Reading with Comrades discussion

I'll start off the nominations for May, with The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels.

i’m going to selfishly nominate a book i just bought to motivate myself to read it 😜 it’s “listen liberal: or, whatever happened to the party of the people?” by thomas frank. he was just on trueanon if anyone listens to that podcast!

lindsi,

So far we've only had 2 nominations from our 103 members, yet I bet that most of them could come up with interesting nominations for May.

I think that as group moderator you're able to send a message to all of us in the group - it might be worth sending a message encouraging people to nominate a book for May. We ideally want to give people as much time as possible to get hold of a copy of whatever book is chosen.

just did it! sorry i didn’t know that was a feature lol

Hey all! This is my first time recommending in the group, so my apologies if this isn’t the type of book enjoyed here, but how about Blood In the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising And It’s Legacy https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

black marxism by cedric robinson* :)

also i’ve been wanting to read “revolting prostitutes”, but not sure if it fits the dynamic

anything relating to communism, capitalism, revolutionary thought, race, gender, sexuality, imperialism, war, or politics is fair game lol so keep the suggestions coming!

I’m going to recommend Blood in My Eye by George Jackson. I also have a pdf version if anyone needs it :)

https://redyouthnwa.files.wordpress.c...

If nothing else, I appreciate the pdf link, Comrade Vixxen! Ive been wanting to read this book for awhile

i wanna rescind my nomination of thomas frank’s book. i’m almost done with it and it’s bad lol

i’ll nominate “the deficit myth” by stephanie kelton instead

It looks as if the final list of nominations is -


The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels


Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson


Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric J. Robinson


Blood in My Eye by George L. Jackson


The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy by Stephanie Kelton


Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights by Molly Smith

If anybody wants to add a nomination, let me know today. By tonight I'll set up a poll so that everyone can vote for their choice.

Hey y'all, here's the link to the poll:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...--

Our poll resulted in a draw between The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State and Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights, so we've decided that we'll read Origin of the Family in May and read Revolting Prostitutes in July.

Origin of the Family is a fairly short book, and is readily available in a variety of editions. There is a PDF version available at https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx..., and an online version at https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx...
A short study guide can be found at https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx...

I hope as many comrades as possible will read the book, and participate in the discussion.

May Day Greetings to Comrades everywhere from a (partly) sunny Glasgow, Scotland! Where are you spending May Day?

I hope some of you will celebrate it by joining us in our May reading challenge - The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.

And we don't need to worry about posts containing "spoilers" - so feel free to post your comments and thoughts as you read.

If you have time after The Origin of the Family, Cory Doctorow has made his first non-fiction book in years, How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism., available free online on his podcast. There is also a five-part serialised reading of it. The link is https://craphound.com/category/destroy/

hows everyone doing with engels? i gotta be honest, it’s a tough read for me. my translation is not contemporary english (don’t understand why it was translated to begin with, engels usually wrote in english) and is incredibly dense 😣

It's really dense and I don't think his writing style is flowing very easily so I am also having a hard time with it :(

I finished it today, and have to agree that its not the easiest of reads - although the second half of the book is a bit easier than the first.

My initial reactions are that the language is obviously dated, social anthropology has moved on since Engels wrote it, and some of the source material from Morgan is probably flawed.

But its hard to knock Engels scientific approach, and you have to give him credit for writing probably the first Marxist text on the role of women, and the nature of their oppression and exploitation.

Crucially, he made clear that women's oppression is "a problem of history not of biology" and he was deeply committed to the principle of equality for women.

On the whole, I'm glad that I read it and it's motivated me to do some follow-up reading.

I’m way behind and am only halfway through this book but I am loving it. It makes me consider new and fascinating ideas, so thank you to this group for recommending it!

Alison, or anyone interested in "the Origin of the Family..", might be interested in a presentation given by feminist and historian, Prof Mary Davis, and available to view at the Marx Memorial Library - https://www.marx-memorial-library.org....

The 2021 edition of the library's journal (Theory & Struggle) also contains an article by Prof Davis on "Women's oppression, the origin of the family, and the condition of the working class"