Resources for Learning about Different Marxist Ideologies

[indya]

Does anyone know where I can find some resources for learning about the different marxist, communist, socialist, anarchist, etc. ideologies? I am reading about them on wikipedia and other sites, but it is hard to see the actual differences among, for example, maoists, trotskyists, and a leninists.

[Zanthorus]

The Marxists Internet Archive (http://www.marxists.org/) has texts from practically every Marxist you can think of, plus a good deal of people who weren't Marxists. You can read the texts of writers from various tendencies in their own words. Or you can go on the website of groups who uphold various tendencies and read through their material.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

You might find this thread of some help:

http://www.revleft.com/vb/political-organisations-t27951/index.html

[scarletghoul]

MIA is a good resource yes, though it can be difficult to get through 10000-page works of lenin or trotsky. The Red Book is worth reading for an intro to Maoist ideas as its pretty readable though not heavy theory.

But really I find the easiest way to see the differences is by looking at what the various groups do in practice, and then look at the theory behind their actions, and how they respond to each other. Reading some threads here on RevLeft can be insightful, particularly in the Ongoing Struggles and Theory sections. For example, if you look at some of the Nepal threads you can see the Maoist ideas of Peoples' War, New Deomocracy, etc, as well as the Cliffite criticisms regarding 'state capitalism' or whatever, expressed by one member in particular.

That's my suggestion anyway, because contemporary and relevant discussion differentiates things a lot clearer than 100 year old documents.

[Garret]

The Marxist-Leninist's (A blog) study guide (http://marxistleninist.wordpress.com/study-guide/)gives you the reading material (Supplied by the MIA) to study Marxism-Leninism. (With a taste of Maoism)