68 books
—
11 voters
to-read
(2241)
currently-reading (1)
read (156)
did-not-finish (0)
non-fiction (916)
history (609)
europe (273)
fiction (270)
communist-history (218)
asia (193)
stalinism (171)
1917-russian-revolution (150)
currently-reading (1)
read (156)
did-not-finish (0)
non-fiction (916)
history (609)
europe (273)
fiction (270)
communist-history (218)
asia (193)
stalinism (171)
1917-russian-revolution (150)
asia-east
(150)
europe-eastern (143)
europe-western (143)
nationalism (143)
marxism (128)
owned (122)
classics (119)
philosophy (113)
asia-west (99)
biography (92)
imperialism (90)
race (75)
europe-eastern (143)
europe-western (143)
nationalism (143)
marxism (128)
owned (122)
classics (119)
philosophy (113)
asia-west (99)
biography (92)
imperialism (90)
race (75)
“A “right of nations” which is valid for all countries and all times is nothing more than a metaphysical cliché of the type of ”rights of man” and “rights of the citizen.” Dialectic materialism, which is the basis of scientific socialism, has broken once and for all with this type of “eternal” formula. For the historical dialectic has shown that there are no “eternal” truths and that there are no “rights.” ... In the words of Engels, “What is good in the here and now, is an evil somewhere else, and vice versa” – or, what is right and reasonable under some circumstances becomes nonsense and absurdity under others. Historical materialism has taught us that the real content of these “eternal” truths, rights, and formulae is determined only by the material social conditions of the environment in a given historical epoch.”
―
―
“The white slave had taken from him by indirection what the black slave had taken from him directly and without ceremony. Both were plundered, and by the same plunderers. The slave was robbed by his master of all his earnings, above what was required for his bare physical necessities, and the white laboring man was robbed by the slave system, of the just results of his labor, because he was flung into competition with a class of laborers who worked without wages. The slaveholders blinded them to this competition by keeping alive their prejudice against the slaves as men--not against them as slaves.”
― My Bondage and My Freedom
― My Bondage and My Freedom
“Douglass keenly grasped the plight of the white poor. In their “craftiness,” wrote Douglass, urban slaveholders and shipyard owners forged an “enmity of the poor, laboring white man against the blacks,” forcing an embittered scramble for diminished wages, and rendering the white worker “as much a slave as the black slave himself.” Both were “plundered, and by the same plunderer.” The “white slave” and the “black slave” were both robbed, one by a single master, and the other by the entire slave system. The slaveholding class exploited the lethal tools of racism to convince the burgeoning immigrant poor, said Douglass, that “slavery is the only power that can prevent the laboring white man from falling to the level of the slave’s poverty and degradation.”
― Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
― Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
“The concept of the proletariat’s right to command its own class action is only on abstraction devoid of any Marxist sense. It conceals a desire to lead the revolutionary party to enlarge itself by including less mature strata, since as this progressively occurs, the resulting decisions get nearer and nearer to the bourgeois and conservative conceptions.”
― Party and Class
― Party and Class
Goodreads Librarians Group
— 332380 members
— last activity 1 minute ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
Nathan’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Nathan’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Nathan
Lists liked by Nathan





























































