issue of Red Pepper (UK).
    • The MR version was reprinted in Synthesis/Regeneration 55 (Spring 2010), pp. 35-39.
    Translations:
    • Italian translation by Andrea Grillo at Senza Soste.it, December 27, 2010.
    • German translation in Luxemburg 1 (2011), pp. 12-17.
    • Catalan translation, Kit de Supervivéncia Ambiental, March 16, 2011.
    • Greek translation in the Forum of ARENA, February 2, 2011.
    • Portuguese translation by Paula Sequeiros for Esquerda.net, December 4, 2010.

     

  • Why Ecological Revolution?

    “Why Ecological Revolution?“, Monthly Review vol. 61, no. 8 (January 2010), pp. 1-19. DOI: 10.14452/MR-061-08-2010-01_1

    It is now universally recognized within science that humanity is confronting the prospect—if we do not soon change course—of a planetary ecological collapse. Not only is the global ecological crisis becoming more and more severe, with the time in which to address it fast running out, but the dominant environmental strategies are also forms of denial, demonstrably doomed to fail, judging by their own limited objectives. This tragic failure, I will argue, can be attributed to the refusal of the powers that be to address the roots of the ecological problem in capitalist production and the resulting necessity of ecological and social revolution.

    Reprints:

    Reprinted in Leslie King and Deborah McCarthy Auriffeille, ed., Environmental Sociology: From Analysis to Action, Third Edition (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2014), pp. 37-52.

    Translations:
    • German translation in Sozialistische Zeitung, March 2010.
    • French translation by Jean Pestieua in Études Marxistes, no. 86, 2009, 63-76.
    • Latvian translation by Ieva Zalite, Green Liberty, http://zb-zeme.lv, 2010.
    • Chinese translations in Foreign Theoretical Trends, no. 3, 2010 and at www.leftlibrary.com/foster.htm, 2010.
    • Spanish translation in Brumaria 22 (Madrid, 2010), pp. 257-70.

     

  • Monopoly-Finance Capital and the Paradox of Accumulation

    Monopoly-Finance Capital and the Paradox of Accumulation

    “Monopoly-Finance Capital and the Paradox of Accumulation“, (coauthored with Robert W. McChesney, Foster listed first), Monthly Review vol. 61, no. 5 (October 2009), pp. 1-20.  DOI: 10.14452/MR-061-05-2009-09_1

    This month marks the eightieth anniversary of the 1929 Stock Market Crash that precipitated the Great Depression of the 1930s. Ironically, this comes at the very moment that the capitalist system is celebrating having narrowly escaped falling into a similar abyss. The financial crash and the decline in output a year ago, following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, was as steep as at the beginning of the Great Depression. “For a while,” Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times in August, “key economic indicators — world trade, world industrial production, even stock prices—were falling as fast or faster than they did in 1929-30. But in the 1930s the trend lines kept heading down. This time, the plunge appears to be ending after just one terrible year.” Big government, through the federal bailout and stimulus, as well as the shock-absorber effects of the continued payouts of unemployment and Social Security benefits, Medicare, etc., slowed the descent and helped the economy to level off, albeit at a point well below previous output.

    Reprints:
    • Reprinted in John F. Sitton, ed., Marx Today: Selected Works and Recent Debates (New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010), 185-200.
    Translations:
    • Galician translation by Xosé Díaz Díaz in Terra e Tempo (no. 2, 2010), http://www.terraetempo.net.
    • Arabic translation by Thamer Al-Saffar, Civilized Dialogue, May 24, 2010, http://www.ahewar.org.
    • Chinese transltion in Foreign Theoretical Trends,2010.
    • Turkish translations appears in Kapitalizmin Finansal Krizi, edited by Prof. Dr. Abdullah Ersoy (Ankara, Turkey: Imaj Publishing, 2011), 330pp; and in Monthly Review, Turkish edition, 26 (Istanbul: Kalkedon Publications, March 2011).
    • Bangla translation in Bangla Monthly Review, vol. 2. no. 2 (March 2010). Translation by Farooque Chowdhury.

     

  • A New New Deal under Obama?

    A New New Deal under Obama?

    “A New New Deal under Obama?“, (coauthored with Robert W. McChesney, Foster listed first), Monthly Review, vol. 60, no. 9 (February 2009), pp. 1-11. DOI: 10.14452/MR-060-09-2009-02_1

    With U.S. capitalism mired in an economic crisis of a severity that increasingly brings to mind the Great Depression of the 1930s, it should come as no surprise that there are widespread calls for “a new New Deal.” Already the new Obama administration has been pointing to a vast economic stimulus program of up to $850 billion over two years aimed at lifting the nation out of the deep economic slump.

    Reprints:
    Translations:
    • French translation in Etudes Marxistes, no. 86, December 1, 2009.
    • Spanish translation in Monthly Review, Selecciones en Castellano, no. 10, 131-40.
    • Galician translation published by Avantar, February 25, 2009.
    • Portuguese translation by Zion Edições in Association Resistir.Info , February 1, 2009, http://reistir.info.
    • Korean translation by Social Policy Committee, People’s Solidarity for Social Progress, http://www.pssp.org/main/index.php
    • Bangla translation in Bangla Monthly Review, vol. 1, no. 3, June 2009. Translated by Pachu Ray.
    • Turkish translation in Monthly Review, Turkish edition, no. 21 (Istanbul: Kalkedon, 2009), pp. 63-74.

     

  • Critique of Intelligent Design

    Critique of Intelligent Design

    Buy at Monthly Review Press

    “Critique of Intelligent Design: Materialism versus Creationism from Antiquity to the Present,” (co-authored with Brett Clark and Richard York, Foster listed first, New York: Monthly Review Press, 2008), 240 pp.

    Critique of Intelligent Design is a direct reply to the criticisms of intelligent design proponents and a compelling account of the long debate between materialism and religion in the West. It provides an overview of the contemporary fight concerning nature, science, history, morality, and knowledge. Separate chapters are devoted to the design debate in antiquity, the Enlightenment and natural theology, Marx, Darwin, and Freud, and to current scientific debates over evolution and design. It offers empowering tools to understand and defend critical and scientific reasoning in both the natural and social sciences and society as a whole.

    Reprints:

    • Reprint of chapter 5, “Marx’s Critique of Heaven and Critique of Earth,” Monthly Review, vol. 60, no. 5 (October 2008), pp. 22-42; Chapter 5.
    Translations:
    •  Arabic translations in Civilized Dialogue, issue 2498 (December 17, 2008), http://www.ahewar.org/ and Free Thought, March 3, 2010.
  • Ecology and the Transition from Capitalism to Socialism

    Ecology and the Transition from Capitalism to Socialism

    “Ecology and the Transition from Capitalism to Socialism“, Monthly Review vol. 60, no. 6 (November 2008), pp.1-12. DOI: 10.14452/MR-060-06-2008-10_1

    The transition from capitalism to socialism is the most difficult problem of socialist theory and practice. To add to this the question of ecology might therefore be seen as unnecessarily complicating an already intractable issue. I shall argue here, however, that the human relation to nature lies at the heart of the transition to socialism. An ecological perspective is pivotal to our understanding of capitalism’s limits, the failures of the early socialist experiments, and the overall struggle for egalitarian and sustainable human development.

    Reprints:
    • Reprinted in abridged form, Briarpatch magazine, 2009.
    Translations:

     

  • 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.

     

  • 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.