2y ago

My partner is a baby leftist and wants to read some light theory about Socialism/Communism. Any recommendations?

My partner has all the right political instincts and really wants to bolster their knowledge of the systems of socialism/communism and the ideologies therein.

I was initially thinking of recommending Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti as that was an entry point for me to shed any remaining lib tendencies I had.

Would love to hear what y'all would recommend!

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Blackshirts and Reds for sure. Jakarta Method is a bit lib but really hammers home that we're in a class war and it's fash vs communists.
Just read this a few months ago, pretty good. Marx's Das Kapital for Beginners.pdf
Also, Transliberation and The Conquest of Bread are pretty great.
- There's a podcast on Spotify where a professor does an analysis of Das Kapital as well. In the beginning he state that the recording is his 6th time reading it. It's like 10 eps long but it was great to listen to while driving as an alternative.
  
  Do you remember the name of the podcast? I'd listen to that for sure.
- great recommendations, thank you! I'm reading transliberation now actually and it's great!
  
  Welcome!

I wrote a short baby leftist reading list a while back which might be useful!
Principles of communism (Engels). https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm Explains the history of capitalism and what communism is in very basic terms.
Wage labour and capital (Marx). https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/ The very very basics marxist economic theory. Like a taster of Capital.
The three sources and three component parts of Marxism (Lenin). https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/mar/x01.htm Super short essay by Lenin on the key concepts of marxism to tie everything together.
Imperialism (Lenin). https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/ We live in the world of imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism. Lenin in many ways predicted the 21st century evolution of capital.
Extra reads:
Classic: Communist Manifesto (Marx+Engels). https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ If you want to know what all the fuss is about.
Feminism + Liberation: Women, Race & Class (Davis). Connects socialist feminist theory and black liberation theory. One of my favs of all time.
- this is hella comprehensive, thx
- absolute banger of a list

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific is a good quick read
I also second Blackshirts and Reds, Parenti is so good at getting the point across
- Thanks for the recommendations

Principles of Communism by Engels - i think its the best piece of classic introductory theory. Incredibly helpful and makes reading further ml theory easier.
Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti - great and quick read. Plus its important reading for any leftist living in the west, since it deals with Western anti-communist brainworms
We are the Heirs of the Worlds Revolutions Thomas Sankara - its a short collection of speeches from Sankara and i just really like it and find it inspiring.
- Blackshirts and reds was one of my first and it's very very good

"Why socialism" by Albert Einstein is a good start, can easily knock it out in an hour.
This Redsails essay about how to view CHUDs, basically. Don't make the mistake of writing everyone off as sheeple, and you as this enlightened god. I made that mistake and was promptly directed to this essay.
They're not nearly number one on the reading list in my opinion, but both are relatively quick reads that can give them the idea of what to expect and neither are particularly sectarian. Regardless, I still recommend for anyone to check out theory from leftist groups outside your own subgroup, like MLs reading the bread book or anarchists reading What Is To Be Done.

Leftist theory tends to be information heavy, dry, and dense. My way in was through books that were transcriptions of Noam Chomsky's radio appearances, compiled into a book called How The World Works. He speaks with clarity, but is also casual, and respectful enough to convince liberals without them even realising it. That's exactly the position he's held for most of his career, and I think that's a valuable thing that shouldn't be overlooked. I guess he doesn't write much about Socialism explicitly, but he does just about draw the battle lines, and reveal capitalism's ugly side.
I know this site doesn't like Chomsky too much. I can see his shortcomings. He is a liberal these days. He's had bad takes in the past. But he's not poisonous, and he is true baby leftist level. I would say Michael Parenti book are better for post baby level leftists. He's a very rhetorical guy, and I think he speaks to post baby leftists because he puts what we've learnt already in such an emphatic way. I think he puts some libs off, because he's such a powerful speaker. He lets his anger show. He's right, for sure, but I think he's not for true babies.
Still, his speeches do make for great listening for something that's information rich but also funny. Maybe it could appeal to certain baby leftists, so long as they're not too civility fetishising.
- great call on the chomsky readings and i think you're totally right that his writing is eloquent and persuasive. i'll check that one out

The Lorax
- Ants

not book-length, but https://redsails.org/why-marxism/

The chapo book was light hearted fun

Settlers
- im still trying to work my way through it myself. about halfway through.
  brings me back to the days of the cth sub, where commenters would bully everyone to 'read settlers'. lol

I genuinely think the manifesto is a great early read. It's concise, and deeply passionate in it's proclamations, which I personally think is very invigorating when you're mired in the present world of liberal triangulation.

26 comments