Hi Leftpol! I'm new to leftism and I would like to hears suggestions on what books to read for begginers on socialism.
It can range from anarchism to Marxism Leninism
Also you could sugget non Marxist philospers.
I plan on reading more about german philoshopy since I heard they inspired Marx
Check out Bookchin's Next Revolution and his Social Ecology and Communalism
Wage labor and capital
Value price and profit
Mutual Aid
At the cafe
Capital abridged
The ego and it's own + stirners critics
State and revolution
About the platform
READ CRITIQUE OF THE GOTHA PROGRAM
I heard critique of the gotha program is a good book for beginners is this true?
Also what about the Communist Manifesto?
Is there also any philosophy that inspired marx and socialism that are worth reading?
First the Communist Manifesto, then Critique of the Gotha program.
Hegel but it's not for beginners at all.
The ancients, Babbage, Hegel, Spinoza, the classical economists, the utopian socialists, the young Hegelians
CotGP is a good introduction to the more theoretical side of Marxism.
It does a good job of laying out a basic framework of Marx's worldview and it's written in fiery language so it's an engrossing read. You should however keep in mind that it was a commissioned piece for a very specific political situation so many of the more practical and immediate demands like the infamous "10 points" might not be applicable or useful outside of the revolutions of 1848.
Could you please be more specific on what works should I read from that category of philosopy
Communist Manifesto
Principles of Communism
Wage-Labor and Capital
Value, Price and Profit
Critique of the Gotha Program
Socialism, Utopian and Scientific
State and Revolution
Imperialism the Highest Stage of Capitalism
————————
Conquest of Bread
Another work I enjoyed
The Foundations of Leninism
marxists.org
Are they're also any good "non-biased"(there's no such thing but you get my point) that paints a more human picture of Vladmir Lenin?
Unironically start with the Greeks.
Some anarchist lit:
What is Property? by Proudhon
God and the State by Bakunin
Anarchism and Other Essays by Goldman
Anarcho-syndicalism by Rocker
He was an opportunist that equated socialism and communism with state-capitalism. He's done a disservice to our movement of the abolition of commodity production and class society and establishing the free association of producers and production for use. Lenin is to blame for people believing socialism is "when the government does stuff" and it's adherents have been an idealist cult since the beginning. Don't worry, I'm a just an infantile because I refuse the opportunity to benefit at the expense of a feudal society I make myself state-capitalist ruling class over.
Read his works. Pay attention to the mental gymnastics between his writings prior to attaining power (especially the Leninists favorite work of his to recommend around: the State and Revolution) and his publications following the moment of the NEP (New Economic Policy). The anti-Marxist mess right there; his mature bibliography.
>He was an opportunist that equated socialism and communism with state-capitalism for the "socialist revolutionaries" that follow him*. Especially in the joke of a tendency that aptly became called "Marxism-Leninism".
He himself called it a state-capitalist transition period to later arrive at socialism, but that of course never happened, as no class (this new state-capitalist class) abolishes itself. Leninists are red bourgeoisie and as communists it is our task to abolish them, just as well as the yellow, "traditional" ones.
Nice word-salad. It's almost as bad as "red fascist"
That's avoiding the question itself,
what are some good biographies of Lenin?
Oh please, enlighten us.
