Good starter books about anarchism/communism?

[isaacston]

I've read, of course, "Anarchism and Other Essays" and "Marriage and Love" by Emma Goldman, but what other books should I read?

[TheGodlessUtopian]

The Principles of Communism by Friedrich Engles

[Bronco]

Anarchism (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_archives/kropotkin/britanniaanarchy.html) (Kropotkin)

Anarchy (http://www.marxists.org/archive/malatesta/1891/xx/anarchy.htm) (Malatesta)

A Talk About Anarchist Communism Between Two Workers (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/malatesta/MalatestaATAC.html) (Malatesta)

The ABC of Communist Anarchism (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/berkman/communistanarchy.pdf) (Berkman)

[Brosa Luxemburg]

Wage Labor and Capital by Marx (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/index.htm)

Critique of the Gotha Program by Marx (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/)

The Principles of Communism by Engels. (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm)

Workers Councils by Anton Pannekoek (http://libcom.org/library/workers-councils-book-pannekoek)

Some good stuff in my sig. as well

[Caj]

http://marxists.org -- you can find basically everything for free on here

Marx:

Wage Labour and Capital
Value, Price and Profit
Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts
Critique of the Gotha Programme

Engels:

The Principles of Communism
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

If you want physical copies of these works, check out Red and Black Publishing's Essential Writings of Marx and Essential Writins of Engels, in which all of the above listed works are included except Value, Price and Profit.

If you don't mind reading things abridged, check out the Marx-Engels Reader edited by Robert C. Tucker. After the works listed above, you should be more than ready for larger works like, say, Capital.

Lenin:

Main works include:
State and Revolution
Imperialism: The Latest [often titled "Highest"] Stage of Capitalism
Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder (check out Hermann Gorter's response, Open Letter to Comrade Lenin)
What is to be Done?

If you don't want to read these online for free, check out Robert C. Tucker's The Lenin Anthology.

Rosa Luxemburg:

Reform and Revolution
Russian Revolution

Again, don't want to read it online, check out Rosa Luxemburg Speaks

Left Communism:

Really anything by Bordiga for Italian left communism, anything by Hermann Gorter, Anton Pannekoek, Sylvia Pankhurst, Paul Mattick, etc. for German-Dutch left communism/council communism

Non-Leninist Marxism, published by Red and Black Publishing, is a good collection of works on the German-Dutch school

Stalinism and its derivatives:

Stalin's Foundations of Leninism
Hoxha's shit
Mao's shit

Anarchism:

Anarchism: From Theory to Practice by Daniel Guerin -- good, short introduction to anarchism
No Gods, No Masters edited by Daniel Guerin -- large collection of various writings on anarchism, highly recommended
Bakunin on Anarchism by Mikhail Bakunin, edited by Sam Dolgoff -- best collection of Bakunin's works in English, highly recommended
Anarcho-Syndicalism by Rudolf Rocker
Mutual Aid by Peter Kropotkin
Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings by Peter Kropotkin (also sold under the title Kropotkin's Revolutionary Pamphlets) -- collection of Kropotkin's miscellaneous writings
The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin
Red Emma Speaks by Emma Goldman -- collection of Goldman's writings
Life of an Anarchist by Alexander Berkman -- collection of Berkman's writings

(I might add more later. Wrote this up pretty fast, inevitably forgot some stuff.)

[Bostana]

Always Start with the classics:

Communist Manifesto
By Karl Marx (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/)

Das Kapital
By Karl Marx (http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/general-business/9781906821043/firstchapter)

The Principals of Communism
By Friedrich Engels (http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/general-business/9781906821043/firstchapter)

Lenin on the National and Colonial Questions
By Vladimir Lenin (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/jun/05.htm)

Dare you Venture Further:

The Proletarian Class and the Proletarian Party
By Joseph Stalin (http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1905/01/01.htm)

Further Maybe?

Quotations from Mao Tse-Tung (http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/index.htm)

[hatzel]

Erich Mühsam - 'Liberating society from the state' or whatever exactly that book's called. It's online in a few places so Google it, because I'm on my phone so sorting out some kind of hyperlink thing would be longgggg...

[daft punk]

Hmm...I would recommend a few key articles.

In Defence of October by Trotsky
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1932/11/oct.htm
This was a speech he did for social democrat students in Copenhagen in 1932. It is good for all sorts of reasons. Firstly it explains why the Russian revolution happened. A lot of people dont know this, and it isnt mentioned in this article, but up to 1917 the Bolsheviks had no intention of carrying out a socialist revolution in Russia, only Trotsky advocated it. The theory behind why he alone predicted it is encapsulated in this justification and explanation of the revolution. He was banned from speaking about Stalin's rule so that is not covered. Incidentally, at this time, 1932, according to Stalin in the Moscow Trials, Trotsky was plotting with the Nazis to overthrow Stalin's regime.

V. I. Lenin Eleventh Congress Of The R.C.P.(B.)[1] (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/mar/27.htm#fw01)
March 27-April 2, 1922
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/mar/27.htm
Lenin's speech to conference in 1922. In this he warns of the dangers of the bureaucracy taking over, and the dangers of getting bogged down in red tape and bureaucratisation within the party.

Platform of the Joint Opposition
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1927/opposition/index.htm
This describes the Left Opposition's stand against the policies of Stalin in the 1920s. Trotsky advocates policies put forward by Lenin. Shortly after this, Trotsky and the LO were expelled. Then Stalin was forced to make a sudden turn and begin collectivisation.

Cable, Stalin [Kuznetsov] to Mao Zedong [via Terebin]
link here (http://legacy.wilsoncenter.org/va2/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=HOME.document&identifier=CA9A2341-EFF8-0392-03026972E39F2528&sort=Coverage&item=China)
This is a good example of Stalin's views and foreign policy at the end of WW2 - his wish to establish capitalism in China and other countries, and shows clearly the ideas of stagism and popular fronts.


Mods, Stalinists, please note, I am not interested in debating these on this thread, this is not an attempt to start a debate, which you mistakenly call flame wars. If anyone wants to try to disagree with the above do it on the relevant threads that already exist or start one afresh. I am simply providing some links with a brief description of what they are.

[norwegianwood90]

I would recommend Ernest Mandel's An Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory. It's a relatively short and informative read. While it is certainly no substitute for a study of Marx's writings, I feel that Mandel's work provides a great foundation prior to delving into something as comparatively daunting as Capital.