Results 1 to 8 of 8
Revolutionary leftism for dummies
Hello everyone,
I'm planning on writing a book for beginning left people,
i choose to do this for a school assignment for which i will have to finish withing 8 months. I'm just starting with the assignment and currently in a sort of brain storm phase. I thought it would be nice to write something about communism, socialism and anarchism aswell. So leftish people could find out which ideology fits them best. I was also planning on making an a to z list with for every letter one thing that has to do with leftism. As i already sad i'm still in the brainstorm phase i would love to have any form of tips, advice or ideas..
Great idea - maybe check the "learning" section of this website - I think a section on common arguments against radicalism could be really useful:
1. Human nature is a barrier to communism: people will always be greedy and selfish
2. But we need cops to keep order in society
3. People are too sinful (the christian argument)/too stupid (a common liberal or secular version of the same argument).
One thing you should do is to get a good definition of what "socialism" is, and how various ideologies tie into that.
Describe Marxist and non-Marxist variants of socialism, how Marxism uses socialism to transition into a communist state, the anarchist strands, and a mention of reformist versions which led into social democracy, for the sake of learning.
The way I describe it to people is the goal of socialism is shared by all these groups, they have differing ways of achieving it however.
ok, interesting..
What was the actual thing that made you interested in the "left"
and what were the problems you ran into..
Well by nature of our ideology, it had to have been something with our disgust with Capitalism obviously.
Myself personally, I began off thinking this was a good system. Over time I began to wonder why there was always issues with unemployment and people tending to slide from a "middle-class" existence to a lower one. I also began to see that a lot of the luxuries people have in the western world is acquired by exploiting third world nations.
When it finally hit me really was when I started working. Where I live they have a "right to work" law in place. Despite its name, it's pro management and makes workers a tool to be used by the management.
You could do worse than reading the following;
Oxford University Press
Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction by Colin Ward
Communism: A Very Short Introduction by Leslie Holmes
Socialism: A Very Short Introduction by Michael Newman
Marx: A Very Short Introduction by Peter Singer
Engels: A Very Short Introduction by Terrell Harver
Icon Books/Pantheon/Totem
Introducing Marx by Rius
Introducing Marxism by Rupert Woodfin
Introducing Lenin by Richard Appignanesi and Oscar Zarate
Introducing Trotsky by Tariq Ali and Phil Evans
Hodder and Stoughton
Marx: A Beginners Guide by Gill Hands
Teach Yourself
Marx - The Key Ideas by Gill Hands
Oneworld
Marx: A Beginners Guide by Andrew Collier
Bookmarks (SWP)
A Rebel's Guide to Marx by Mike Gonzalez
A Rebel's Guide to Lenin by Ian Birchall
A Rebel's Guide to Trotsky by Esme Choonara
Last edited by The Idler; 20th March 2010 at 00:51.
someone should actually write a communism or marxism book in the official 'for dummies' range.
I would certainly buy one.
