David McNally
@redprof.bsky.social
Social justice activist and writer. Most recent book: "Slavery and Capitalism: A New Marxist History" (2025)
Here's an excerpt from my new book in Literary Hub. Remarkably, they chose a section on plantation profits, fetishism, and why enslaved people represented living labor not constant capital. lithub.com/inside-the-p...
Inside the Political Economy of New World Slavery
The “primary purpose” of New World slaves, Sidney Mintz wrote, was to serve as manual laborers engaged…in the production of market commodities…Slaves were not primarily a source of pres…
lithub.com
What a great conversation. Clara Mattei and I explored liberalism, capitalism, slavery, and resistance in this wide-ranging discussion of my book, "Slavery and Capitalism." (And, yes, that's quite the look on my face). Here’s the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kpR...
Capitalism Didn’t Replace Slavery, It Scaled It | David McNally
YouTube video by FREE – Forum for Real Economic Emancipation
youtube.com
"This is that rare object—writing that is scholarly and gripping, crammed with insight and the engaging detail of the best history writing. . . McNally reminds us that the question is how to become free."—Gargi Bhattacharyya, author of Rethinking Racial Capitalism
Here's the video of the wonderful Tulsa event based on my book, "Slavery and Capitalism." Thanks to Clara Mattei and all the wonderful folks at the Forum for Real Economic Emancipation (FREE): www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcE-...
Capitalism & Slavery: The Truth They Don’t Teach You | David McNally & Clara Mattei
YouTube video by FREE – Forum for Real Economic Emancipation
youtube.com
Today is the official release day for my "Slavery and Capitalism: A New Marxist History." I have been deeply gratified by the early response to the book. If you order from the publisher, use code UCPSAVE30 to get 30 percent off the list price. Info here: www.ucpress.edu/books/slaver...
Slavery and Capitalism by David McNally - Hardcover
Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.
ucpress.edu
Solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla, departing Barcelona to deliver aid to Gaza and to challenge the apartheid state's blockade. The incorruptible Greta Thunberg is on board.
Solidarity with Air Canada flight attendants as they defy government in defense of their right to strike
On the anniversary of his death "There are men who struggle for a day and they are good. There are men who struggle for a year and they are better. There are men who struggle many years, and they are better still. But there are those who struggle all their lives: These are the indispensable ones."
Toronto launch (October 9) for my new book, "Slavery and Capitalism."
The author with his new book. This magical moment never gets old.
James Baldwin on Palestine--in celebration of his 101st birthday
More from the great James Baldwin on his 101st birthday.
On his 101st birthday, we honor the great James Baldwin. "I pray I’ve done my work so, that when I’ve gone from here . . . when someone finds themselves digging through the ruins . . . they’ll find something . . . that I left behind. And if I’ve done that, then I’ve accomplished something in life."
Trump's "boom" just collapsed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics today revised previous estimates of job growth in recent months months, cutting 258,000 from the prior counts. That puts the three-month job growth at a paltry 35,000. Trump's response? He just fired the commissioner of labor statistics 🤣
Rashid Khalidi calls out Columbia U: "Columbia’s capitulation has turned a university [into] a place of fear and loathing . . . to cover up one of the greatest crimes of this century, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, a crime in which Columbia’s leadership is now fully complicit."
A publication like the Financial Times makes such a statement only in response to a major shift in public opinion. And that shift is a tribute to the dogged persistence of the Palestine solidarity movement in exposing these crimes. Sure, sneer at the FT. But cheer on the global solidarity movement.
A big shoutout to this book. From my blurb: "brian bean shares inspiring examples of people who managed their communities after driving out the police. Their End is Our Beginning: Cops, Capitalism, and Abolition is a much-needed breath of hope as we blaze our path to a better world." —David McNally
"When we see thousands of Jews flooding into the streets to demand a ceasefire in Palestine, they . . . are representing a long-established Jewish tradition of solidarity against oppression" -- Shane Burley reviews an important new book by Benjamin Balthaser spectrejournal.com/the-anti-zio...
The Anti-Zionist Tradition of the US Jewish Left – Spectre Journal
Shane Burley reviews Ben Balthaser's Citizens of the Whole World: Anti-Zionism and the Cultures of the American Jewish Left
spectrejournal.com
Solidarity with union activist Chris Smalls, assaulted by Israeli forces yesterday on the Freedom Flotilla ship, the Handala. The crime committed by Smalls and his comrades on board? Trying to bring life-saving food and medical supplies to Gaza.
Yesterday I said goodbye to the beat-up old paper York U library card that saw me through decades of book borrowing. And, truth, I am now indeed (and have been since I went to Houston) retired faculty at York.
