List of must-read for Marxists

[Guardia Rossa]

I have some 300 bucks and I wanna buy some must-reads for marxists, and some anarchist perhaps aswell. Some 10 books according to you.

I don't have any defined Ideology inside marxism, In my understanding nothing is universal, every revolution is different, every culture adapts some way to communism. I also have some interesting Ideas of my own but that's for other time.

I just don't like Stalin and I hate nazbols, fabianists/reformist bourgeois scum, but I would read a really good Stalin book (of before he became a complete asshole and killed every Bolshevik).

[Q]

That depends on what you're interested in. Would you like to read about programme, history, economics, anthropology... something else entirely?

[Zoroaster]

"Capital, Volume 1" by Karl Marx.
"The Economic and Philisophical Manuscripts of 1844" by Karl Marx.
"The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State" by Friedrich Engels.
"The Civil War in France" by Karl Marx.
"What is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement" by Vladimir Lenin.
"The State and Revolution" by Vladimir Lenin.
"Results and Prospects" by Leon Trotsky.
"Programme of World Revolution" by Nikolai Bukharin.
"The ABC's of Communism" by Nikolai Bukharin.
"History of the Russian Revolution" by Leon Trotsky.
"What Every Revolutionary Should Know about State Repression" By Victor Serge.
"The Fundamentals of Leninism" by Joseph Stalin (hey, you have to read them all).

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

The thing is, most of these are available online for free. I would add "The Critique of the Gotha Programme" by Marx, "Antiduhring" by Engels, "The Permanent Revolution" by Trotsky, "Left-Wing Communism" by Lenin, some shorter works, and depending on your general orientation I would check out the literature put out by various socialist organisations (e.g. for me, as an ICL sympathiser, texts like "Cuba and Marxist Theory", "For Marxist Clarity and a Forward Perspective", "Why the USSR is not Capitalist" etc. are important; for someone from the USEC the important texts would be the "Eleven Theses", "The Law of Value in Relation to Self-Management..." and so on), which you can generally get for like five dollars if you write to the organisation in question.

I think people tend to over-emphasise the manuscripts of '44, to be honest.

[motion denied]

Are you willing to spend 200 bucks on two volumes of Capital? Or you could buy an older translation, I suppose. Also, I'd buy "Civil War in France" because it comes with the drafts (which are cool af) as well as a good presentation (Rago knows his Marx). All Boitempo, all expensive, though.

On a second thought, don't listen to me, I'd burn it all on good ole Karl.

(You could find PDFs floating around though, i know I did).

[motion denied]

With 300 bucks you're able to buy tons of books by Expressão Popular, who published Lenin, Trotsky etc.

[Counterculturalist]

Are you willing to spend 200 bucks on two volumes of Capital? Or you could buy an older translation, I suppose.

Go with the latter, if (like me) you prefer physical copies on your shelves. If there are any used bookstores in your area, scour them. If not, plan a trip to the nearest big city and make a tour of their used bookstores. Seriously, a couple years ago I walked out of a used bookstore with Capital 1 and 2, The German Ideology and Grundisse for a grand total of $35. I rarely pay more than $10 for books. It's fun to dig, and you never know what you'll find.

[Ethics Gradient, Traitor For All Ages]

This comes up a lot but it rarely gets pointed out, if you drop $300 on shit in the public domain, well that is kind of crazy. Buy $300 worth of fiction that you cant find in pdf/epub format all over the place, or just save that money.

[DOOM]

While we're at it, what do you guys think about Rubin? Especially about his value theory stuff?

[RedKobra]

The thing is, most of these are available online for free. I would add "The Critique of the Gotha Programme" by Marx, "Antiduhring" by Engels, "The Permanent Revolution" by Trotsky, "Left-Wing Communism" by Lenin, some shorter works, and depending on your general orientation I would check out the literature put out by various socialist organisations (e.g. for me, as an ICL sympathiser, texts like "Cuba and Marxist Theory", "For Marxist Clarity and a Forward Perspective", "Why the USSR is not Capitalist" etc. are important; for someone from the USEC the important texts would be the "Eleven Theses", "The Law of Value in Relation to Self-Management..." and so on), which you can generally get for like five dollars if you write to the organisation in question.

I think people tend to over-emphasise the manuscripts of '44, to be honest.

Could you give me a link to the ICL texts, they sound interesting, I've looked around their site but can't find them.

[The Idler]

Political parties are formed with less than $300 so save your money.
Various short works could be had for very little.

Short pamphlets
Principles of Communism by Friedrich Engels
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/
Wage-Labor and Capital by Karl Marx
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/
Value, Price and Profit by Karl Marx
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1865/value-price-profit/
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/

Long books
Karl Marx: Selected Writings edited by David McLellan
Demanding the Impossible by Peter Marshall
An Anarchist FAQ edited by Iain McKay
http://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/index.html

[Art Vandelay]

Could you give me a link to the ICL texts, they sound interesting, I've looked around their site but can't find them.

The only one I could find online is 'Cuba & Marxist Theory.' I'll link it below. In my experience the ICL is pretty good for sending out documents for very reasonable prices (they've even sent me bundles for free in the past) so you could always contact them directly for the others.

https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/ibt/ibt10.htm

[Pawn Power]

Marxists are the worst. Lol.

Try this: http://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=420

[Brosa Luxemburg]

Endgame by Derrick Jensen
The Failure of Non-Violence by Peter Gelderloos
Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis
The Radical Will edited by Olaf Hansen (collection of Randolph Bourne's writing)
Settlers by J. Sakai
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Our Enemies in Blue by Kristian Williams
The Business of Empire by Jason M. Colby
The Terrorism Trap by Michael Parenti
War Without End by Michael Schwartz
They Take Our Jobs!: And 20 Other Myths About Immigration by Aviva Chomsky


For free shit online, look at some of these:
Reproduction of Daily Life by Fredy Perlman
http://www.spunk.org/texts/writers/perlman/sp001702/repro.html

An Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory by Ernest Mandel
http://www.marxists.org/archive/mandel/1967/intromet/

What They Mean When They Say Peace
http://www.crimethinc.com/texts/r/ferguson/index.html

From Riot To Insurrection by Alfredo Bonnano
http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/alfredo-m-bonanno-from-riot-to-insurrection-analysis-for-an-anarchist-perspective-against-post

[NoOneIsIllegal]

Settlers by J. Sakai
...Uh, no? No no no.

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Yes.

[BIXX]

...Uh, no? No no no.

Yes.
I've never read Settlers what is it about and why do you not like it?

[Guardia Rossa]

Thank you all people :lol: , especially to Zoroaster, Pilantra (BR?), The Idler and Brosa Luxemburg.

I will get them by the internet (after some good bargaining I think I can buy all basic and must-reads for starters like me.)