A courageous May day to comrades, friends, and all workers! I wish us strength and resilience for these times.

Two years back, I had made this list of resources for the political education of the novice leftist. Since then, I've improved on my pedagogic method

1/n https://twitter.com/Anupam_Guha/status/1130128238829801473

A lot of that progress has come via running @kosambicircle for a year and figuring out what works, how to teach. So here is a new and better definitive resource list for political education of the novice leftist

1. Start with the same explainer video

2/n

2. Follow with Principles of Communism by Engels https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm

3. and the short, slightly incorrect, slightly US centric description of democratic-socialism, ABC of Socialism https://s3.jacobinmag.com/issues/jacobin-abcs.pdf

3/n

4. At this point it will be useful to start getting an idea of the main split among the tendencies in communism, Marxism and Anarchism. Here is an excellent video for Anarchism 101 by @anarchopac


4/n

5. Now comes some basic concepts in the Marxist critique of political economy, this is an excerpt from an excellent graphic novel called Red Rosa
https://truthout.org/articles/rosa-luxemburg-explains-capitalism-using-spoons/

5/n

6. And follow this up by learning what is "labour capacity", a concept fundamental to the critique of political economy which Marx had, and where Marx starts to differ from Smith/Ricardo. Read this very short book, Wage, Labour, and Capital by Marx
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/wage-labour-capital.pdf

6/n

7. Now you know enough background to read the Manifesto! A few things, read it with the 1872 preface (because Marx and Engels wrote the manifesto when they were very young, they will learn from 1848 and make some important observations)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/index.htm

7/n

8. Now you have understood the basics of what is socialism, economically and politically. But the history of the movement is important. Don't worry I will not give you large books. Read the graphic novel
The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Red-Virgin-and-the-Vision-of-Utopia/Full?id=63975

8/n

that is about the Paris Commune, something Marx writes about in this small book https://marxists.architexturez.net/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/18th-Brumaire.pdf

9. Follow this by the graphic novel Red Rosa by Kate Evans (whose excerpt was mentioned before)
which is a concise history of Rosa Luxemburg's life

9/n

10. And, very importantly, follow that by OCTOBER by China Mieville, which is a novelisation of how the October revolution happened. Perhaps the most interesting book on the same for novice readers

11. Read some Bhagat Singh at this point
https://www.marxists.org/archive/bhagat-singh/1931/02/02.htm

10/n

12. There are a lot of wrong understandings of what socialism is (starting with "socialism is when the state does stuff"). But these bad ideas have existed since ages! Marx takes down a lot of them in Critique of the Gotha Programme
http://www.slp.org/pdf/marx/gotha_prgm.pdf

11/n

13. Fundamental to thinking as a Marxist is this idea that history does not operate because "some people thought so and so", but because of material conditions interlocked in time, Engels writes about this in Socialism, Utopian and Scientific
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm

12/n

At this point you go through the rest of the stuff in the old thread from point 7. I would say leave Capital vol 1 for the end as it is heavy. If you are reading Luxemburg, go through these https://twitter.com/Anupam_Guha/status/1367666557443215360

13/n

On Fascism, definitely read Trotsky, https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1944/1944-fas.htm

But, don't just read him. Robert Paxton's the Anatomy of Fascism is quite important
https://libcom.org/files/Robert%20O.%20Paxton-The%20Anatomy%20of%20Fascism%20%20-Knopf%20(2004).pdf

14/n

Basic readings never end. You can keep track of what our reading circle reads here
https://www.kosambicircle.com/readings 

Again, leftists are not a monolith and often disagree with each other. Use the framework as a tool to sharpen your understanding of reality and form your own conclusions

Always read broad and deep. Hope this collection is of use to you.