What should I read...

[RedGeorge]

Sorry if anyone's posted something similar before, but I'm running short of time and can't check older threads...

I've only recently started to consider myself a communist, and so far I've read "The communist Manifesto", but I'd like to further my knowledge through reading. I know Marx wrote a series of (I think it was) 3 books, and there was the red book all Chinese people had to carry after the revolution... so, erm, what should I read?

[CCJ]

The series of books you're thinking of is called Das Kapital, or Capital. Karl Marx, himself, only wrote the first book in the series before he died. Engels actually wrote the other two books, though he used Marx's notes. In any case, I don't think that you should jump right into Kapital just yet, perhaps do some other reading. Kapital makes for pretty dense reading. I would suggest checking out http://www.marxists.org and reading some essays there, though I'd also reccommend that you read some Anarchist stuff too. I would reccommend Pierre J. Proudhon or Emma Goldman. While Proudhon had some backwards beliefs about Jews, he still had some good ideas about anarchism - indeed, if I am not mistaken, he was the first anarchist.

I would also reccommend Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org) for some general information about Capitalism, Communism, Anarchism, what have you. They've got pretty much everything there and most (if not all) of it is easy enough to comprehend.

[sovietsniper]

when studing communism its inportant to keep an open mind and not to get dragged into the petty aguments of the diffrent frachions. For example
stalinist study guide (http://individual.utoronto.ca/mrodden/study/ssustudy.html)
is a pro-stalin site and
revoluthion betrayed (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1936-rev/)
this is troskys book about how stalin betrayed october.
The truth will be somewhere in between.

[tatu]

To name but a few... (if I had more time to add to the reading list then I would have, sorry)

K. Marx

The Communist Manifesto

Grundrisse : Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy

Selected Writings

Das Kapital

Civil War in France

Karl Marx on Society and Social Change : With Selections by Friedrich Engels

Marx and Engels on Religion

Marx on Suicide (Psychosocial Issues)

Marx on Economics


J.V. Stalin

Dialectical and Historical Materialism

Trotskyism or Leninism?


Castro

Blaming Stalin for everything would be historical simplism

History Will Absolve Me

The Revolution Begins Now

L'Unita Interview with Fidel Castro: The Nature of Cuban Socialism


Che Guevara

Man and Socialism in Cuba

Colonialism is Doomed


V.I. Lenin

Socialism and Religion (1905)

The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism (1913)

Karl Marx: A Brief Biographical Sketch With An Exposition Of Marxism

The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self Determination (Theses)

Resolution on the National Question (1917)

The State and Revolution (1917)
!
The Tasks of the Youth Leagues (1920)

The Paris Commune


http://www.geocities.com/ncpcentral/classics.html
http://www.geocities.com/ncpcentral/features.html

[ComradeOm]

While you'll have to read most of the books above eventually I'd advise against jumping right in. If there's a leftist bookstore near you I'd simply ask them if they have any introductions to Marxism. Once you have a grasp of the basic theory you can apperciate the source books more.

[Livetrueordie]

Never seen a Leftist book store before...

[RedGeorge]

Thanks for the suggestions. I've already spent hours on Wikipedia reading about communism and the left, in fact that's how I came across this site! I don't know of a marxist book store anywhere near me, but I will check out some of the links and see what I can find. Thanks, comrades!

[Lord Testicles]

check this place out http://www.marxist.com/marxist-classics.htm

[Donnie]

Here's a good few:
The Organisational Platform of The Libertarian Communists (http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/platform/plat_preface.html)

Peter Kropotkins Collected Works (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/kropotkin/KropotkinCW.html)
(These include all the known classics like "The Conquest of Bread" and "Mutual Aid" etc)

Errico Malatesta's Collected Works (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/malatesta/MalatestaCW.html)

Emma Goldmans Collected Works (http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/goldman/GoldmanCW.html)

Get wised up on Libertarian Communism ;).

[Amusing Scrotum]

I suggest,

Chris Harman - How Marxism Works (http://www.comcen.com.au/%7Emarcn/redflag/archive/harman/hmw/index.html).

Its the first proper piece I read about Marxism and I really liked it. Its relatively short and not that difficult to get your head round.

Searching for that piece, I found this site - Introductions to Marxism (http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/intros.html) - It seems like it could have some good pieces on traditional Marxism as was described by Marx, not the Marxism practised by Lenin and co.

[tatu]

http://www.geocities.com/cmkp_pk/marxism_for_bigginners.htm

[Led Zeppelin]

Engels actually wrote the other two books

No he didn't, he compiled them.

[Bannockburn]

There are a billion books out there about Marx. Go to your local library and see what they have. I would start with something simple, most likely an introduction. There is one good book that I enjoy, its called The Marx-Engel's Reader. Great stuff.

[cph_shawarma]

I would suggest reading some original Marx, unlike many others in this thread. It all depends on your age (yes, it does matter, I tried to read Capital when I was 16 and didn't get even a tenth of what he was saying).

For some easy start-off, I would suggest a selection:

Theses on Feuerbach, here Marx makes a critique of "objective" materialism and shifts focus to practice and theory as inseparable entities. However, it is quite an intense reading, so I would suggest reading it, thinking about it some, then reading it again. Even if it is just about a page. http://www.marx.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/index.htm

A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, even if it's much lighter than Capital and does not include alot of very important notions, it introduces fundamental categories, such as the commodity. Here I would recommend taking notes and breaks for thinking.
http://www.marx.org/archive/marx/works/185...onomy/index.htm (http://www.marx.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/index.htm)

If you have already read The Communist Manifesto, I assume you have also read the different prefaces that normally accompanies it. Otherwise I would recommend that you read the preface to the 1872 German Edition, where Marx puts out a fundamentally different notion on the state.

Then there are a few letters, notably the one to Ostjevennyje Zapinsky about Russia, which could be interesting.

If you do not want to head right on to Marx, I would suggest some more down-to-earth texts of modern communists, such as:

Hamburgers vs. Value by Marcel. It depicts work-place struggle in a hamburger restaurant and connects it with communist theory.
http://www.riff-raff.se/en/3-4/burgers_vs_value.php

If you want an exposé of a modern approach to Capitalism & Communism, I would suggest Gilles Dauvé's Capitalism & Communism, which deals with the notions of wage-labour, communism as communisation and so forth. It isn't too hard to read, but it will definitely take some energy if you are completely new to communist terminology etc. You can find it here: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby...9/ecapcom1.html (http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/ecapcom1.html) and http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby...9/ecapcom2.html (http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/ecapcom2.html)

Hope it helped.

And I would agree with Marxism-Leninism (the user, not the ideology ;)) that Engels compiled volumes 2 & 3 of Capital. In no way did he write them.

[CCJ]

Originally posted by Marxism-[email protected] 19 2005, 01:14 PM

Engels actually wrote the other two books

No he didn't, he compiled them.
Yes, my mistake.