Lenin's "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism" exposes the dark underbelly of capitalism, where economic forces and political power dance in a shadowy masquerade. He reveals how imperialism is not a mere side-effect of states' ambitions but a complex product of capital's relentless quest for profit, driving nations to export capital rather than just goods. The document reflects the sinister dynamics that create monopolies, establish financial oligarchies, and differentiate classes within the proletariat, suggesting that even workers can become complicit in their subjugation. This analysis remains crucial today, as it compels us to question ownership and control within our increasingly interconnected world.
Marx and Engels Against Their Own Ghosts: The German Ideology and the Fight to Keep Materialism Inside History
Marx and Engels' The German Ideology brutally uncovers the egregious folly of detaching philosophy from material conditions. They weaponize critiques of German idealists, exposing how revolutionary thought that ignores the tangible, lived experiences of class struggle morphs into mere ideology. Highlighting the perils of alienation, they assert that human powers can unwittingly turn oppressive when subjected to capitalist structures. Moreover, they admonish socialists who, by elevating abstract ideas above real movements, dilute the revolutionary essence of their theories. In a world increasingly interlinked yet profoundly unequal, their insistence on rooting ideas in concrete history remains a clarion call for genuine transformation against ideological hauntings.
Whose Gospel Is It?: Empire, the Oppressed, and the Battle for Christianity
The profound legacy of American Christianity reveals a striking dichotomy: a faith that has historically upheld domination and one that fervently resists it. From the hidden church of the enslaved to Black abolitionism and Indigenous Christian defiance, oppressed communities have seized the Gospel to construct their liberation narrative. As institutional power consolidated in the hands of reactionary forces, an urgent call emerged for believers to reclaim their spiritual heritage and resist Christian nationalism. The challenge lies in forging an organized Christian movement capable of translating faith into collective action that confronts exploitation and promotes social justice, reinvigorating the powerful tradition of liberation Christianity.
Sovereign Enough to Steal From: How American Law Turns Conquest Into Governance
Ward Churchill’s Perversions of Justice exposes the legal machinery through which Indigenous sovereignty is recognized just enough to legitimize treaties, land cessions, resource extraction and colonial administration—then restricted whenever it threatens settler possession or state power. Following that contradiction from conquest and property into uranium mining, blood quantum, AIM repression and U.S. imperial expansion, this review tests both Churchill’s strongest insights and his strategic limits. His final wager—that the colonizer’s own law can be weaponized to fracture legitimacy and withdraw consent—remains powerful. But the deeper revolutionary question is what turns that rupture into organized material counter-power.
The Revolution Must Keep Making Revolutionaries: Fidel Castro and the Fight Against Becoming a Monument
On the centenary of Fidel Castro's birth, his autobiography, My Life, acts as a provocative lens into the complexities of revolution. It dismantles the myth of the born revolutionary, showcasing instead how context, struggle, and learning forge warriors for change. Despite Cuba's successes, deep-rooted issues like racism and inequality persist, with Fidel warning that Cuba's most significant threat may not come from external forces but from within—its own inability to correct mistakes. As the Revolution ages, the pressing query remains: can it continually foster revolutionary consciousness amidst evolving contradictions or will it succumb to the complacency that often follows victory?
The Dividend Is Human: Africa’s Population Boom and the Battle Over Production
The Financial Times provocatively flips the Malthusian narrative on its head, arguing Africa's plight stems from a historical lack of population rather than excess. This revisionist tale criticizes the colonial legacy that stripped Africa of its labor and infrastructure, while the current swell of population, cities, and markets struggles against debt and underdevelopment. The real challenge isn't merely a growing populace; it's whether Africans can seize control of factories, technology, and continental markets. As density increases, the push for organized labor and investment in industrial capacity becomes crucial—otherwise, Africa risks becoming a mere market for foreign goods, trapped in a cycle of dependency despite its demographic potential.
The World Got Richer, You Didn’t: Capitalism’s Quadrillion-Dollar Balance-Sheet Lie
Fortune says “global households” became $40 trillion richer in 2025. But when the richest 10 percent already own three-quarters of the world’s wealth, that headline is less a report than a magic trick. The new abundance came largely from rising equities, inflated asset values and expanding financial claims—not from productive investment or improved living standards. Behind the quadrillion-dollar balance sheet lies a system where private fortunes swell while public wealth stagnates, workers lose power, tenants lose security and the Global South services the debts of the imperial core. This is not shared prosperity. It is class power written in the language of accounting.
Un-American by Choice: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Revolution Liberal Memory Could Not Bury
For generations, the American academy celebrated W.E.B. Du Bois while burying the revolutionary conclusions that defined the final decades of his life. In this Weaponized Intellects review of Bill V. Mullen's Un-American, we excavate the real Du Bois: communist, anti-imperialist, Pan-African internationalist and unapologetic ally of socialist revolution. Mullen powerfully restores Du Bois to the global struggle against capitalism and colonialism, yet retreats into familiar anti-Stalinist assumptions when revolution becomes embodied in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. The result is both an indispensable recovery and a revealing ideological battleground over the meaning of socialism, state power and the unfinished project of world revolution.
The Palestine Exception: Why Washington Is Trying to Break the ICC
The Guardian's coverage of Marco Rubio's claim that the International Criminal Court (ICC) threatens U.S. sovereignty highlights the deeper issue of imperial exemption rather than genuine sovereignty. The U.S. has long opposed ICC jurisdiction that could implicate American or allied personnel, reacting strongly against Palestinian efforts to document crimes under occupation. The article critiques the liberal institutionalism of the response, noting a lack of representation for affected parties. It underscores that U.S. sanctions targeting Palestinian organizations and ICC officials are a means to maintain impunity. Oppressed nations seek accountability, using available legal systems to challenge the dominance of imperial powers and protect their sovereignty against external coercion.
The Market Came Armed: Sven Beckert and the World Capital Built by Conquest
Sven Beckert demolishes capitalism’s favorite myth: that it emerged from free markets, innovation, and peaceful exchange. His global history shows a system built through conquest, slavery, colonial dispossession, state power, coerced labor, and repeated counterrevolution. Yet Beckert repeatedly turns rebellions, socialist revolutions, and anticolonial victories into episodes in capitalism’s adaptation. This review seizes his historical arsenal while rejecting that retreat, arguing that a world made through organized class and colonial power can be remade only through the organized power of workers and oppressed peoples.