INTRO TO LEFTIST THEORY

INTRO TO LEFTIST THEORY

So I wrote a recommended reading list awhile back, but have increasingly become aware it can be daunting. As such, I wanted to present a simplified sort of guide to leftist theory. So here’s a sequence of texts to help you get to grips with it all, rather than just a mass of recommendations. So let’s get started!

The Communist Manifesto. Just read it, comrade. It’s like fifty pages long, and intentionally simplified, so as to be accessible. Start here.

What next? You wanna expand your familiarity with Marx & Engels? How about Socialism: Utopian And Scientific? Written by Engels as a truncated, simplified form of Marx’ magnum opus Capital (which you should also read, eventually, but is a bit much to start). Want more? Check out Wage Labour And Capital, another of Marx & Engels’ shorter works which is a good, simple introduction to understanding our plight in both human and economic terms. Want something similar but not limited to the perspective of just a couple (visionary) gentlemen? The Conquest Of Bread is also short-ish and an easy intro, but this time from a less orthodox angle (anarchism!?); simultaneously a plea for tenderness and a call to arms.

So now, you’re comfortable with Marx et al, but you want something a bit more pracitically engaged with revolutionary movements? Try Quotations From Chairman Mao. There’s a reason the BPP prescribed members read this little red book; rather than a single long text, the short, punchy form gives a lot of good ideas to the budding revolutionary. Want something a bit more in-depth? State And Revolution is surprisingly applicable to our present predicament; this is how we agitate, educate, and organise, regardless of how we identify. Speaking of which, want something that won’t scare people with the mere mention of Lenin or Mao? Consider Reform Or Revolution? The question is rhetorical, so why not get familiar with the rhetoric.

Okay, but maybe your interest in leftism is via a specific experience of marginalisation. These old school classics are all well and good, but what about something that really speaks to you?

Are you trans, or have you got a particular interest in gender and its politics? Read Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come, which lays the groundwork, and is still pertinent today. Want something a bit more in-depth and academic? Gender Trouble: Feminism And The Subversion Of Identity can equip you to rhetorically destroy TERF nonsense like nothing else, among other things!

Right, and what about the intersections of gender and other forms of marginalisation? Feminism For The 99 may be a good starting point! Maybe something a bit more introspective, that tackles race and identity? Sister Outsider: Essays And Speeches is a digestible and inspiring collection which you can read in short bursts or all at once.

But some of this seems a bit Amero-centric, huh. If you wanna grapple with racialised imperialism more broadly, maybe delve into Discourse On Colonialism. Oh, but that seems to ignore the significance of sex and gender? Well luckily we can ask Can The Subaltern Speak? which may draw a lot of these threads together.

Yeah, but some of this postcolonial stuff seems a bit tangled up with history and international relations, so maybe a more in-depth understanding can be gleaned from Orientalism. Looking for more contemporary, less academic? Well we should all know by now Decolonization Is Not A Metaphor.

And what about the environment; isn’t capitalism largely a threat because of it’s refusal to address climate change? Yes, have a look at An Ecosocialist Manifesto.

Or do you find yourself asking Are Prisons Obsolete? Well let me tell you, you’re not alone!

The point is that this stuff is easier than you may think, and readily accessible. And yes, we’re in this together, and we’ve all got to co-educate, but it starts with you.