Just now getting to Blackshirts and Reds, got to Chapter 6 today. His criticisms of the Soviet Union are making me believe that China and Deng Xiaoping were correct, so perhaps I need to read some Deng next, lol.
this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2024
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It's a good book. His examples of this ga that went wrong have been really helpful in conversations for me.
Yes actually, it's a sobering reminder that communism isn't a utopia, and that there's a lot more to people's needs after the basics have been covered.
I do think he might have been a little too harsh on Stalin though, the man tried to quit four times (and they wouldn't let him! some dictator lol) and was at the head of a socialist state that was constantly under siege from capitalist and reactionary forces in and out. Mistakes were made but that's just cause nothing is perfect, if the USSR really had a major flaw it was that it was unable to understand the needs of the people and learn from their mistakes.
That's funny... in both the book and at the end of "Friendly Feudalism", his essay on Tibet, Parenti bashed China for being a hair too capitalist-roaded for his liking. 
Yeah he said China was "sliding" down the path of free market reform but the book was written in the late 90s so there's a bit of outdated information there.
Nearly all western leftists coming up in the 70s and 80s got it wrong on China, or didn't understand the strategy, probably because there was a dearth of translated materials. Parenti and Sakai for example.
"the east is still red" by carlos martinez
Slowly going through das kapital with the theory reading group
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Marx for Cats by Leigh Claire La Berge
I saw that at the store as well. It's on my list now.
Interesting... I guess I should read this.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Really really liking the world building of the opening chapters. I’m thoroughly enjoying it!
For serious stuff I’m currently rereading Super Imperialism by Michael Hudson cause my brain hates remembering stuff now. Also started a bit of Arab Spring, Libyan Winter by Vijay Prashad.
Also finally gotten back into reading fiction and have polished off about seven Sarah J Maas books in the past couple months, guilty pleasure
I have finally gotten around to reading Settlers and I've also slowly working through Losurdo's Liberalism and Fanon's Wretched of the Earth. I find Fanon particularly hard to read which makes getting through it quite slow.
I also like easier to read fiction, especially when my head is too full or cloudy for theory. Recently finished Decoded by Mai Jia and am about halfway through Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko, both of which are enjoyable.
This post and the comments
Motorcycle Diaries is a good one!
It is. Che is a funny guy.
Tell me about it!
Killing Hope by William Blum, and Dark Alliance by Gary Webb. Lot of overlap between them lol. But both are very good so far, the second one is incredibly entertaining, like better than any HBO show about narcotraficantes.
Loaurdo's book on Stalin
Me too!
Simultaneously reading this and If We Burn. I'm close to finished with If We Burn so I decided to start Losurdo's Stalin since I was too excited. I only read up to the second chapter of Losurdo's but I've really enjoyed both so far.
I found it a bit tedious to read at first. It was lying around for a solid month after I finished the second chapter. Came back to it like a week ago and I'm getting used to Loaurdo's writing now. Been really enjoying it the last few days, managed almost 50 pages today. 120 more to go. I'll probably read some more Losurdo after this, specifically looking at "Liberalism, a counter history". Reading feels good.
I can see that.
So far for me the writing styles of the introduction and first chapter weren't an issue, but it does take time to read carefully since I generally prefer to read very slowly.
Something I like about Bevin's writing style in If We Burn is that the chapters are never so long that they seem daunting in one sitting. Ironically, dividing books into many smaller chapters will allow to me to readily read quantities at once that might have seemed daunting if it were just one chapter. I know, for example, that according to my pace I will be finished in two more reading sessions, and I've only had three so far, and that makes me excited to read it because I feel like I'm progressing.
Losurdo has the opposite effect where I wanted to keep reading but saw how lengthy chapter two would be and decided to shelf it until I finished If We Burn and once I have plenty of time to dedicate to just read that long chapter in one sitting, which only creates more opportunities to procrastinate actually reading.
I'm in the middle of Against Empire by Parenti. It's good, but I enjoyed Blackshirts and Reds more. Parenti is a great writer, and he is easy to understand, so I will continue to read his stuff. As for novels, I ordered 2001: A Space Odyssey not too long ago and will try to read it sometimes. I have manufacturing consent sitting on my bookshelf, plus some others from Chomsky I haven't read yet. I bought them during a short anarchist phase I had and grew out of very quickly after reading Lenin's stuff. Often, I buy books and end up never reading them. Uhh I should stop doing that and download them illegally instead.
Das Kapital, currently on Chapter 10....
This is what I am currently reading.
The Assassination of Julius Caesar - Michael Parenti.
I love this book
I tried reading "How Life Works" by Philip Ball but anxiety/attention deficit got the better of me. Gonna get back into it soon.
I'm about 50% through capital vol 1 and 20% through The Worldview And Philosophical Methodology Of Marxism-Leninism.
Been reading "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu again.
The Last Ringbearer. So far it's clearly dispelled western propaganda and the myth of Mordor aggression. History will absolve Saruman
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Story of the eye - Georges Bataille
Dont let George near your milk or eggs.
slowly making my way through the arcades project
i also recently finished reading michael hudson's killing the host
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. I'm a new ML so I'm still reading the fundamentals.
I find it to be my favorite of the fundamentals! Super applicable to modern day
Reading "Sexed Up" by Julia Serano. I'm halfway through it and it's a great read about sexualization and trans struggles.
Washington Bullets by Vijay Prashad.
It's good but I'm surprised that he attributes Japan's surrender in WWII to the nuclear bomb.
The Will to Change by bell hooks. I'm bringing it to a book club.
I finished Palo Alto and found it to be really well written and interesting. Currently reading Vulture Capitalism, it’s a recently published book too like Palo Alto and I’m roughly 1/3 through it. I think after this I want to dig into some Michael Hudson books, either Killing the Host or Destiny of Civilizations.
I'm reading the English translation of 三体. I wanted to wait until my Chinese literacy was good enough to read the original, but now that there's a Netflix version out I had to give up that goal to avoid spoilers.
Karl Marx's letter to Vera Zasulich, there are several drafts. In the letter, Marx is discussing the conditions of Russian peasants, specifically their communities - and the potential of said communities to transform into a more modern, communist mode while skipping the pain and misery of capitalist stage - that is, destruction of the peasant communities.
Looking back, it's frankly frightening how near prophetic his writings ended up being. Specifically, Marx writes that should the transition to communist mode fail, the small minority of peasants will be turned into private landowners, while the majority will be made into proletariat. Which is exactly what ended up happening
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