conquer of the bread
I swear I had more but enjoy these on the meanwhile
before going on with marxism leninism read this shit i wrote today on a similar post and to other comrades reading me FIGHT ME:
marxism leninism is what happens when a few very well read people interpret marx to switch feudalism to state capitalism in which the state controls the means of production for the most part (private property was allowed to a certain extent) and the workers become employees of the state. The state frustrated workers councils of soviets and totaly took control of the politic landscape with their bureaucracy. They even backstabbed makhnoist in their free territory, an anarchist piece of land in Ukraine defended by the democraticly structured makhno's army in which according to wikipedia "The economy of Free Ukraine was a mixture of anarcho-communism and mutualism, with factories, farms and railways becoming cooperatives and several moneyless communities being created. The majority of territories continued to use money but planned to become anarcho-communist territories following the Russian Civil War.[17]".The bolsheviks initially helped Makhnoist against the anticommunist white army, but they would end up conquering them and forcing their rule into the territory. Marxist-leninists argued that russia would be incapable of shifting to socialism because of its industrial backwardness, thats why they established state capitalism, but that is completely false, since in the previously mentioned free territory of ukraine the socialist process was FAR more radical and working councils were being developing in all of russia. History is a witness of bolsheviks agendas, they pursued their own political interests in the name of socialism, and in the long run what happened is a slow liberalization of the markers and a return to capitalism at the end. To me modern day marxists leninists are just incredulous socialists and the majority of them come from right wing or authoritharian families backgrounds. They cant see how society can work without some authoritharian control even if communism is their final goal, which is contradicting. I'd go as far as saying that they often even have reactionary tendencies on libertarian politics and their reaction is almost always conservative, being completley stubborn on their disbelief even when strong factual and theoretical evidence is given to them. I will not tell you to not be marxist leninist, but let me please ask you to be very critical, just like you should be with everything, really. But still i consider them my comrades, i prefer them over liberals and conservatives and a lot of them are very informed,but i think they should be more open to libertarian theory and history.
not an argument, thats when you know someone got owned
Opinion completely discarded
The term doesn’t even make sense
...
alright i'll find you another source
Not that user but if you read the thread you’d realize OP asked for books on Lenin at least twice
He asked for beginner books on socialism ranging from anarchist to marxist leninist, the mlfag was accommodating his request.
...
Hereyou go a fucking encyclopedia of makhoism for you to complain about nestormakhno.info
If he is new to Marxism, would it not make sense to steer him towards basic works by Marx instead of blasting the thread with a bunch of theory that assumes an understanding of basic Marxist theory?
Yes, some anons have listed basic Marxist and anarchist works in this thread. Like Lenin or not he has made some important contributions to theory, though
He specifically asked for anything socialist and even asked for ML lit. It was obvious he didn't just want basic Marx and he was reccomended basic lit for anarchism, ML, and other tendencies per his request. That user and others merely complied with his request.
To be specific I was looking for biographies on Lenin
If you want something very critical from a Marxist viewpoint, Lenin as Philosopher is breddy gud.
Is it better to get physical copys? But I know you guys have a thing against Amazon so…
That’s up to you. Personally I have lots of physical copies of Marxist / socialist literature because I find it very difficult to read long works on my computer screen. For shorter works I almost always use the Marxists Internet Archive.
I don't have the link ut I read somewhere that typically reading physical copies of texts or articles gives you a better grasp of the ideas in it as a whole while reading digital texts helps you remember various lines. Try the free pdfs and if you have trouble grasping the concepts from that try reading a physical copy.
I do belive you can order books online from a pretty small publisher called Pravda Media who deals in Marxist-Leninist works
prvda.media
Heres there link
Alright then thanks lads. I was asking myself for a while now.
Reading these two is probably the best way to start, they are short but teach you more than most of the thousand pages long tomes.
Stirner
On the Food Tax, you clown.
You mean The tax in kind? Ok, so where's the "mental gymnastics"?
Spinoza and Hegel for philosophy and Smith and Ricardo for econmics
Communist Manifesto, The German Ideology, Capital (maybe abridged), Critque of the Gotha Program
Principles of Communism, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, Origins of the Family, State and Private Property, Anti-Dühring
Militant Materialism
Materialism and Emprio-Criticism, State and Revolution, Imperialism (substitute with Bukharin's work about imperialism)
Marxism and the National Question, History of the CPSU, Economic Problems of Socialism
On Contradiction, Critque of Soviet Economics, On Guerilla Warfare
Selected Works
Lenin as a Philosopher
Elementary Principles of Philosophy
Dialectics of the Ideal
History and Class Consciousness
This can all be read in two months if you read the abridged version of Kapital. After that, you are a Marxist.
This, and
Mutual Aid: Factor of Evolution and
The Bread Book by Kropotkin.
Also Revolutionary Cathecism by Bakunin