Recommended Communist Literature

by THE KARL MARX’S RED READING ROOM

Introduction

There once was a great facebook group called THE KARL MARX’S RED READING ROOM. Unfortunately, so it seems, it is not active anymore and asking for permission to get into the group will not be answered. However, I have managed to get the recommended reading list which is comprised of various books on communist theory.

Why even bother to read communist theory?

Reading communist theory can offer valuable insights and perspectives for several reasons:

1. Historical and Political Understanding: Communist theory, particularly the works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, and others, has profoundly influenced global history and politics.
   Understanding this theory helps explain the motivations and outcomes of major events like the Russian Revolution, the Cold War, and the policies of various communist states.
2. Economic Critique and Analysis: Marxist economics provides a critical analysis of capitalism, focusing on issues such as class struggle, labor exploitation, and the dynamics of capital accumulation.
   Studying these theories can enhance one’s understanding of economic inequalities and the structural issues inherent in capitalist systems.
3. Philosophical and Ethical Insights: Communist theory delves into questions of justice, equality, and human emancipation.
   Engaging with these ideas can provoke thoughtful consideration of ethical issues surrounding wealth distribution, social welfare, and the role of the state in ensuring a fair society.

That being said, let’s jump right in!

The Communist Library

Basics

• The Three Sources and Three Components of Marxism
• The State and Revolution
• Combat Liberalism
• Oppose Book Worship
• The Communist Manifesto
• Critique of the Gotha Programme
• The Reply to Zasulich
• On Authority
• On Marxism
• Marxism and Humanism
• Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses
• Lenin: A Study on the Unity of His Thought
• On Exercising All-Round Dictatorship over the Bourgeoisie
• A Critique of Ultra-Leftism, Dogmatism, and Sectarianism (but ignore all his thoughts on the black national question) —

Dialectical and Historical Materialism

• Anarchism or Socialism?
• Foundations of Leninism
• Dialectical and Historical Materialism
• On Practice
• On Contradiction
• Where Do Correct Ideas Come From?
• On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
• Pay Attention to Economic Work
• Letters on Historical Materialism
• Democracy Against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism

Economics

• Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory
• Value, Price & Profit
• Wage Labor & Capital
• Imperialism, the Higher Stage of Capitalism
• High Tech, Low Pay

Gender Oppression

• The Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State
• Only in Conjunction with the Proletarian Woman Will Socialism Be Victorious
• Communism and the Family
• Prostitution and Ways of Fighting It
• Working Woman and Mother
• Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory
• Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman
• Lavender and Red
• Left-Wing Anti-Feminism: A Revisionist Disorder
• Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle
• Daring to be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967–1975
• Huge Gains for Women in the Russian Revolution

National Oppression

• Letter from Marx to Engels in Manchester, December 11, 1869
• Marx to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt In New York, April 9, 1870
• The Question of Nationalities or ‘Autonomisation
• Marxism and the National Question
• The Struggle for the Leninist Position on the Negro Question in the United States
• For a Revolutionary Position on the Negro Question
• Fan the Flames! A Revolutionary Position on the Chicano National Question
• Roxane Dunbar-Ortiz — Indigenous People’s History of the United States
• Glen Sean Coulthard — Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition
• Huey P. Newton — To Die for the People

Disability Oppression

• Bruce M. Z. Cohen — Psychiatric Hegemony: A Marxist Theory of Mental Illness
• Richard Lewontin — Biology as Ideology
• How Capitalism Contributes to Ableism
• Taking Over the Asylum: Critical Psychiatry, Franco Basaglia and Social Struggle
• Legacies of Anti-Psychiatry and R.D. Laing

History

• Blackshirts and Reds
• Roger Keeran and Thomas Keeney — Socialism Betrayed: Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union
• Perestroika: A Marxist Critique
• Zong Huaiwen — Years of Trial, Turmoil and Triumph: China from 1949 to 1988
• China: The Struggle Within
• Continuing the Revolution is Not a Dinner Party
• Muang Lao: A Portrait of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
• John Reed — Ten Days That Shook the World
• Is the Red Flag Flying? The Political Economy of the Soviet Union
• Human Rights in the Soviet Union
• Domenico Losurdo — Liberalism: A Counter-History
• Samir Amin — Eurocentrism