Writings in Exile

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky was a key political figure of the twentieth century – a leader of the Russian Revolution, founder of the Red Army, author of books on literature, history, morality and politics. Leon Trotsky: Writings in Exile contains some of his most insightful and penetrating works. Exiled and isolated by Stalin, Trotsky used the only weapon he had left – words. In these writings he defends the 1917 revolution, warns prophetically of fascism and analyses anti-colonial movements in the… (more information)

Maldevelopment

Anatomy of a Global Failure, 2nd edition

Samir Amin

In this updated edition of his 1990 book Samir Amin explains with great clarity the complex changes of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including the transformations in Eastern Europe and in the world economy, the growth of capitalism in China and, despite the West riding on the crest of new technologies, its materialist goals being increasingly questioned by new social movements including the Greens. In this context, Amin examines the failure of development from a political stand-point… (more information)

Uniting Struggles

Critical Social Research in Critical Times (Alternate Routes 2012) Special 25th Anniversary Edition

Edited by Carlo Fanelli, Priscillia Lefebvre

With the reverberations of the Great Recession still wreaking havoc throughout much of the world, this issue of Alternate Routes brings together articles based on their dedication to critical social research in critical times. Includes interventions by Naom Chomsky, Michael Parenti, Sut Jhally, Garry Potter, Michael Perelman and Pat Armstrong. (more information)

21st Century Socialism

Reinventing the Project, 2nd edition

Edited by Henry Veltmeyer

The growing polarization between the rich and powerful and the poor and powerless, the yawning social and developmental divide and the multidimensional systemic crisis of capitalism have given rise to a fundamental problem of our times: barbarism or socialism? Will we continue on the path of capitalist barbarism or move to a more just socialist system? Bringing together a passionate group of socialists, 21st Century Socialism participates in the emerging and critical debate concerned with reinventing… (more information)

FARC

The Longest Insurgency

Garry Leech

To many — the Colombian, U.S. and the E.U. governments among them — the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is no more than a terrorist organization. Moreover, they claim that the FARC is only engaged in criminal activities and no longer maintains an ideology. But does this tell the whole story? Is it possible to engage in armed revolutionary struggle in order to achieve political and ideological objectives without perpetrating acts of terrorism? As the U.N.’s special… (more information)

Post-Anarchism

A Reader

Edited by Süreyyya Evren, Duane Rousselle

Post-anarchism has been of considerable importance in the discussions of radical intellectuals across the globe in the last decade. In its most popular form, it demonstrates a desire to blend the most promising aspects of traditional anarchist theory with developments in post-structuralist and post-modernist thought. Post-Anarchism: A Reader includes the most comprehensive collection of essays about this emergent body of thought, making it an essential and accessible resource for academics, intellectuals… (more information)

Magical Marxism

Subversive Politics and the Imagination

Andy Merrifield

Magical Marxism demands something more of traditional Marxism–something more interesting and liberating. It asks that we imagine a Marxism that moves beyond debates about class, the role of the state and the dictatorship of the proletariat. In escaping the formalist straitjacket of orthodox Marxist critique, Merrifield argues for a reconsideration of Marxism and its potential, applying previously unexplored approaches to Marxist thinking that will reveal vital new modes of political activism… (more information)

Law of Worldwide Value, 2nd edition

Samir Amin

In his new extensively revised and expanded edition of this book, Samir Amin suggests new approaches to Marxian analysis of the crisis of the late capitalist system of generalized, financialized, and globalized oligopolies following on the financial collapse of 2008. Considering that Marx’s Capital, written before the emergence of imperialism as a decisive factor in capitalist accumulation, could provide no explanation for the persistent “underdevelopment” of the countries of the… (more information)

Politics of Equality

An Introduction

Jason Myers

Why are socialists, communists and social democrats concerned with the distribution of wealth? Why do they place so much importance on public goods such as education and health care? To what extent does democracy matter to socialist ideologies? In The Politics of Equality, Jason C. Myers sheds new light on questions like this, providing a readable, contemporary introduction to egalitarian political philosophy. Concentrating on ideas and values rather than on the rise and fall of parties and movements… (more information)

Change the World Without Taking Power, 3rd edition

The Meaning of Revolution Today

John Holloway

This new edition of John Holloway’s contemporary classic, Change the World Without Taking Power, includes an extensive new preface by the author. The wave of political demonstrations since the Battle of Seattle in 2001 have crystallized a new trend in left-wing politics. Modern protest movements are grounding their actions in both Marxism and Anarchism, fighting for radical social change in terms that have nothing to do with the taking of state power. This is in clear opposition to the traditional… (more information)

The Nature of Human Brain Work

An Introduction to Dialectics

Joseph Dietzgen, Larry Gambone

Called by Marx “The Philosopher of Socialism,” Joseph Dietzgen was a pioneer of dialectical materialism and a fundamental influence on anarchist and socialist thought who we would do well not to forget. Dietzgen examines what we do when we think. He discovered that thinking is a process involving two opposing processes: generalization, and specialization. All thought is therefore a dialectical process. Our knowledge is inherently limited however, which makes truth relative and… (more information)

