A compilation of a series of lectures by Liu Shaoqi (Mao Zedong’s number-two man and the President of Communist China) at the Yunan Institute of Marxism-Leninism in 1939, this book was more popular in Communist China than the works of Chairman Mao! For decades it was required reading for all party cadre on discipline and individual self-cultivation.

From @Dessalines

“This transformation of competition into monopoly is one of the most important – if not the most important – phenomena of modern capitalist economy.” – V. I. Lenin

During the First World War, Lenin found himself isolated, but he was not afraid to fight against the stream. He dedicated all his strength to educating and training the Bolsheviks on the basis of the genuine ideas of Marxism. His masterpiece, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, is an immortal monument to his work in the vital field of theory.

No book has ever explained the phenomena of modern capitalism better. Indeed, all of Lenin’s predictions concerning the concentration of capital, the dominance of the banks and finance capital, the growing antagonism between nation states and the inevitability of war arising out of the contradictions of imperialism have been shown to be true by the entire history of the last 100 years.

Using the empirical evidence and statistics at his disposal, Lenin explains that, in the stage of imperialist monopoly capitalism, the entire economy is under the domination of the banks and finance capital. Today, over 100 years after it was first published, this domination is 100 times greater.

This audiobook contains three major works on Marxism: The Communist Manifesto, Wage-Labour and Capital, and Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Chapters thanks to @aNarcoComm

Elementary Principles of Philosophy, written by Georges Politzer. Recorded reading of the text linked below:
foreignlanguages.press/wp-cont…

From @CommunistASMR

Blackshirts & Reds explores some of the big issues of our time: fascism, capitalism, communism, revolution, democracy, and ecology. These terms are often bandied about, but seldom explored in the original and exciting way that has become Michael Parenti's trademark.

Parenti shows how "rational fascism" renders service to capitalism, how corporate power undermines democracy, and how revolutions are a mass empowerment against the forces of exploitative privilege. He also maps out the external and internal forces that destroyed communism, and the disastrous impact of the "free-market" victory on eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He affirms the relevance of taboo ideologies like Marxism, demonstrating the importance of class analysis in understanding political realities and dealing with the ongoing collision between ecology and global corporatism.

Written with lucid and compelling style, this book goes beyond truncated modes of thought, inviting us to entertain iconoclastic views, and to ask why things are as they are.

"A penetrating and persuasive writer with an astonishing array of documentation to implement his attacks." —The Catholic Journalist

"By portraying the struggle between fascism and Communism in this century as a single conflict, and not a series of discrete encounters, between the insatiable need for new capital on the one hand and the survival of a system under siege on the other, Parenti defines fascism as the weapon of capitalism, not simply an extreme form of it. Fascism is not an aberration, he points out, but a 'rational' and integral component of the system."—Stan Goff, author of Full Spectrum Disorder: The Military in the New American Century

Michael Parenti, PhD Yale, is an internationally known author and lecturer. He is one of the nation's leading progressive political analysts. Author of over 275 published articles and twenty books, his writings are published in popular periodicals, scholarly journals, and his op-ed pieces have been in leading newspapers such as The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. His informative and entertaining books and talks have reached a wide range of audiences in North America and abroad.

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Description: This is a very early (1847) FAQ file for Communism, written by Karl Marx's main collaborator, Frederick Engels. Engels had previously written "Draft of the Communist Confession of Faith," which uses a similar, catechistic format of questions and answers, but this document is better-developed. However, Engels still did not find it satisfying and wrote to Marx, "“Think over the Confession of Faith a bit. I believe we had better drop the catechism form and call the thing: Communist Manifesto. As more or less history has got to be related in it, the form it has been in hitherto is quite unsuitable. I am bringing what I have done here with me; it is in simple narrative form, but miserably worded, in fearful haste. ...”

