UPDATE Feb 14, 2018: I’ve just added a new list (the first one) to this post. The first list in this post is centered around helping someone get up to speed in all aspects of being able to make a fully Maoist analysis of any situation. This new list started off as a list of the MLM “classics,” but it also includes things I consider just about equally important in the U.S. context as those others are globally. There’s not a particular order recommended. Each is on the list because it adds something the others can’t quite.
It’s not a short list. But nevertheless I’ve really, really tried to avoid the “more is better” approach that many self-identified MLM reading lists I’ve seen have taken. People should definitely not wait until they’ve read them all before starting to organize. But organizers should commit to always steadily and diligently reading (and absorbing, in order to apply) these works.
The very final section of the first list is kind of a “guide for independent research,” which has some more general suggestions about how to continue learning beyond this, to learn the things that, if no one else, the leaders in the movement need to know.
Finally, of course this list is based on my own limitations. Capital isn’t on it, though it is a classic, but I honestly haven’t read it all yet. This list was put together through learning from a lot of great Marxists. It will probably change with time. Most of this stuff can be found online. If you’re having trouble finding something, email me using the info here.
Marx &/or Engels
– Principles of Communism
– The German Ideology (just read ch1)
– Critique of the Gotha Program
– Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State
– On Authority
– Wage Labor and Capital
– Wages, Price, and Profit
Lenin
– State and Revolution
– The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism
– What Is To Be Done
– Imperialism
Stalin
– Marxism and the National Question
– Foundations of Leninism
Dimitrov
– The Fascist Offensive and the Tasks of the Communist International in the Struggle of the Working Class against Fascism (parts 1 and 3, skip pt. 2)
Mao
– On Contradiction
– On Practice
– Quotations
– Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership
– Oppose Book Worship
– Reform Our Study
– Rectify the Party’s Style of Work
– Talk on Questions of Philosophy
– A Study of Physical Education
– Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society
– On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
– On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship
– On Khrushchov’s Phoney Communism and Its Historical Lessons for the World
– “Five Golden Rays” (which contains “Combat Liberalism”)
– On Protracted War
– On Guerrilla Warfare
– Problems of Strategy in China’s Revolutionary War
– Talks at the Yenan Forum of Literature and Art
– “The Centre’s Instruction on Learning from Each Other and Overcoming Complacency and Conceit”
China generally
– A Basic Understanding of the Communist Party of China (no need to read the constitution)
– Fundamentals of Political Economy
– How Yukong Moved the Mountains (multi-part documentary film) – Search for it on youtube
On fake vs. real socialism
– “Rethinking Socialism”
– “Capitalist and Maoist Economic Development”
– “Evaluating the Cultural Revolution”
– “Realities of Social-Imperialism Versus Dogmas of Cynical Realism”
– “Turning Point in China: An Essay on the Cultural Revolution”
Gauche Proletarienne
Communist Party of Peru
– General Political Line of the Communist Party of Peru
– Interview with Chairman Gonzalo
– Marxism, Mariategui, and the Women’s Movement
Communist Party of India
– Philosophical Trends in the Feminist Movement
– Marxism-Leninism-Maoism Study Notes
– “Urban Perspective”
Parvati
– Women’s Participation in People’s Army
– Women’s Participation in People’s War in Nepal
– People’s War, Women’s War (Includes “The Question of Women’s Leadership in People’s War in Nepal” and “Interview to People’s March”)
Revolutionary Communist Party (Canada) (pcr-rcp.ca)
Red Guards Austin
– On Identity Opportunism
– Everywhere a Battlefield
– On Contradictory Action
– A Year Summation
– Condemned to Win
– It Will Not Fall Unless You Hit It
– One More Time for Those in the Back
Red Guards – Los Angeles
From Rebellion to War: Escalate the Anti-gentrification Strategic Defensive to Equilibrium!
Revolutionary Student Front – Austin
Summation of the Revolutionary Mental Health Program
Serve the People – Los Angeles
Defend Boyle Heights (LA)
Stonewall Militant Front – Austin
– 2018: A New Year, a New Us
– Omissions and corrections to the Stonewall Militant Front announcement
Stuff that is less about analysis and more about applying that analysis to organize
Communist Party of the Philippines – Mass Work
Red Guards Austin – Throwing Light
Serve the People – Austin: “Paid Activists: Minions of the Rich”
Serve the People – Pittsburgh – Pittsburgh’s First Six Months
Serve the People – Kansas City – Summation, Sep–Nov 2017
Serve the People – Los Angeles – The people want revolutionary justice: A brief report back on building our People’s Committees in Boyle Heights
South African Communist Party – How to Master Secret Work
Irish Republican Army – Green Book
Marighella – Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla
Mao – Basic Tactics
Other theoretical stuff
Kaypakkaya – On the Kurdish National Question
Communist Party of Peru – We Are the Initiators
Communist Party of Peru – For the New Flag
Further study for developing leaders
There are of course a whole shit-ton of things missing from the above list. To go beyond it, you could start by checking out the three reading guides further below (again, I can’t 100% vouch for everything in them). But even better than that, you won’t go wrong if you just start reading through everything certain parties or individuals wrote. Again, most of this you can find through Google.
