Hey ya'll,

The end of the year is approaching and there's some house cleaning and discussion that need to be had about the future of the book club.

After Capital Vol. I in the :reddit-logo: /r/CTH, the book club became a two-person operation. Myself and @RedCloud/@EvenRedderCloud would put a list together every month and put it to a vote, and the winner would be the selection for the month.

We've done monthly themes (Anarchist August, Pride June, etc). Redcloud and I made a point to select marginalized authors whenever we could, with BIPOC and LGBTQ authors getting more priority. We'd normally try to get four or five choices, since it's easy enough to find that many. Redcloud and I would then break up the text into manageable chunks for the month and create a calendar.

Why am I saying all this?

I haven't had contact from Redcloud in several months; they lived in the UK so with that island being like Children of Men and eating its young, I can only pray they are well and in good health. As for me, I'm thinking of stepping down.

It'd be extremely lame to say I want to prioritize my job responsibilities in an anti=capitalist, marxist forum. But it's not just work, or grad school, or my role as a community manger in a discord, or having enough time with my wife and kids, and friends. I'm coming undone, like a rope being pulled from both ends and fraying to bits.

But most importantly, I want this book club project to not just survive, but to grow and thrive.

To do that, I need. No... I want help.

Thinking about the future

I would love one or two, or perhaps more, comrades that can take on some of the responsibilities - I'd give you the same instructor permissions that RedCloud and I have. You'd be able to manage books and set the schedule.

I want to keep the /c/literature book choices going. But as I said, I want this to grow. I am a big believer that as a class the proletariat ultimately has all the power in their hands. We plan, build, and use the roads. We toil in the fields, harvest the grains, ship them around the world, code the websites, and teach the children and ourselves, what keeps this world spinning on its axis.

Theory, communist theory, is not enough.

It is opportune that we are reading Parable of the Sower, I'm reminded of how Lauren Olamina is thirsty for knowledge, all she does is read, complete college courses, and read some more.

History, gardening, math, science, chemistry, medicine, astronomy, politics, philosophy, cooking, electronic engineering, physics, gun handling, military tactics, anti-fascism, graphic design, art, designing propaganda, organizing, salting workplaces, opsec, all of this and more.

We cannot do it all in 12 months each year in a single community forum. I wish we had not just a bookclub for each community, a summary of the most important facts, and discussions every month.

One thing that has always stuck out to me, is that Communist parties had education programs, for their cadre of leadership, but after achieving power, they enacted literacy campaigns, free public education, university access to all marginalized groups.

It's so important we keep that tradition going.

If you decide to volunteer or have any questions, please reach out to me in a DM and I'll answer what I can.

Peace, love, and a happy new year,
MH

P.S.
While we look for new volunteers I'll work on January's book choices.

I'd also love to hear ya'lls feedback, what's working with the book club, what's not working? What would you do differently? And anything else.