Here’s one of my most recent primer lists:
- Why Socialism? by Albert Einstein
- Principles of Communism - Engels
- Communist Manifesto - Engels & Marx
- Elementary Principles of Philosophy by Georges Politzer
- Wage Labour and Capital - Marx
- Value Price and Profit - Marx
- The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism - Lenin
- Reform or Revolution - Luxemburg
- What Is To Be Done - Lenin
- The State and Revolution - Lenin
- Inventing Reality - Parenti
- Blackshirts and Reds - Parenti
Not saying it’s bullet proof list but this should cover a lot of what socialism actually is. Like Femboy said, I think starting with Einstein is a baller move. I always tell people to read Principles of Communism before the Manifesto because it’s super easy to read and now you have the foundation to go off of once you hit Marx(which can be pretty dense at times). Elementary Principles of Philosophy is sort of a pallet cleanser but it’s a great intro to dialectics. It will get them to start thinking about materialism as they read more. Wage Labour is the one I would recommend if you can only read one. It’s probably my favorite work by Marx as it solidified my own views on capitalism as a wage slave when I was first starting theory. The rest just sort of falls in place after that.
I think I would also put Wretched of the Earth by Fanon as an honorable mention. I’m currently working through it but it really hits home the relationship between the owner class and the proletariat but it does it from the lens of Black untra-exploited people in the global south. I saw someone suggesting some theory on reddit a few days ago and when pressed on why not this book, he said it lacks dialectics. But I disagree whole-heartedly. This book is pure material and historical dialectics.
einsteins abcs of socialism. helps that ppl tend to react well to the fact that it’s written by the guy whose name is synonymous with genius
Agreed! Redsails has so many good articles that are low buy-in length and difficulty collected just for this. The “tankies” one is also an all time classic. The one by Nia about transformation, relating her being trans to being a tankie, is also powerful
Also this quote from the linked text was a real click for me: “On my view, the core Marxist insight is the following: Feudal lords were the masters of feudalism. Capitalists, however, aren’t the masters of capitalism. They are merely the high priests of capitalism. The master of capitalism is Capital itself.”
How anti-capitalist are we talking about?
Because if he’s still a liberal I’d pick Thomas Frank. What’s The Matter With Kansas? delves right into why the western working class is so loyal to the far-right. Second Thought is also great for cementing the bridge.
Unfortunately we can’t really build a leftist pipeline because people have to come to us looking for answers, rather than us being a social club.
Not theory in the traditional sense but anything by Michael Parenti is fantastic for new lefties. I found him to be an incredibly convincing speaker and writer when I first discovered leftism. I still do
This quick Parenti clip is great because it establishes the link between capital and empire in a clear and concise way. To point out how liberals are fundamentally incapable of being our allies, (has never been easier) I send them The Pitfalls of Liberalism, although that might be a little much for someone who still believes in electoralism, imo it’s best as a final push for someone teetering on the edge of disillusionment
Man what else, what else…I’m trying to think of the simplest individual pieces of theory that got me, the most barebones crown jewels, my top 3 desert island propaganda pieces. Oh I got it, this one. Yeah, these are my trifecta. Why capitalism can only become what it is now, why liberalism cannot fix it, and why communism is good.
Honestly just entire Parenti lectures are great starting points. Yellow Parenti is a classic for a reason.
I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Link 1:
Link 2:
Link 3:
Lots of thick reading being recommended so I’ll go a bit more accessible with like, The Motorcycle Diaries, David Graeber’s Debt, Nickled and Dimed, maybe some stuff by Susan Sontag? Might be a good primer if they’re not ready for 1840s enormous beards yet
10 days that shook the world is an on the ground account of the days leading up to and during the 1918 revolution in Russia
It’s good shit, and features conversations between normal folks on the street, and also the revolutionary committee with speeches and discussions with Lenin and co, it’s good stuff, less theory and more context
Polanyi’s The Great Transformation. It’s in a good sweet spot of, not too long, but not too short, writing isn’t obtuse but efficient, and for a budding leftist it lays out a strong counter argument to the liberal propaganda of capitalism and market societies being “human nature, arising naturally and not out of any state agency.”
I’ve been meaning to read this for a while. I gotta bump it up the list.
Stalin’s Dialectical and Historical Materialism is good for understanding the theory beneath it all.
Engel’s Socialism: Utopian or Scientific is good for explaining the differences in socialisms and arguing for a Marxist understanding, of course.
There are a lot of different things. I guess it just depends where they are with things and what you or they want to get out of it.
🙄 no one who’s still at the stage of being “vaguely anti capitalist” is gonna read a book by stalin and actually consider it seriously. they’ve been taught their whole life that he’s the devil incarnate
Stalin’s gigantic spoon reaching out from the book to eat your noodles and make you starve
its true, it happened to me
Maybe, maybe not. It really just depends. This is why I was implying that we don’t really know enough to give an appropriate answer.
I’m curious, too, because I’m in the same boat. I’m guessing Lenin or Engles?
Marx’s Capital Illustrated was a pretty decent read, though its from Haymarket books and they have a few thinly veiled digs at China
I found this pretty approachable.
Marx’s Das Kapital for Beginners.pdf
Lenin’s State and Revolution was surprisingly approachable as well.
If you want something more about history, Parenti’s Blackshirts and Reds and Bevin’s Jakarta Method.
I would be wary of any “capital for beginners” type of book. It’s a hard read, but reading it through someone else’s interpretation only leads to their biases getting applied to it, and potentially misconstruing ideas. I think working on reading capital together with people is much better for understanding it and discussing it than reading a simplified interpretation of it. That being said, I haven’t read this one in particular, so these are just my general ideas towards that style of book, this one could be a really solid analysis of it for all I know.