– All of the PCP’s works
– All of Mao’s selected works (Especially all the bolded works in this list)
– All of Lenin’s selected works
– All of Marx’s selected works
– All of the major works by the leaders of the CPI (Maoist)
– All of the major works by the leaders of the CPN (Maoist)
(a lot but not all of the two immediately previous things are on the Redspark Library)
– All of “A World to Win” magazine
– All of Red Papers (put out by the RCP-USA/RU during the New Communist Movement, found on this page)
– The PCP’s newspaper El Diario (you will have to translate it) (e.g., here and here)
– The Communist, the RCP-USA’s theoretical journal from when they hadn’t totally degenerated
– Look through all of Banned Thought
– Look through all of the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism Online
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Original post:
Below are the three MLM reading lists/guides I know about. I haven’t read but a small fraction of these, but I thought sharing them would help others.
1. The one on massline.org: http://massline.org/MLM_Study/MLMstudy.htm
2. One that was recently posted to the /r/Maoist subreddit. It was deleted, but I saved a copy and it is reproduced below.
3. One that was not so recently posted as a random comment in the MLM Communism 101 Facebook group once and I think was also deleted. This is also posted below.
A QUICK NOTE ON FINDING THESE DOCUMENTS
A lot of these things are available with a simple google search. Often you will find them on marxists.org, marx2mao.com, bannedthought.net, or massline.org. Many more are on http://gen.lib.rus.ec (which, if you’ve never used it and are having trouble w/ it, just lmk and I’ll provide some instructions.) If you can’t find something on any of those, lmk and I’ll see what I can do.
2. THE ONE THAT WAS POSTED IN /r/MAOIST
INTRO
Marx, Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party
Engels. The Principles of Communism
Einstein. Why Socialism?
Prakash. Why Maoism?
Mao. Quotations from Mao Tse tung
CPI(Maoist). Marxism-Leninism-Maoism Study Notes
Thompson. Marx to Mao Tse-tung
Thompson. Capitalism and After
Thompson. The Human Essence
PCR-RCP. Programme
PHILOSOPHY
Marx. Theses on Feuerbach
Ilyenkov. Activity & Knowledge
Mao. On Practice
MCG. On Maoist Practice
Ilyenkov. Dialectics of the Ideal
Mao. On Contradiction
Siqi. Antagonistic and Non-Antagonistic Contradictions
Althusser. On the Materialist Dialectic
Badiou. The Rational Kernel of the Hegelian Dialectic
Badiou. Theory of the Subject
Ollman. Dance of the Dialectic
Ilyenkov. Dialectics of the Abstract & Concrete (Full Version, poor translation)
Siraj. Post-modernism Today
THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY
Balibar. The Basic Concepts of Historical Materialism (Self Criticism)
Ollman. Alienation
Lukács. The Phenomenon of Reification
Biel. Eurocentrism and the Communist Movement (2nd Edition)
Amin. Eurocentrism
Sakai. Settlers (4th Edition)
Tani, Sera. False Nationalism, False Internationalism
Lee, Rover. Night-Vision (JMP’s Review / MIM’s Review)
Engels. Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State (Reading group)
Mies. Patriarchy & Accumulation on a World Scale
Federici. Caliban and the Witch (Review)
Yami. People’s War and Women’s Liberation
Bettelheim. Class Struggles in the USSR, First Period
Bettelheim. Class Struggles in the USSR, Second Period
MLMRSG. Chinese Foreign Policy
MLMRSG. Evaluating the Cultural Revolution
SCIENTIFIC SOCIALISM
Lenin. State and Revolution
Althusser. Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses
Badiou. Of Ideology
Gramsci. Selections from the Prison Notebooks (Study Notes, Amil K., JMP I, JMP II)
Moufawad-Paul. The Communist Necessity (Kersplebedeb / AK Press)
Luxemburg. Reform or Revolution
Mao. Combat Liberalism
Ghandy. Philosophical Trends in the Feminist movement
Fanon. The Wretched of the Earth
Sayles. Meditations on Wretched of the Earth (AK Press / Kersplebedeb) (JMP, MIM)
Ilyenkov. From the Marxist-Leninist Point of View
Lukács. Lenin: A Study on the Unity of his Thought (Reading group)
Hongqi. Long Live Leninism!
RIM. Long Live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!
Ajith. Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought Are Not the Same
POLITICAL ECONOMY
“FPE” Working Group. Fundamentals of Political Economy / AKA the Shanghai Textbook (MIM Study Guide)
Marx. Capital Volume I (Study Guide, Reading Marx, Harvey)
Amin. The Law of Worldwide Value
Marx. Capital Volume II (Study Guide, Reading Marx, Thomas)
Marx. Capital Volume III (Study Guide, Reading Marx, Thomas, Kapital)
Cope. Divided World, Divided Class (2nd Edition Preface) (JMP)
Bromma. The Worker Elite
Biel. The New Imperialism
Biel. The Entropy of Capitalism
Turner. Is China an imperialist country?
