The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
Robert Tressell (1910)
Widely regarded as one of the finest novels ever written by a working-class writer about working-class life. Actually, Tressell's circumstances were not those of the characters he brought to life: he was the illegitimate son of a comparatively wealthy Irishman. (He used his mother's surname, Noonan.) In his teens, he worked as a painter and decorator in South Africa, but couldn't find steady work after moving to Britain at the age of 30, so he took to writing. He died in 1911, at the age of 40. His novel was first printed in 1914, its most politically contentious passages censored by the publisher.
Relevance: Censored or uncensored, the novel is long and heavy going in parts, but there is something universal and timeless in this celebration of the need to work.
Readability: 3
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Eyewitness account of the Bolshevik seizure of power, approved by Lenin, suppressed by Stalinists because of the central role Trotsky plays in the narrative
Jan Valtin - Out of the Night: Readability 10
Life story, possibly true of German Communist Party member and trade union organiser from WWI to WWII.
Remarque is good, but these are twice as good!
Socialist fiction, feminist theory, even Marxist tracts ? thanks to the recession, the classic left-wing reads of yesteryear are back in vogue. But which titles really deliver power to the people? Andy McSmith finds out. RED BOOK is gone, we have green book for the labour expenses. That too will be sold one day.
We are in middle of the credit crises and all are trying to sell what they have irrespective of the past value. Cash is present rest is past.
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla
To counter that pathetic list, let me suggest a few slightly more up to date things to read:
"One Country: a bold proposal to end the Israeli-Palesinian impasse" by Ali Abunimah
"The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein
"NHS plc" by Alysson Pollock
"Obedience to Authority" by Stanley Milgram
"The Strange Death of David Kelly" by Norman Baker
"In search of Fatima" by Ghada Kharmi
etc, etc, etc.
But that's true isn't it?
No country has adopted Marxist ideas, even if this is the received wisdom, which like the interpretation of the Bible in all its guises and consequences has resulted in humankind painting a culture from an authoritarian viewpoint so riddled with corruption that even this Government would blush.
Actually, credibility usually includes addressing content rather than form. You might try it sometime.
Huey Newton - Revolutionary Suicide
Leader of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defence: Diehard black communists who organised anti-drugs squads, free breakfast programmes, and armed patrols of the ghetto to defend against police brutality in 1960s USA. The Sinn Fein of their community.
Leila Khaled - My People Shall Live
Palestinian freedom fighter and early pioneer of the plane hijack, she and her comrades did more than most to put Palestine on the map.
Gerry Adams - Before the Dawn
The most important revolutionary struggle for Brits to understand. Marx used to test the internationalism of his comrades by asking the Russian communists what they thought of the British occupation of Ireland: "terrible, unjustifiable colonialism". And the Russian occupation of Poland? "Well, it's very complicated, you see...". The British colleagues invariably answered the other way round. Brits are still full of prejudices about the Irish struggle today. Read this and find out what it really means to represent your community.
BRITAIN IN THE 30s/40s
Phil Piratin - Our Flag Stays Red
Joe Jacobs - Out of the Ghetto
Excellent accounts of what it meant to be a communist activist in those times: mass unemployed hunger marches, fighting fascism in the East End of London, fighting fascism in Spain, fighting bailiffs round the corner...