Re: [OPE-L] Build It Now

From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Wed Aug 30 2006 - 23:25:49 EDT


Hi Mike L:

Congratulations!  Who designed and chose the cover design? Despite the
contemporary symbolism of a cell phone, I think that its 'socialist
realist' art is ironic for a book which is "a fresh, clear and innovative
vision of a socialist future".

More info. on the book follows.

In solidarity, Jerry

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<http://www.monthlyreview.org/builditnow.htm>

BUILD IT NOW

Socialism for the Twenty-First Century

by Michael A. Lebowitz

Build It Now puts forward a clear and innovative vision of a
socialist future, and at the same time shows how concrete steps can
be taken to make that vision a reality. It shows how the
understanding of capitalism can itself become a political act-a
defense of the real needs of human beings against the ongoing advance
of capitalist profit.

Throughout the book, Michael Lebowitz addresses the concerns of
people engaged in struggle to create a better world, but aware that
this struggle must be informed by the realities of the twenty-first
century. Many chapters of the book began life as speeches to worker
organizations in Venezuela, where worker self-management is on the
agenda. Written by an eminent scholar, this is far more than an
academic treatise. The book brings an internationalist outlook and
vast knowledge of global trends to bear on concrete efforts to
transform contemporary society.

Build It Now is a testament to the ongoing vitality of the Marxist
tradition, drawing on its deep resources of analytical insight and
moral passion and fusing them into an essential guide to the
struggles of our time.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The Needs of Capital vs. the Needs of Human Beings

2. Ideology and Economic Development

3. The Knowledge of a Better World

4. Reclaiming a Socialist Vision

5. Socialism Doesn't Drop from the Sky

6. Seven Difficult Questions

7. The Revolution of Radical Needs:
Behind the Bolivarian Choice of a Socialist Path

Notes

Index

August 2006

ISBN:
1-58367-145-5
$14.95 paper

128 pp.

Political Theory

About the Author
MICHAEL A. LEBOWITZ is professor emeritus of economics at Simon Fraser
University in Vancouver, Canada, and the author of Beyond Capital:
Marx's Political Economy of the Working Class, winner of the
Isaac Deutscher memorial prize for 2004.


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