This is a work in progress and all Iâm hoping is that it might be useful for some people. Sort of in a suggested chronology, purely based on my opinion. Feel free to skip any if they arenât interest. And if anyone can find links to the two missing .pdfs thatâd be great.
Why Marx Was Right - Terry Eagleton
[read online]
You may have to look for this in a library as I failed to find a .pdf. Less an actual introduction to Marxist thought and more of a selection of well known and tired anti-communist tropes, being disputed and largely debunked. Eagleton isnât a terrible entry point if youâre brand new to these ideas.
17 Contradictions and the End of Capitalism -Â David Harvey
[pdf] (thanks to @aurora-malleus and @smolpoetryking for links to this)
A good introduction to some of the contradictions Marx outlines in Capital. Harvey is a populariser of Marx, as such he gets quite a lot of critique. In terms of a fairly public academic speaking about Marxism, however, heâs a better point of entry in my opinion than Richard Wolff or Noam Chomsky.Â
Wage Labour and Capital - Karl Marx
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/
Yes by this point itâs probably good to go back to Marx, or else itâs far too easy to never read his own work at all - and Marxists who do this often end up with a narrow understanding of Marxist thought. This one deals with pretty much what the title implies, and outlines why the interests of the wage-labourer and the capitalist are incompatible.Â
The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx and Friedrich EngelsÂ
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/
Worth reading, though also understanding it as an historical propaganda piece. Not the same level of rigour as many other works but still has some value.
The Principles of Communism - Friedrich Engels
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm
Similar to the last piece, and perhaps a bit dated. But in some ways this can quickly outline some of the foundational principles of communism - most of which hold up today regardless of how many innovations communists have made.
Capital Volume One - Karl Marx
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/
At this stage keen readers may want to start chipping away at Capital. It is a monster of a book, however, and some of the writing is extremely tedious. Take your time - seriously. Set aside potentially a whole year to just chip away at this and see what you can get out of it. Hopefully some of the parts Harvey highlights will reveal themselves. Donât feel like you have to finish it to continue on the list.
State and Revolution - Vladimir Lenin
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/
Those who know me might think this is a surprise as my politics are very critical of Leninism. However, this piece does have some important lessons in it - and itâs fair to say that regardless of your thoughts on Lenin he was a good writer and propagandist. Whether or not he lived up to much of the principles he seems to outline in this work is certainly up for debate.
Society of the Spectacle - Guy Debord
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/society.htm
The tone of writing here will seem unusual compared to whatâs been recommended up until this point. But SotS is a useful read. Contextually, this was written when the USSR was still powerful but being critiqued by communist thinkers - and Debord is certainly no booster for the Soviet Union. This was also in a period when capitalism was extremely bureaucratic in the realm of public life, in the form of the state (much of these functions have remained but have been privatised to be fair). Keep that in mind, as I believe Debord was not merely meaning Spectacular capitalism when he talks about bureaucratic societies - but is drawing parallels between the bourgeois democratic states and the bureaucratic âReally Existing Socialistâ states.
Discipline and Punish - Michel Foucault
https://zulfahmed.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/disciplineandpunish.pdf
Foucault is perhaps actually a bit clearer to read than Debord. This piece looks at disciplinary strategies employed by the State and how this has changed over time. His analysis of power problematises some presumptions about how to achieve liberatory politics. Do not be dissuaded by Marxists who snub Foucault - they are only patting themselves on the back for a fairly glaring blindspot theyâre unwilling to consider.
The Historical Moment That Produced Us - Loren Goldner
http://insurgentnotes.com/2010/06/historical_moment/
This is a great introduction to some of the ways that dissident Marxist thought has culminated and some of the principles it is emphasising today. Goldner is a former Trotskyist and a populariser (to the extent that it is at all popular.. so very marginally) of Left Communism in the anglophone world. This piece is partly polemic and takes swings at some of the sacred cows of the existing ostensibly radical left (support for Chavismo, etc).Â