The original text is here: marxists.org/archive/marx/work…

Timestamps for those coming back to this video, or those who want a specific question answered:
0:00 Channel introduction
0:43 Front matter
1:25 1. What is Communism?
1:33 2. What is the proletariat?
2:03 3. Proletarians, then, have not always existed?
2:25 4. How did the proletariat originate?
5:39 5. Under what conditions does this sale of the labor of the proletarians to the bourgeoisie take place?
7:05 6. What working classes were there before the industrial revolution?
7:55 7. In what way do proletarians differ from slaves?
9:11 8. In what way do proletarians differ from serfs?
10:20 9. In what way do proletarians differ from handicraftsmen?
11:28 10. In what way do proletarians differ from manufacturing workers?
12:16 11. What were the immediate consequences of the industrial revolution and of the division of society into bourgeoisie and proletariat?
17:02 12. What were the further consequences of the industrial revolution?
18:25 13. What follows from these periodic commercial crises?
20:17 14. What will this new social order have to be like?
21:41 15. Was not the abolition of private property possible at an earlier time?
24:16 16. Will the peaceful abolition of private property be possible?
25:12 17. Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke?
25:39 18. What will be the course of this revolution?
29:50 19. Will it be possible for this revolution to take place in one country alone?
31:10 20. What will be the consequences of the ultimate disappearance of private property?
36:42 21. What will be the influence of communist society on the family?
37:36 22. What will be the attitude of communism to existing nationalities?
38:00 23. What will be its attitude to existing religions?
38:21 24. How do communists differ from socialists?
38:29 (How do communists differ from) Reactionary Socialists
39:51 (How do communists differ from) Bourgeois Socialists
40:36 (How do communists differ from) Democratic Socialists
41:40 25. What is the attitude of the communists to the other political parties of our time?
44:05 Footnotes

#s4a #socialismforall #socialism4all #revolution2030 #socialism #communism #marxism #marxismleninism #greenparty #laborunion #labormovement #engels #socialist #communist #marxist #audiobook

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Link to original: marxists.org/archive/lenin/wor…

Description:
This is the 1st of 26 texts in the basic Marxism-Leninism study guide published by Movimiento Anti-Imperialista (MAI) and read as audiobooks by Socialism for All. Find the full curriculum here: reddit.com/r/communism/comment…

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
3:20 Text

#s4a​​ #socialismforall​​ #socialism4all​​ #revolution2030​​ #rev2030 #socialism​​ #communism​​ #marxism​​ #marxismleninism​​​​ #socialist #communist #marxist #marxistleninist #lenin #marx

This is Lenin’s seminal text on social revolution and how to achieve it, published some 16 years before Russia’s October 1917 Revolution. His plan to overturn the Czar’s ruthless autocratic regime proposes the establishment of a cadre of “professional revolutionaries” with the necessary skills and experience to counter the regime’s secret police.

Lenin derides trade unionists as “wretched amateurs”, arguing that a struggle for simple economic betterment is not enough, nor are patchwork reforms – what is needed is the complete overthrow of the political system. Lenin’s “professional revolutionaries” are not so much ‘shock troops’ of violent rebellion as educated activists who will awaken the workers’ class consciousness, leading them to reject western-style political factions and to work within the Party to achieve the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the October Revolution and the ensuing upheavals of the twentieth century.

"Without Revolutionary theory, there can be no Revolutionary Movement."

— Vladimir Lenin^[What is to be Done? | Audiobook]

It's time to read theory, comrades! As Lenin says, "Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle." Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components, as noted by Lenin in his pamphlet The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism: | Audiobook

1. Dialectical and Historical Materialism
2. Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx's Law of Value
3. Advocacy for Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism, as well as the theory of Class Struggle.

As such, I created the following list to take you from no knowledge whatsoever of Leftist theory, and leave you with a strong understanding of the critical fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism in an order that builds up as you read. Let's get started!

Section I: Getting Started

What the heck is Communism, anyways? For that matter, what is fascism?

1. Friedrich Engels' Principles of Communism | Audiobook

The FAQ of Communism, written by the Luigi of the Marx & Engels duo. Quick to read, and easy to reference, this is the perfect start to your journey.

1. Michael Parenti's Blackshirts and Reds | Audiobook

Parenti's characteristic wit is on full display in this historical contextualization and analysis of fascism and Communism. Line after line, Parenti debunks anti-Communist myths. This is also an excellent time to watch the famous speech.

Section II: Historical and Dialectical Materialism

Ugh, philosophy? Really? YES!

1. Georges Politzer's Elementary Principles of Philosophy | Audiobook

By understanding Dialectical and Historical Materialism first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism-Leninism. Don't be intimidated!

1. Friedrich Engels' Socialism: Utopian and Scientific | Audiobook

Engels introduces Scientific Socialism, explaining how Capitalism itself prepares the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates and cartels.

Section III: Political Economy

That's right, it's time for the Law of Value and a deep-dive into Imperialism. If we are to defeat Capitalism, we must learn it's mechanisms, tendencies, contradictions, and laws.

1. Karl Marx's Wage Labor and Capital | Audiobook & Wages, Price and Profit | Audiobook

Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value.

1. Vladimir Lenin's Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism | Audiobook

The era of Imperialism, which as the primary contradiction cascades downward into all manner of related secondary contradictions.

