Reading with Comrades discussion

This month’s topic is: Communism!

What work of fiction or nonfiction are you reading/planning to read that fits this theme?

What I'll be reading in January is History of the Communist Party of Great Britain: Volume 1: Formation and early years 1919-1924 by James Klugmann



It's been on my TBR pile for a while, and this challenge will give me the added motivation to read it.

I’m gonna be reading Blackshirts & Reds by Michael Parenti 😎

I am reading “Selected Prison Writings of Gramsci” and “Selected Works of Ho Chi Minh, Volume 1.”

I have read a short part of both and really liked both.

State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin

Hi all, I'm going to be reading The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx by Alex Callinicos. There's a PDF version available on Libcom.org, so that's cool :)

I'm going to be readingNo Free Left: The Futures of Indian Communism by Vijay Prashad

Given that Norway still have various CP that is remnants from the Crisis of Revisionism, I have managed to get The Collapse of the Soviet Union: Causes and Lessons: For the Revolutionary Revival of the International Communist Movement. Currently reading it and the model for unification by Ludo Martens will be useful, at least to get past old splits from the Cold War.

Can anyone recommend something that gives a overview? Is The Communist Manifesto a good starting point?

Briona, I haven’t read The Communist Manifesto but lots of people say it’s short and accessible. See if you can find an ebook online and give it a try. There are also many reading lists of articles, essays and books. I chose The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx from this list. I found a pdf online and it’s pretty easy going so far. https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/...

Brionna wrote: "Can anyone recommend something that gives a overview? Is The Communist Manifesto a good starting point?"

Communist Manifesto is short and accessible. If you wanna hear a recording of it you can go to my YouTube channel, Dakki Reads.

I think it's a great starting point but remember it was written as a pamphlet for working people 174 years ago. It's pretty simplified and and while it's still very relevant, Marxist theory has developed a lot since then.

My reading for the month: I've already recorded Engels' *Socialism, Utopian and Scientific* and will publish it over the course of the month and I think I might record either John Reed or Mariano Azuela next.

For my own stuff outside of the channel, I wanna finally get around to Mark Davis' *Old Gods, New Enigmas: Marx's Lost Theory* and Huey Newton's *Revolutionary Suicide.* I've had those lined up for a long time but just never got around to them.

There are some great books here - I'm looking forward to hearing everybody's opinions of them.

I've just started my book for January - History of the Communist Party of Great Britain: Volume 1: Formation and early years 1919-1924.

This is described as -

"James Klugmann's History of the Communist Party of Great Britain is a work of meticulous research. With the Communist Party as principal protagonist, this is much more than the history of a single party - it embraces the life, policies and conflicts of the Labour Movement from the 1920s onwards.

Volume 1 covers the early 20s - the wave of post-war militancy, the negotiations between Marxist groups which led to the formation of the Communist Party, the Party's early organisation and political policies, and the coming into office and fall of the First Labour Government."

I'm two weeks into my book for January, and making slow progress.

How is everyone else doing with their January choices?

i’m starting mine tonight!

i know its later in the month, but does anyone have some accesible book recommendations on communism for someone who is a “beginner leftist?” thanks!

I would actually highly recommend the book I’m reading for this month’s theme - Blackshirts & Reds by Michael Parenti. It’s written in a very easy to understand style, lays out everything step by step in a very logical way, and it’s short! (my copy is ~150 pages with pretty big text)

I also always have to plug the OG, the Communist Manifesto. There’s a gorgeous new Penguin Deluxe print if you want to get fancy, but it’s also free on Marxists.org (which is a great resource in general!).

Oh and if you want to go the fiction route, I can’t recommend Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers enough. It’s the most heartwarming, optimistic portrayal of human futures imaginable and explores what a communist human society in space might look like. Definitely not hard theory by any means, but so engaging and imaginative and just nourishing for the soul ❤️

thank you so much!

Just finished Blackshirts and Reds! I liked it a lot - it was super simple, easy to read, covered a lot of material but all very concisely. I will say the target audience seemed to be the anti-communist left - a lot of it was dedicated to explaining how and why left anticommunism is so harmful - so if you’re already a diehard commie like I am it might seem a little remedial at times. Still highly recommend checking it out, and definitely recommend it to any anticommunist socdems/demsocs in your life 😉

I’m reading the Communist Manifesto edited by Phil Gaspar. I am enjoying the study and discussion questions, which make me feel like I am in a class setting rather than solo.

Checking in for January reading, right on time as the month ends 🤣
I'm a ways into "State And Revolution" by Lenin.

I chose this cuz I'm often very frustrated watching MLs and anarchists sniping at each other, when there's so much ground to cover before that argument is even germane.

I wish I had more time to devote to this book, I've been going slow. Really enjoying it.
It does for me that thing that I think most great theoretical works have in common; it registers viscerally because it's explicating truths that we all already know, just have never formulated into ideas.
In this case, firstly, that The State is an entity imposed upon society by the ruling class to manage and minimize the pressures of class conflict... um, I think that's right. Right?

I'm recording "Wage Labor and Capital"

I'll probably do "God and the State" next, just to balance things out