Essential Building Blocks — Start Here
- Socialism: Utopian and Scientific — Friedrich Engels
What is socialism? What is the history of capitalism? Perfect 101.
- Wage Labor and Capital — Karl Marx
What are wages? What’s the relationship between worker and owner? What are capitalism’s long-term trends? Marx breaks down the basics.
- Industrial Unionism — Eugene Debs
Possibly the greatest speech from socialist history’s greatest speech-maker. Clear enough for anyone to understand, powerful enough for anyone to feel moved to action.
- The State and Revolution — Vladimir Lenin
What is the nature of the capitalist state? How would the state be different under communism? Agree or disagree with his conclusions, but this is one of the most significant and thought-provoking analyses of state power.
- The Conquest of Bread — Peter Kropotkin
Why does poverty exist? Can we build a world without poverty and hunger? Classic anarchist text.
Imperialism and Colonialism
- Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism — Vladimir Lenin
What is the economic basis of imperialism?
- Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism — Kwame Nkrumah
Has colonialism ended, or has it just changed forms?
- The Wretched of the Earth, Conclusion — Frantz Fanon
How does colonialism dehumanize colonized people? What would it mean to destroy colonialism?
- The Fourth World War — Subcomandante Marcos
What is global neoliberalism?
Theories of Change
- Reform or Revolution — Rosa Luxemburg
What strategies can bring about radical change? What strategies will cause our movement to stagnate?
- The Communist Hypothesis — Alain Badiou
How ambitious should our goals be? After the failure of the Soviet Union, is it ridiculous to continue talking about “communism”?
- On Fire This Time — John Bellamy Foster
What is the relationship between capitalism and climate change? What needs to be done to end climate change?
- Rent and Its Discontents — Julian Francis Park
What is tenant organizing? What should housing justice look like?
- Strike at the Helm — Hugo Chavez
Once a left-aligned movement seizes power, what happens next? How do we transition from capitalism to socialism? What obstacles stand in our way?
The Functioning and Reproduction of Capitalism
- Social Contagion — Chuang
What is the relationship between coronavirus and capitalism? How does public health factor into capitalism?
- Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses — Louis Althusser
What role do our institutions play in shaping our beliefs? What role does capitalism play in shaping our education system?
- The Civil War in France — Karl Marx
What was the Paris Commune? Why did it fail? What does that tell us about capitalist state power; what can we learn from this tragic, short-lived achievement?
- The Two Fascisms — Antonio Gramsci
How did the fascists come to power in Italy? Why do socialists need to combat reactionary attitudes in their own struggles?
- Asking the Wrong Questions — L.A. Leere
What is the relationship between radical politics and conspiracy theories? Can we be paranoid about the powers arrayed against us without devolving to the level of the Flat Earthers?
- Michael Heinrich, Marx’s law and crisis theory — Michael Roberts
Why do economic crises happen? Was Marx correct about the tendency of the rate of profit to fall? In other words, does Line Go Down?
- An Accumulation of Affect — Richard Hunsinger
What is emotional labor? How does capitalism control our emotions?
Social Oppression and Economic Exploitation
What is intersectionality? What is the relationship between racism, misogyny, homophobia, and capitalism?
- Are Prisons Obsolete? — Angela Davis
What is the true purpose of our carceral system? Does it keep us safe, or is a better system possible?
- Intercommunalism — Huey Newton
What power dynamics are we dealing with, at home and abroad? Why did the Black Panthers think Marx was useful for their situation? What does black power look like in a capitalist, imperialist world?
- Black Liberation in the 21st Century — Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
What is the history of black revolutionary theory in America? What is the relationship between the black proletariat and the white proletariat?
- The Shadow of the Plantation — Asad Haider
What was the relationship between slavery and capitalism? What is the relationship between racism and capitalism?
- Sexuality: Regulation and Contestation — Frank Mort
What is the situation of LGBT people living under capitalism? What would LGBT liberation look like?
- Feminism and the Politics of the Commons — Silvia Federici
What is the position of women under capitalism? What would revolutionary feminism look like?
- Women, Race and Class, Chapter 13: Housework — Angela Davis
Is housework labor? What does housework have to do with women’s liberation?
- Love’s Labour’s Cost: The Political Economy of Intimacy — Emma Dowling
How has the ideology of capitalism affected our personal relationships? What expectations do capitalist social relations place on women?
- Stone Butch Blues — Leslie Feinberg (ze/hir/hirs)
Though a work of fiction, Leslie Feinberg wrote this from hir perspective as a white, working class, trans lesbian and revolutionary communist, and it still stands as a groundbreaking text about the complexities of gender. Ze wrote the novel “as a working-class organizer mimeographs a leaflet—a call to action.” Content warning for scenes of extreme violence and sexual assault (exact page number CWs coming soon).
- Lavender & Red — Leslie Feinbrg (ze/hir/hirs)
A series of 120 short-medium length articles on LGBTQ+ history and its connections to socialist history, originally published in the Worker’s World newspaper from 2004-2008. PDF begins with a list of all entries so you can read what interests you. Entries 86-110 are also isolated (& edited) as their own collection, Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba (found here).
W&M YDSA 