Crack Capitalism

John Holloway

Crack Capitalism, argues that radical change can only come about through the creation, expansion and multiplication of ‘cracks’ in the capitalist system. These cracks are ordinary moments or spaces of rebellion in which we assert a different type of doing. John Holloway’s previous book, Change the World Without Taking Power, sparked a world-wide debate among activists and scholars about the most effective methods of going beyond capitalism. Now Holloway rejects the idea of a… (more information)

Global Capitalism in Crisis

Karl Marx & The Decay of the Profit System

Murray E.G. Smith

The world economy is currently experiencing a devastating slump not seen since the Second World War. Unemployment rates are skyrocketing and salaries are plummeting in the developed world, while astronomical food prices and starvation ravage the developing world. The crisis in global capitalism, Smith argues, should be understood as both a composite crisis of overproduction, credit and finance, and a deep-seated systemic crisis. Using Marx to analyze the origins, implications and scope of the current… (more information)

Socialist Register 2010

Morbid Symptoms: Health Under Capitalism

Edited by Colin Leys, Leo Panitch

Health care rights are fought over between commercial forces that seek to make health into a commodity (for those who can pay), and popular forces that seek to reduce gross inequalities and try to make (or keep) health as a public service. These essays analyze the global health industry: the corporations that sell pharmaceuticals and insurance and push to expand the consumption of goods and services, making health care everywhere a field of capital accumulation. (more information)

Renewing Socialism

Transforming Democracy, Strategy and Imagination, New edition

Leo Panitch

This new edition adds an in-depth interview to seven key essays. The interview asks: What impact is American imperialism having on left strategies in various parts of the world today? What common interests work for solidarity and against divisions of race, gender and class? As Green parties turn towards market socialism, what space is left for a red-green anti-capitalist coalition? Can new socialist parties avoid mistakes of communist and social democratic parties in the twentieth century? The… (more information)

Cops, Crime and Capitalism

The Law and Order Agenda in Canada

Todd Gordon

Framed within a Marxist class analysis that highlights the way in which state power and capitalist social relations are racialized and gendered, Gordon’s study locates law and order policing as a central moment of capitalist state power. He argues that, as with policing historically, crime-fighting is not the principal aim of contemporary law and order policing—rather the aim is the production of a new social order based on the severely diminished expectations of working people. Crime… (more information)

The Anti-Capitalist Dictionary

Movements, Histories and Motivations

David E. Lowes

This dictionary is an alternative and a counter-balance to the many political dictionaries that ignore or marginalize the history and influence of anti-capitalist movements. It paints a rich picture of the ideas and issues that inform today’s anti-capitalist activity. Anti-capitalism has existed in many forms and with a variety of names since the advent of capitalism. But this kind of oppositional force has often been ignored, misrepresented or trivialized by many in the media and academia… (more information)

Language and Hegemony in Gramsci

Peter Ives

Language and Hegemony in Gramsci demonstrates how Gramsci’s writings on language illuminate his entire social and political thought. It documents Gramsci’s concern with language from his university studies in linguistics, where he initially derived his famous concept of hegemony, to his last prison notebook. Hegemony has been seen as Gramsci’s most important contribution, but without knowledge of its linguistic roots, it is often misunderstood. It is only from the vantage point… (more information)

The Tragedy of Progress

Marxism, Modernity and the Aboriginal Question

David Bedford, Danielle Irving-Stephens

The Left in Canada has had an uneasy relationship with the Aboriginal struggle for justice. There is a natural sympathy and alliance between the working class and its political representatives who are struggling against the exploitation of labour and Aboriginal peoples and nations who are resisting the dispossession of their lands and the loss of their culture. Yet the co-incidence of interests has very rarely led to any support by labour and the Left for Aboriginal resistance. In fact, rather than… (more information)

Canadian Critical Race Theory

Racism and the Law

Carol A. Aylward

The growth of the Critical Race Theory genre began in Canada when scholars of colour in Canada began to articulate a dissatisfaction with the existing Canadian legal discourse which failed to include an analysis of the role that “race” and racism has played in the political and legal structures of Canadian society. This book is about the role that race and racism play in the theory and practice of law. It shows how Canadian Black lawyers and others are beginning to seriously consider… (more information)

The Socialist Register 1998

The Communist Manifesto Now

Edited by Colin Leys, Leo Panitch

The 150th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto provides the occasion for a powerful set of essays that draw on the Manifesto’s legacy to analyse working class responses today to the growing exhaustion of neo-liberalism and that contribute to setting a left agenda for the new millenium. The volume also features brilliant essays on the making of the Manifesto, plus a reprint of the Manifesto and a reproachful letter to Marx from a socialist-feminist. (more information)

Star Wars in Canadian Sociology

Exploring the Social Construction of Knowledge

David A. Nock

“David Nock looks at the theories of prominant sociologists and presents a thoroughly grounded discussion of how this unique brand of sociology has been socially constructed. It is a pleasant, interesting, and informative reader which makes all these topics look just a little bit different than they did before.”–Rich Ogmundson, University of Victoria (more information)