#1
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So I wanna work towards setting up a communisty anti-imperialist collective in my community and there's a fair amount of interest, but my only worry is that people aren't really on the up-and-up on the Immortal Science of Marxism-Leninism and that we'll need to do some study work. Most of the people interested are weed-fuelled millennial students and/or precarious workers though so these people are hella busy and don't wanna commit to reading all of Das Kapital before getting out and organizing. What are some brief (preferably original source) writings on Marxism and other stuff?

Preferably would like some stuff on Lenin and the Russian Revolution, Maoism and the Chinese Revolution, Palestine and the PFLP, settler-colonialism and anti-colonialism, precarious and migrant labor organizing, and the Philippine Revolution.
#2
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#3
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Just a few general recommendations from my own experiences with reading groups:

-Always set low amounts of pages, especially to start with. You've already mentioned this one... Short articles like 'The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism' are useful. If you like you can set a few of these for one week instead of a single longer piece. It's better that a lot of people do at least one of the shorter readings, rather than nobody doing a single long reading.

-Whenever possible have photocopies of the readings to give to people. People who haven't done the readings will stick around if they can bury their head in something and not look like dopes. They'll browse the readings they didn't do, listen to others, maybe highlight a few passages. Better than nothing. I realise this involves some $ for printing/photocopying. You could even send people pdf excerpts you've prepared and ask people to print it themselves maybe?

-Don't be afraid to do excerpts of larger pieces. Why not read, say, The Fetishism of Commodities and The Secret Thereof from Vol 1 of Capital. Nobody except nerds would want to do something like Capital 1 chapter by chapter for months. Give them a taste of something and maybe they'll do the rest on their own time. Obviously this works best if the person guiding the reading group is familiar with the full text, as people invariably make mistakes when something is taken out of a larger context.

Edited by Chthonic_Goat_666 ()

#4
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Maybe a little too obvious, but The Little Red Book is probably a great communist document for reaching skeptical or recent/nearly converted americans who are accustomed to all complex political narratives fitting on a bumper sticker. Partially because it's just the best book period. But yeah also because it has that communist wisdom all broken up into easily read/discussed units. Most chapters wouldn't take more than a few minutes to at least skim through and see what's being said, at least to the point of being able to observe discussion and not feel lost and still get something out of it.

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/index.htm

The way Marxists.org has it published also works pretty well on phones, which I think would really help with accessibility.
#5
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Recommending that people read Mao when they are just starting to develop an interest in Communism is like recommending that someone read the Book of Mormon because they told you that they were developing an interest in spirituality. That's been my experience anyway.
#6
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The Road to Serdom - Selma Hayek
#7
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MarxUltor posted:

The Little Red Book... it's just the best book period.


Uh.. ever heard of The Bible???

#8
Dont Mess With Sucess
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Caliban and the Witch is a really good one I think. It's easy to read and opens up with a fascinating discussion of a part of history that most people know nothing about. Something about it seems to appeal to women idk what.
#9
Occupied Aztlan
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this is largely based off my own experience, but wen coming up with readings you should think about type of issues you think your collective will run into first. are you largely doing BLM work? read about national oppression(Settlers? Chican@ Power and the Struggle for Aztlan? Hammer and Hoe? Black Skin White Masks?), go back to Marx later. i understand the desire for foundation work but your goal is class unity, so youve got to smash the white crap before you can get into anything useful anyway.

