Is reading The Communist Manifesto required?

What other readings would you consider essential?, i know there is a leftypol reading list but i'm talking about basic shit everyone should know, or should i go ahead and just read the manifesto?

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yeah, probably

other important reading:
marx attacking socdem contemporaries who thought they were doing socialism correctly
generally important, where a lot of concepts originated
generally important, closest that brainlets can get to reading capital while still reading marx

I fully believe in the need for dumb no-books leftism. Every revolution in history was fought primarily by illiterate morons.

This is why the vanguard is a concept

I don't need to be illiterate to be convinced to fight if a revolution is to break in my country, you can already count me in. How do cartels and narcos in México affect the possibility of a revolution, though?

I've literally never fully read the Communist Manifesto and I'm still less retarded about Marx when it comes to the majority of this board.

The board was a lot better a few years ago.

you can thank BO's opinions on Syria for turning this place into an opinion-regulating safe space

You know it's like three pages? It shouod take you about 10- 20 minutes.

I'm still never going to read it.
probably because I'm afraid I'll become a stereotype and recommend it to everyone else.
who cares? I already read Kapital and the CotGP.

It’s a good work, I don’t know why you wouldn’t read it. People recommend it for a reason

Because it's 30 pages long so can't prove anything of contemporary political value.

The part btfoing SocDems is pretty relevant.

There’s plently of value in there on class struggle being a feature of history, the nature of the bourgeois state, what the proletariat needs to do, etc. You’ve never read it so you can’t just claim that there is nothing of value in it

I have read Das Kapital in German (Volume 1 finished, started Volume 2) and have never read Das Manifest der kommunistischen Partei either. I know what is said in the manifesto though because it's so short.

I talkes to a guy once who claimed his buddy was a very knowledgable hardcore marxist

Top Kek
Guy was a Zig Forums chapo type too

If you can't read the manifesto, you probably just can't read.

Tbh my nr 1 recommendation would be Ernest Mandel's An Introduction to Marxist Economics, above the Manifesto, above Wage Labor and Capital. I convinced a socdem who has read the Manifesto via the Mandel summary to become a communist. He now is a Cockshottian ML socialist thanks to me

With this i mean: The manifesto alone is ineffective.

Knowing about labor value, about surplus value, about the means of production, about the two classes - those concepts alone are already powerful enough to turn a man communist. So a summary of Marxist economic analysis is enough IMO.

I was starting it today and i plan on finishing it later, i can understand it, it's just that it doesn't feel like anything very eye opening.

Sounds nice, thanks.

The thing is i spend more time reading people discuss these things than actually reading essays or theory, i have seen small resumes that came during conversations and i just find myself agreeing with communist principles.

it was inspirational propaganda for it's time. It's mostly read for historical value. It might help to give someone who knows absolutely nothing about communism a hint of insight into what it's about, but that's it. It's purpose is to motivate workers, not analyze societal mechanisms, history or propose the precise steps to bring about communism.

Yes, i know, i got discouraged from reading it for the very same reason of it being old as fuck, i don't deny it's value now and then.

It has some important parts, but it's a short pamphlet, it can't really be "eye opening."

Fuck no, its hardly usefull tbh, theres not much of value in it
Its litterally a glorified pamplet so just tick it off for the sake of it, so you can debunk tards who claim to have read it and claim it says to kill white people or whatever.

Wage labour and capital, critique of the gotha program, das kapitalI also still need to read it

1. The German Ideology Chapter 1 (for historical materialism)
2. Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (for overview of what socialism is)
3. Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of German Philosophy (for a look at philosophers which influenced Marx/Engels)
4. Theses on Feuerbach (Marx making a leap from abstract philosophy to social analysis)
5. Principles of Communism

After this Wage Labour, Gotha etc. which people recommended, but you can also just start reading Capital.