Counseling Communism Discussion Guides

Over the past few years of Counseling Communism we have developed study guides on topics that we feel are important. We have done the work of sorting through and selecting key texts and present them here.

We hope you'll find a friend (or a few) and use these discussion guides to spread the good word:

#1: The Dutch/German Communist Left.

This tendency is criminally understudied and unknown within the left spaces that we often organize within, and many of us, after a summer both horrifying and hopeful (2020), felt that we needed to learn more about the socialists and communists who took seriously the autonomy of the working class. We had active members from all across the country, from Baltimore to Atlanta to Cleveland to Seattle.

#2: C.L.R. James and the Johnson-Forest Tendency.

It can be overwhelming to figure out where to start with C.L.R. James. Most people just read The Black Jacobins, which was written very early in James’ political life. Many other JFT figures discussed below should be much more widely read and discussed. That’s why this guide exists!  

The Johnson-Forest Tendency was founded by C.L.R. James, Raya Dunayevskaya, and Grace Lee Boggs, all radical libertarian Marxists centered in Detroit.

#2.5: Social Reproduction Theory, Socialism ou Barbarie and Claude Lefort (coming soon).

#3: Value (coming later).