Section IV: Revolutionary and Scientific Socialism

Can we defeat Capitalism at the ballot box? What about just defeating fascism? What about the role of the state?

1. Rosa Luxemburg's Reform or Revolution | Audiobook

If Marxists believed reforming Capitalist society was possible, we would be the first in line for it. Sadly, it isn't.

1. Vladimir Lenin's The State and Revolution | Audiobook

Further analyzes the necessity of Revolution and introduces the economic basis for the withering away of the State.

Section V: National Liberation, De-colonialism, and Solidarity

The revolution will not be fought by individuals, but by an intersectional, international working class movement. Solidarity allows different marginalized groups to work together in collective interest, unifying into a single broad movement. Marxists support the Right of Self-Determination for all peoples and support National Liberation movements against Imperialism.

1. Vikky Storm & Eme Flores' The Gender Accelerationist Manifesto | (No Audiobook yet)

Breaks down misogyny, and queerphobia, as well as how to move beyond the base subject of "gender" from a Historical Materialist perspective.

1. Leslie Feinberg's Lavender & Red | Audiobook

When different social groups fight for liberation together along intersectional lines, they are emboldened and empowered ever-further.

1. Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth | Audiobook & Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed | Audiobook

De-colonialism is essential to Marxism. Without having a strong, de-colonial, internationalist stance, we have no path to victory nor justice. These books are best taken as a pair, read in quick succession.

Section VI: Putting it into Practice!

It's not enough to endlessly read, you must put theory to practice. That is how you can improve yourself and the movements you support. Touch grass!

1. Mao Tse-Tung's On Practice & On Contradiction | Audiobook

Mao wrote simply and directly to peasant soldiers during the Revolutionary War in China. This pair of essays equip the reader to apply the analytical tools of Dialectical Materialism to their every day practice.

1. Vladimir Lenin's "Left-Wing" Communism, an Infantile Disorder | Audiobook

Common among new leftists is dogmatism over pragmatism. Everyone wants perfection, but dogmatic "left" anti-Communists let perfection become the enemy of progress.

1. Jones Manoel's Western Marxism Loves Purity and Martyrdom, But Not Real Revolution | (No Audiobook yet)

Common among western leftists is fetishization of Marxism, rather than using it as a tool for analysis and social change. This article helps rectify that.

1. Liu Shaoqi's How to be a Good Communist | Audiobook

Organizing is a skill. If we are to be successful, we must work to better ourselves.

Congratulations, you completed your introductory reading course!

With your new understanding and knowledge of Marxism-Leninism, here is a mini What is to be Done? of your own to follow, and take with you as practical advice.

1. Get organized. The Party for Socialism and Liberation, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and Red Star Caucus all organize year round, every year, because the battle for progress is a constant struggle. See if there is a chapter near you, or start one!
2. Read theory. Don't think that you are done now! Just because you have the basics, doesn't mean you know more than you do. If you have not investigated a subject, don't speak on it!
3. Aggressively combat white supremacy, misogyny, queerphobia, and other attacks on marginalized communities. Cede no ground, let nobody go forgotten.
4. Be industrious, and self-sufficient. Take up gardening, home repair, tinkering. It is through practice that you elevate your knowledge.
5. Learn self-defense. Get armed, if practical. Be ready to protect yourself and others.
6. Be persistent. If you feel like a single water droplet against a mountain, think of canyons and valleys. With consistency, every rock, boulder, mountain, can be drilled through with nothing but water droplets.

"Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent."

­— Mao Tse-Tung

Credits

inbracketsDontLaugh

2024-11-17 17:34:39

What Is To Be Done? by Vladimir Lenin (Full Audiobook)

This is Lenin’s seminal text on social revolution and how to achieve it, published some 16 years before Russia’s October 1917 Revolution. His plan to overturn the Czar’s ruthless autocratic regime proposes the establishment of a cadre of “professional revolutionaries” with the necessary skills and experience to counter the regime’s secret police.

Lenin derides trade unionists as “wretched amateurs”, arguing that a struggle for simple economic betterment is not enough, nor are patchwork reforms – what is needed is the complete overthrow of the political system. Lenin’s “professional revolutionaries” are not so much ‘shock troops’ of violent rebellion as educated activists who will awaken the workers’ class consciousness, leading them to reject western-style political factions and to work within the Party to achieve the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the October Revolution and the ensuing upheavals of the twentieth century.

See the stickied comment below for an explanation and statement of our purpose, based on simple back-of-the-napkin math

E: if someone could please link this community to r/aspen and r/roaringforkvalley I would greatly appreciate it. I’ve been IP banned by the all powerful AI mod monster, like many folks on Lemmy