Happy 90th birthday to legendary American Marxist academic, historian, and political scientist Michael Parenti. Watch this clip of Parenti criticizing the neo-liberal capitalist class for cutting "stupid luxury things" like infant feeding programs and disability insurance to cope with capitalism's endless debt.
He was born into a working-class Italian-American family in the East Harlem area of New York. He gained a BA from the City College of New York, an MA from Brown University, and a Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. He taught at various universities in the US and worldwide before devoting himself to full-time writing, public speaking, and political activism. He has written over 20 books and over 300 articles, which have been translated into at least 18 languages.
Parenti's work has covered a wide range of topics but has included a particular focus on US foreign policy and defending communism and socialism. In Blackshirts and Reds (1997), Parenti defended the Soviet Union and other 20th-century communist states, arguing that they were morally superior to capitalist states. In To Kill a Nation on Yugoslavia (2002), Parenti demolishes the pro-NATO narrative that justified the 1999 bombing campaign in the region.
#AntiCapitalism #Socialism #Parenti
