I'm currently reading The Enemy Within: The Secret War Against the Miners - it covers the events of the early 90s when leaders of the National Union of Mineworkers such as Arthur Scargill were accused of taking money from Libya and the Soviet Union and keeping it themselves or using it to pay off their own mortgages during the 1984-85 miner's strike. They were also accused of trying to source guns from Libya and all sorts of other shady handling of union funds. It was, of course, all made up and amplified by hostile media barons like Robert Maxwell, politicians including the labour party leadership at the time, state intelligence agencies, and right wing union officials or even just others in the union who had an axe to grind with the accused. All the charges were eventually dropped and found to be complete nonsense but nonetheless the smear campaign achieved its goal of weakening the union, costing them financially, and having the union tied up in all sorts of legal battles at a time of further mine closures. One thing that I've found most jarring about it so far was that one of the key witnesses these allegations were based on was a guy who had been a communist all his adult life, had been friends with Scargill for more than 40 years, and had been his driver and bodyguard during the miner's strike. Then Maxwell gave him £50,000 and that was it, he just stabbed his former comrades in the back.

I'm also reading Jacobin's The ABC's of Socialism. The book takes the form of a Q&A where a common question about socialism is asked, followed by an answer. I knows its really supposed to be for people new to socialism and its all very socdem but I thought it might be good for picking up some good arguments or talking points for common questions people have about leftist politics. I guess the book does do this to an extent but I think it could've been written in a much more snappy and engaging way if its meant to be for newcomers as it feels kinda bland for me. However, I'm also not really learning anything new with it so I think that probably limits the book's appeal.

And I've also just started rereading the communist manifesto. I read this a few years ago when I was first getting into leftist politics, probably like most people. I'm hoping to see what things I didn't quite grasp or pick up on when I read it the first time around.

Can I suggest something a little more praxis focused? This site has amazing theory nerds, but I'd love to read something that has some practical implications.

Suggestions

No Fascist USA!: The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee and Lessons for Today’s Movements By Hilary Moore and James Tracey (anti-fascism)

Freedom is a Constant Struggle By Angela Y Davis (prison abolition)

How to be an Anti-capitalist in the 21st Century By Erik Olin Wright (anti-capitalism)

No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age By Jane F. McALevey (labor and social movement organizing)

I just finished My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness last night and gave been working my way through an old set of Asimov mysteries I bought by accident. Pretty good though, for a sci fi writer he really knows how to make a satisfying puzzle.

Listening to W E B Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction in America as an audiobook

I don’t know what I was expecting (something nebulously classic, I guess) but it absolutely lives up to the reputation. He was definitely a data guy, able to amass lots of supporting/relevant facts, and weave them into the broad themes he communicates.

As an example, he talks about the decades immediately before the civil war, and gives a big list of all the states that outlawed voting among free Blacks. Like, they didn’t think (they needed) to make it illegal initially, so there really weren’t laws to this effect in the early 1800s. But somehow it entered the US consciousness, and a bunch of states did very similar things in a short time period.

In northern states (I believe NY in particular sticks out), it was sometimes made illegal and then legalized again repeatedly.

I dunno. It’s just interesting to read about civil war/reconstruction in its actual historical context. Not this “well the US is good now and therefore must have been the result of a series of increasingly more just decisions”. Nah bitch this the empire of slavery, this thing’s layers of fucked up social relations fighting for a stable configuration (which generally included a lower class of essentially non-citizens)

But also, he doesn’t really do too much grandstanding either (some good jabs here and there), it’s generally just sequences of facts and some very easy follow-up conclusions, in light of said facts.

Still reading a chapter a week of Women, Race, and Class By Angela Davis for my book club, but instead of picking up Bullshit Jobs for fun, as I planned, I'm about halfway through Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. And it's freaking amazing.:stalin-heart:

The Dawn of Everything by Graeber/Wengrow and finally reading Sakai's Settlers. As an aside, I was visiting my lib-pilled older cousin and he asked me what I'd been reading lately - he was so interested in Dawn of Everything he ordered it as I was talking about it. Hoping it makes him interested in Graeber's other work (I told him Debt was a fantastic book but he had already ordered the other one :deeper-sadness:)

I'm reading Ready player one with @doubleimps and it sucks lmao

Also reading the shock doctrine which is good but taking me a while because I take notes on it as I go. The author is a lib but still has good info on neoliberalism and imperialism

And Dracula! I dont like that I'm reading this many books at the same time but whatever :shrug-outta-hecks: its a fun book so far and a lot of it makes me laugh unintentionally

For topics could we do indigenous history :crush:

I'm reading Psychopolitics by Byung-Chul Han. It's pretty good, I usually struggle with reading philosophy but Han writes simply and succinctly enough that I don't get lost or irritated or bored.

As for book club I honestly think this site is severely under-Malmpilled, I think Andreas Malm is the most vital modern theorist. I think How to Blow Up a Pipeline is an obvious choice, it's an easy read and would be well- liked. White Skin, Black Fuel is great too but maybe too heavy a read for summer? Fossil Capital is next on my list to read, so I have my own reasons for favouring Fossil Capital.

Just started China Mieville's newish book on the Communist Manifesto and it's publication.

I'm still reading Black Jacobins because my attention span is garbage and it's really hard for me to knuckle down and read more than a few pages at once. There's also a lot of names and I keep forgetting who people are 😓

But Sontinax was just forced to end slavery so that's cool

I finally finished Understanding Comics by Scott MacLeod. I started it when I was 13 and kept meaning to finish it for 16 years. Perhaps my understanding of art history and theory wasn't well-formed enough to really grasp the concepts when I first started, but I always agreed with the central premise that comics are art. As somebody whose youth was heavily shaped by comics, there wasn't much I didn't already know, but having somebody break down everything that happens when you read a comic was still fascinating.

Then I saw one of my coworkers reading The Coming Insurrection by The Invisible Committee. The first half is great, the second half has not aged well. While that kind of thing might have been plausible in France at the time of publication, I don't think it's plausible anywhere nowadays. There are certainly people capable of insurrection now, but they definitely aren't leftists, and they aren't going to make alliances with people who are. The iron was hot around 2011/12, but we didn't strike because the vast majority of the people involved with Occupy (and other movements of the time) didn't understand there was a hammer in their hands. Now we have to fight from a defensive position.

And finally, I found a book on chaos magic at the local thrift store. I've read a little bit of it and I'm comfortable saying it's probably not fashy garbage.

Red Carpet. Explores China and the US film industry. It's author is a WSJ writer so while pretty insightful on how much influence China has on Hollywood, and how they intend to use that influence, the takes on historical events in China is boilerplate CIA shit.

The Assassination of Julius Caesar by :parenti-hands: Parenti is kind of clowning on bougie historians so far, I'm only about 3 chapters in.

The Supernova Era by Cixin Liu. Premise is fun: what would happen if a solar flare killed everyone over the age of 13? I'm pretty sure Cixin Liu is taking a huge shit on communism. I just read that Obama loved the book so I might be correct. Anyone here read the book?

I am reading Savage Detectives, picked up The Odyssey and the Illiad from the library, along with four books on art history - 1 on major french painters from 1500-1800; 1 on 19th century modern painting; a book on Sargent’s life and works and another on his portraiture of children.

Starting The Workers Republic by James Connolly today and have been reading The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara the past few days which is a beautifully written book, interesting to see his transformation into a revolutionary as the book goes on :joker-che:

I'm about halfway through the Great Gatsby. It picks up once the white genocide character gets sidelined. First time and probably last time I'll read it.