#10
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Might I recommend A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin
#11
Kurdt
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Blood Lies: The Evidence that Every Accusation against Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union in Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands Is False
#12
Mike Nelson here.
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Start the same way tHE rHizzonE did, with Deleuze and Guattari's complete "Capitalism and Schizophrenia". It helps if the people are prodromal.
#13
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ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF PHILOSOPHY

this was a solid read (thanks MarianneSadd) and one i would definitely recommend as a basic introduction to dialectical materialism
#14
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depending on the particular focus of discussion you could also use excerpts from books covering a given historical period or country as miniature case studies to illustrate concepts.

like you could use excerpts of the pinochet file for a number of things: neoliberalism, us/latin america policy, the intersection of corporate interests and foreign policy, the deep state, etc.

or, of course, killing hope.

maybe even more valuable here would be to build towards illustrating the simple human suffering that is enabled (and, you could emphasize, required) by transnational capital.

the shock doctrine is also digestible enough for people who are just sort of wading into those waters as well. probably a really feasible group read

Edited by insta_gramsci ()

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#16
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#17
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#18
UNUSUALY COOL
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"The Apprentice's Sorceror: Liberal Tradition and Fascism" might be good at different points depending on how you structure it. if you start with moving people from the POV of contemporary bourgeois discussions into critical thinking, it could go at the beginning, while if you're starting with marx & engels, it would fit in later when you talk about imperialism & lenin. also it's tom-approved.
#19
Occupied Aztlan
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another thing: when picking readings, give yourself enough time to read the sections before you assign them. this does a couple things, but one is that you can wrap up each session by giving people a couple questions to think about as theyre reading the next assignment, which gives you something to open with next time.

e: idk if this was mentioned but if youre photocopying, take a second to make one copy, highlight some things you think are important in the text (this is where reading ahead helps too), then make the rest of the copies off the highlighted text. I usually hang onto this, stick it in a folder with some other educational materials so you can use it later.

Edited by Urbandale ()

#20
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Urbandale posted:

when picking readings, give yourself enough time to read the sections before you assign them



lol

#21
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today in the communist book club we're going to discuss Cyclonopedia chapter 4... what?!? nah.. I didn't read past the third page.. are you kidding me? Houellebecq wouldn't shit out a "novel" that bad
#22
Mike Nelson here.
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Yeah, basically you've got to take the Scientology strategy like any other cult. Early on you take their existing beliefs and you confirm them. Like maybe they hate firefighters because they are just cops with hoses, read an article by Jacobin about why firefighters evolved out of the need to protect slaver mansions. Then spread from there by playing to their prejudices, like maybe they have a lot of student debt, read an article about how being a management trainee with student debt is worse than being a Congolese miner. Only then can you start giving them the mind-blowing truthbombs from Karl Marx such as the fact that factory owners expect profit from labourers in order to hire them. And only when they are Tom Cruise level can you start explaining that the shooting escapees in the back at the Berlin Wall was a good thing.
#23
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get fiscal what do you think about fr kavanaugh's following christ in a consumer society? I liked it a lot. What should I check out next (more christ, less consumerism)
#24
Mike Nelson here.
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I haven't read that, sorry.
#25
Occupied Aztlan
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EmanuelaBrolandi posted:

Urbandale posted:

when picking readings, give yourself enough time to read the sections before you assign them

lol



i mean, most new commies are young, either working or halfway through school, and are pretty busy in general. ive been to plenty of meetings where the lead read the book a while ago, but they werent reading a section ahead of the rest of the club, they were just keeping pace. its a minor thing and it seems obvious but it isnt

#26
Poronto
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djbk posted:

get fiscal what do you think about fr kavanaugh's following christ in a consumer society? I liked it a lot. What should I check out next (more christ, less consumerism)



i read it and it kind of sucked. don't remember much about it but it was definitely not marxist and erased class

#27
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I dont disagree with your conclusions, but it interests me. Do you have a couple of recommendations? some closer marxist liberation theology texts?
#28
UNUSUALY COOL
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proverbs 13:22
#29
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acts 4:32-37
#30
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1 corinthians 11:6-10
mark 14:4-7
some good shit there, you goofy turbonerds
#31
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ezekiel 25:17
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#33
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i'm triggered AF and I need to start reading more Mao, i started reading on contradiction, what should i go to next?

also, what's a good intro to stalin's theoretical works?
#34
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#35
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iirc petrol or makeshit swahili said you can find it in a lot of australian thrift stores so that might be a good place to start your search
#36
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read "Trotskyism or Leninism?" and work out what trotskyism is for us