8
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Hop in, comrades, we are reading Capital Volumes I-III this year, and we will every year until Communism is achieved. (Volume IV, often published under the title Theories of Surplus Value, will not be included, but comrades are welcome to set up other bookclubs.) This works out to about 6½ pages a day for a year, 46 pages a week.

I'll post the readings at the start of each week and @mention anybody interested. Let me know if you want to be added or removed.

Week 11, Apr 30 - May 7, we are reading Volume 1, Chapter 15 Sections 9 & 10, & Chapter 16

Halfway through Volume I, and a 5th through the 3 volumes! We should all be proud of making it this far, if you're still here then it's all a matter of time.

Discuss the week's reading in the comments.

Use any translation/edition you like. Marxists.org has the Moore and Aveling translation in various file formats including epub and PDF: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/

Ben Fowkes translation, PDF: https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=AA342398FDEC44DFA0E732357783FD48

(Unsure about the quality of the Reitter translation, I'd love to see some input on it as it's the newest one)

AernaLingus says: I noticed that the linked copy of the Fowkes translation doesn't have bookmarks, so I took the liberty of adding them myself. You can either download my version with the bookmarks added or if you're a bit paranoid (can't blame ya) and don't mind some light command line work you can use the same simple script that I did with my formatted plaintext bookmarks to take the PDF from libgen and add the bookmarks yourself. Also, please let me know if you spot any errors with the bookmarks so I can fix them!


Resources

(These are not expected reading, these are here to help you if you so choose)


2024 Archived Discussions

If you want to dig back into older discussions, this is an excellent way to do so.

Archives: Week 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6Week 7Week 8Week 9Week 10Week 11Week 12Week 13Week 14Week 15Week 16Week 17Week 18Week 19Week 20Week 21Week 22Week 23Week 24Week 25Week 26Week 27Week 28Week 29Week 30Week 31Week 32Week 33Week 34Week 35Week 36Week 37Week 38Week 39Week 40Week 41Week 42Week 43Week 44Week 45Week 46Week 47Week 48Week 49Week 50Week 51Week 52


2025 Archived Discussions

Just joining us? You can use the archives below to help you reading up to where the group is. There is another reading group on a different schedule at https://lemmygrad.ml/c/genzhou (federated at [email protected] ) (Note: Seems to be on hiatus for now) which may fit your schedule better. The idea is for the bookclub to repeat annually, so there's always next year.

Week 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6Week 7Week 8Week 9Week 10

top 10 comments
sorted by: hot top new old
[-] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago
[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Oh boy, I am trying to catch up with this by reading a translation in my native language, but I keep getting left behind after I let it slip for a few weeks. Last week I was so close to catching up, so hopefully this week or next I will (when my studies and work ease up a little bit).

Been doing a lot of side quest reading of Marx and Engels however, for my studies.

How's everyone else doing?

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

Yeah I am still playing catch up. Idk how others stay on top of two reading groups lol. I was never good at staying in top of readings. I want to read little bit of everything so I'm very slow at any one book. But that's just poor planning on my part

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

I read 10 pages a day in a timeslot I work into my daily schedule, so I can keep on top. It helps that I read both groups on my phone through Koreader.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

Discipline and consistency. rat-salute-2

Red Sails is a treasure. So much good stuff there.

Some shorter articles I've recently read found from red sails on how to study have reminded me that I have a tendency to spread myself too thin. While I want to read a bit of everything, it's better to have a plan and focus on deep understanding of a few works before moving on. So I'm working at catching up on Capital because it's a foundational text worth reading.

https://redsails.org/guidelines-for-myself/

  1. Study diligently, grasp essentials. Concentrate on one subject rather than seeking superficial knowledge of many.

  2. Work hard and have a plan, a focus and a method.

And https://redsails.org/general-rules-for-independent-study/

  1. It is necessary to make up one’s mind what one wants to study. Sometimes a person wants to study, but does not know what. Things go well at a collective farm or a factory because there is a plan. So does self-education if there is a plan, if one does not skip from book to book — if one does not jump from history to literature and from literature to physics. It is no use studying like that...

  2. It is not enough to make up one’s mind what one wants to study; it is necessary to elaborate a study plan. And that is the most difficult thing of all. The beginner usually knows neither the volume of knowledge they want to acquire nor the system, that is, the order in which they should study, read books, etc. In this they can be helped a lot by the lists of recommended literature, self-education manuals, curricula, text-books. But is best if one first talks with a specialist...

[-] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

That's a great work! I hadn't seen that one from Zhou Enlai, and I agree, I find myself spread a bit thin lately. Need to recalibrate, I was too lax, now I am going too strong and each is suffering. As for Krupskaya, I enjoy revisiting that text from time to time to help my studies, glad you also enjoy it!

The shorter articles tend to be some of the more immediately useful and enjoyable, IMO!

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Almost fell behind, but I've stayed on top of it, and Super-Imperialism, along with healthy supplementation with Red Sails articles. These latest chapters have largely been historical analysis, rather than theoretical, so they have been easier to follow IMO.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

At the risk of getting off track, what Red Sails articles have you been reading? I always have a group of red sails tabs on my phone that I accumulate

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

Slowly yet surely, everything I can, haha. I've read 3 or 4 dozen at this point. Masses, Elites, and Rebels: The Theory of "Brainwashing" is always great.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

On a level plain, simple mounds look like hills; and the insipid flatness of our present bourgeoisie is to be measured by the altitude of its ‘great intellects’.

Absolute banger of a line marx-ok

this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
8 points (100.0% liked)

theory

728 readers
1 users here now

A community for in-depth discussion of books, posts that are better suited for [email protected] will be removed.

The hexbear rules against sectarian posts or comments will be strictly enforced here.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS