Hello!
Currently it seems like I have organized a small reading group irl, it is my first time doing this so any advice or tips are greatly appreciated. (evil marxist indoctrination) It happened quite spontaneously, so no concrete plan established. Every member has either read or scoured trough the manifesto, so that is good.
Current reading chosen is the Gotha Programme. And I find a problem for new readers in that for full comprehension it would be the best to understand the conditions in which the notes were written. As such I have been searching for exactly that, something short, not too monotonous and sweet for a new person to marxist theory. My current best candidate is the introduction by Korsch: https://www.marxists.org/archive/korsch/1922/gotha.htm
I haven't fully read it myself, so it isn't cemented yet. I would love to see some alternatives or even something better to it. Be it video or short reading. Something that won't scare off a new person to marxism while still not being too sloppy.
Aside from that, I am planning to move onto blackshirts and reds in the future. It seems to be a good candidate for more modern reading. Any questions or advice are appreciated! Thanks!
I think that seems like a good intro to Critique of the Gotha Programme. I would suggest works like Principles of Communism and Socialism: Utopian and Scientific before it, if it isn't too late to change, as these both help explain what Marx is getting at in Critique of the Gotha Programme and might help the reader make more sense of it. Critique of the Gotha Programme is short, but because of its short length it also relies on the reader being more familiar with Marx's theories and methods.
That all being said, you should be fine with that intro, based on a short skim!
I also wrote a basic Marxist-Leninist study guide, so feel free to check that for anything of value to you and your group!