The harrowing conditions inside a notorious detention centre for immigrants in Mexico are brought to life in Inside Siglo XXI, the fifth book from journalist and author Belén Fernández. An Al Jazeera columnist and Jacobin contributing editor, Fernández got access to the jail not because she secured a press pass but because—thanks to an expired visa—she was a detainee.

In 1941, the RCMP recruited Frank Hadesbeck, a Spanish Civil War veteran, as a paid informant to infiltrate the Communist Party. For decades, he informed upon hundreds of people who held progressive views. Hadesbeck’s “Watch Out” lists on behalf of the Security Service included labour activists, medical doctors, and anyone involved in the peace and human rights movements.

The cultural lobby’s propaganda prowess in Canada is amply demonstrated by the story Law tells of how we went from all three political parties promising “No Netflix Tax” during the 2015 federal election campaign to the passage of Bill C-11. In a slightly broader sweep of history, the story is about how Ottawa went from foregoing Internet regulation to becoming one of the world leaders in it.

One thing that should be clear to anyone who has read this book thoughtfully is that socialism cannot be refuted by easy talking points about the Gulag, the “nanny state” or any other such rhetorical excuses for thoughtlessness. To say that socialism is dead is wishful thinking on the part of its enemies.

Being on the left will never be easy given the forces we confront, and that pessimism of the intellect must be fused to optimism of the will. Few understood this as well as Canada’s perennial optimist Ed Broadbent, and that is why the new book, Seeking Social Democracy: Seven Decades in the Fight for Equality, is an inspiring read.

Few socialists will find much to object to in Cannibal Capitalism, and many will say they’ve been advocating for versions of the ideas put forth in this book for some time, including the notion that “what counts as an anti-capitalist struggle is… much broader than Marxists have traditionally supposed.” But Fraser is not just preaching to the converted.

Based on the latest scholarship in the field, University of Winnipeg professor Jim Silver tells the story of early modern poverty with due attention to questions of child poverty, the condition of women, slavery and colonialism with illuminating examples of upper-class cruelty visited on those without means who were considered responsible for their own fate.

The essays comprising For a Better World contain a contradictory interpretive dynamic, in which a present-minded insistence that the Winnipeg General Strike unfolded within a white working class erasure of Indigenous peoples co-exists with a more traditional analytic accent on the politics of class struggle.

Scott Stoneman reviews the recently released film adaptation of How to Blow Up a Pipeline and lays bare the through lines between the movie and its source material that is garnering attention for its endorsement of industrial sabotage. As Stoneman writes, the film’s conclusion does not present a clear-cut victory; it is more like a morally-ambiguous hedging.

War in Ukraine has been referred to as a “primer” on the Russia-Ukraine war, and that is the right description for it. Yes, “primer” has connotations of something a bit too basic and boring, but this book is not boring; it is concise, to the point, and the historical material it covers casts serious doubts on the mainstream interpretation of events.