How capitalism creates a system where richer countries & banks colonize poorer ones to claim dominion over their resources and cheap labor, with plenty of bullets for those who complain. Lenin’s best work.
WHAT IS TO BE DONE? – Vladimir Lenin
An introduction to Lenin’s idea of the “vanguard party” of professional revolutionaries that raise consciousness among workers. Also, a bunch of sniping against dead guys who lost.
THE STATE AND REVOLUTION – Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin’s explanation as to why you can’t vote your way into socialism or simply wield the capitalists’ state in order to build it. Necessary reading for revolutionaries.
AUTOMATION AND THE FUTURE OF WORK – Aaron Benanav
What if the robots and computer programs aren’t really coming for our jobs? Can we still have that sweet, post-scarcity, Star Trek future?
BREAKING THINGS AT WORK – Gavin Mueller
Work sucks – the Luddites knew. Gavin Mueller argues we need to decelerate the pace of technological change for workers’ sake.
BULLSHIT JOBS – David Graeber
Why you might feel your job is pointless, why you might be right, and why you shouldn’t take it anymore. This is one of the best reads yet.
WORK WON’T LOVE YOU BACK – Sarah Jaffe
“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life,” people say. Who came up with that phrase, and can we beat them up?
PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED – Paulo Freire
A guide to building a revolutionary teaching system that liberates people from oppression. Education, for Freire, should not be about a teacher depositing facts into empty heads. It should be a process of dialogue between student-teachers.
DEMOCRACY AT WORK: A CURE FOR CAPITALISM – Richard Wolff
Professor Richard Wolff proposes a new way of organizing our workplaces. Is this a cure for capitalism’s ills, or will some of its worst symptoms remain?
COMMUNISM FOR KIDS – Bini Adamczak
Possibly the simplest, most effective and endearing attempt to explain how capitalism works and how people have imagined communism as an alternative.
WHY MARX WAS RIGHT – Terry Eagleton
Professor Terry Eagleton skillfully refutes ten of the most common criticisms of Marxism. In the process, he exposes Karl Marx’s freedom-loving, creative and occasionally hard-partying qualities.
MARX’S CAPITAL ILLUSTRATED – David Smith & Phil Evans
A condensed version of Karl Marx’s big scary “Capital”, written in contemporary language, and with many helpful and frequently amusing comic illustrations. This is incredibly useful.
WAGE LABOUR AND CAPITAL & WAGES, PRICE AND PROFIT – Karl Marx
Two works by Karl Marx give us a crash course in the Labor Theory of Value and Marxist ideas on the nature of capitalism, what determines prices, and how your boss is screwing you over.
SOCIALISM: UTOPIAN AND SCIENTIFIC – Friedrich Engels
A tour through the Enlightenment-era philosophies and utopian experiments that influenced Marxist ideology and thinking. You know, historical materialism & other dinner party conversation topics.