ORGANIZATION & MILITARY POLICY
Derbent. Categories of Revolutionary Military Policy
PCR-RCP. Getting Started
CPI(Maoist). Constitution
CPI(Maoist). Our Work in Urban Areas, part 3 Policy and Guidelines
Mao. Methods of Work of Party Committees
SACP. How to Master Secret Work
Mao. On Protracted War
Mao. On Guerrilla Warfare
Mao. On Production by the Army for its Own Support
Mao. Problems of War and Strategy
PCP-SL. Military Line
PCR-RCP. Protracted people’s war is the only way to make revolution
PCR-RCP. More on the question of waging revolutionary war in the imperialist countries
PCE(r). The Party-guerrilla coordination
Mariguella. Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla
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3. THE ONE THAT WAS POSTED AS A COMMENT IN THE MLM COMMUNISM 101 FACEBOOK GROUP ONCE:
INTRODUCTION
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism: Study Notes
Shashi Prakash – Why Maoism?
Bernard D’Mello – What Is Maoism? (2009)
THEORETICAL
CCP – The Historical Experience of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat (1956)
CCP – Long Live Leninism! (1960)
Chen Yen-shih – Lenin’s Fight Against Revisionism and Opportunism (1965)
PKP – Program For A People’s Democratic Revolution (1968)
Chang Chun-chiao – On Exercising All-Round Dictatorship Over the Bourgeoisie (1975)
Yao Wen-yuan – On the Social Basis Of The Lin Piao Antiparty Clique (1975)
RIM – Declaration of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (1984)
Chairman Gonzalo – Interview (1988)
PCP – On Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (1988)
Armando Liwanag – Stand For Socialism Against Modern Revisionism (1992)
RIM – Long Live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism! (1993)
TKP/ML – Contemporary Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (1998)
RIM – For a Century of People’s Wars! (2000)
CPI(Maoist) – Programme (2004)
Kishan – Without a Struggle Against Revisionism It Is Impossible To Take Even One Step Forward in the Revolution (pp. 24-27) (2006)
PCR-RCP – Programme (2007)
IA – Right Wing of LGBT Rights (2011)
JMP – Marxism Beyond Marx, Leninism Beyond Lenin, Maoism Beyond Mao (2011)
MCPM – Programme (2011)
SF – With the Looters and Against the Left (2011)
SF – Put World People’s War on the Agenda (2012)
SF – Occupy and the Allure of the Petty Bourgeois (2012)
CHINA PEOPLE’S WAR/SOCIALISM
RCP,USA – On the Class Struggle in China (1984)
RWOR – Chiang Ching: A Revolutionary Life (1991)
Zafia Ryan – Chiang Ching The Revolutionary Ambitions of a Communist Leader (1993)
AWTW – Chang Chun-chiao: An Unrelenting Champion of Communism (2005)
MLMRSG – Evaluating the Cultural Revolution in China and its Legacy for the Future (2007)
MLMRSG – Chinese Foreign Policy during the Maoist Era and its Lessons for Today (2007)
INDIA PEOPLE’S WAR
Chindu Sreedharan – Karl and the Kalashnikov (1998)
Aloke Banerjee – Inside MCC Country (2003)
Sudhakar – Dandakarnya: A Saga of Twenty-Five Years of Glorious Struggle (pp. 3-7) (2006)
Rita Khanna – War Against The Maoists: But Who Are They And What Do They Want? (2009)
Arundhati Roy – Walking with the Comrades (2010)
Arundhati Roy – The Trickledown Revolution (2010)
Gautam Navlakha – Days and Nights in the Heartland of Rebellion (2010)
Suvojit Bagchi – 34 Days with Maoists Inside the Forest part 1, part 2, part 3 (2011)
Arundhati Roy – Capitalism: A Ghost Story (2012)
NEPAL PEOPLE’S WAR
AWTW – The People’s War is Sinking Roots (1998)
Li Onesto – Dispatches: Report from the People’s War in Nepal (1999-2000)
Arjun Karki & David Seddon – People’s War in Nepal Left Perspectives (2003)
AWTW – Building Red Power in Nepal (2004)
PERU PEOPLE’S WAR
AWTW – When the Andes Roar (1985)
AWTW – People’s War Continues: New Regime, Same Reaction (1985)
Carol Andreas – Excerpts from “When Women Rebel: The Rise of Popular Feminism in Peru” (1985)
CSRP – Revolution in Peru (1985)
AWTW – Communism Marches Forward in Peru (1992)
Gary Leupp – Peru on the Threshold: A Reply to Hobart A. Spalding (1993)
Heriberto Ocasio – Why the People’s War in Peru is Justified and Why it is the Road to Liberation (1995)
RWOR – The Road of Liberation Strategy and Goals of the Revolution (1997)
PHILIPPINES PEOPLE’S WAR
RWOR – With the New People’s Army in the Philippines: Report from a Guerrilla Front, part 2, part 3, part 4 (1998)
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