You’ll have to be more specific, all revolutionary theory is “books on how to destroy capitalism”.
A cookbook on how to do it that is applicable to modern times and accounts for our current tech and for the fact that nukes exist which render tactics meaningless
Nukes existed in Mao’s time.
nah it just makes “permanent revolution” useless. Internal revolution is viable, people will not nuke their own cities.
What do you mean by “permanent revolution”?
oh its just nonsense. Basically normal wars aren’t viable in the long run, even thought they weren’t really ever viable in the first place. You can’t just invade a country to rip apart their bourgeoisie, or at least the major countries.
We really just need to build up enough communists in the imperial core, while our comrades in the global south cut the beast’s tentacles.
I thought that said testicles. Either way, we need to destroy the US’ ability to fuck the global south.
I wouldn’t overstate the importance of nukes tbh.
We have only seen the use of nukes in a military capacity once in our lifetimes, in the cowardly act of the Yanks against an enemy which was entirely on the ropes at the time they were deployed.
They mostly serve as a deterrent and, to some degree, for power projection over non-nuclear states.
I am not in the business of making forecasts but I struggle to foresee a situation where a nuclear power would nuke its own citizens in a revolutionary moment.
nukes exist which render tactics meaningless
☢️ America NOW ⚡
Honestly as I see it, you just have to work with a party (because it has an established base and lets you skip the annoying part of having to start totally from scratch) and build up political conscious until a breaking point happens. Keep organizing in your community, or encouraging unions and strikes, and trying to improve the world around you. You may get lucky and be able to take advantage of some random events and then suddenly that “decades happen in weeks” thing occurs. Its really just about being powerful enough to take advantage of political fervor.
Although new things exist, tech has changed many aspects of life, the core relations exist. In fact the modern times are more similar to the times of Lenin than not. Many socialist authors have adapted the works of old to match the more extreme class gaps that exist now. They are not the useless dusty tomes that liberals will make you think they are. There is a reason Marx is the most cited economist in human history.
The bars may have changed, new wings added, new tortures thought up, but the prison is the same.
this is from my experience and what I have read, it may not be reality, learn more by reading and helping people in the world.
It does feel like the root of this question is “what’s the next step” and “when does the real fighting start” and I don’t think there’s a good direct answer.
Every revolutionary we know spent a long time doing basic work and working on their understanding before the actual fighting started.
I don’t think you can go wrong with just organizing and learning as a place to start.
I am just anxious about the fact that technology advances every day and capitalists get better weapons and better surveillance tech. Also the police state gets bigger and bigger.
When will ever be the right time to act?
Russia used to be the same, but it broke under massive internal and external pressures, and marxists were able to wield their power into an unstoppable force.
States decay, soldiers defect, and tech is hacked.
For a helpful response:
I agree that essentially reading communist literature is in and of itself learning to destroy capitalism. This is likely an incomplete list, but here is a Goodreads list of Hakim’s book recommendations:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/158587.Hakim_s_Book_Recommendations
Unfortunately many of his videos, including his book recommendation videos, are missing due to a YouTube bug or potentially YouTube just mass censoring leftist channels.
This channel is uploading Hakim’s book recommendations soon.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5F5UYYUGGG42p1271OtU0A
Personally, I am working on my computer skills to help aid the technical side of a potential revolution. I am also working to be a member of PSL, and I hope that I may be able to help assist building and maintaining their technical infrastructure someday.
Revolution in the Revolution - Debray - if you can see past the drawbacks and lack of success Foco had, there’re some useful elements here.
I think the Cuban revolution is worth scrutinizing pretty closely as sort of an ur-anti-colonial communist guerilla action.
I’m not sure how relevant nukes are - guerilla action is strongest when the combatants are hidden. Once combat transitions to total war, combatants will need to have seized weaponry that’s comparable to the capitalist’s.
Chokepoint Capitalism by Cory Doctorow. Admittedly it does not describe how to destroy capitalism, but it does highlight some of the ways capitalism negatively impacts the creative arts. A good wake-up call for any creative author out there.
As other commenters noted, any book that focuses on the actual experience of successful revolutions, are gold. Lenin’s left-wing-communism - an infantile disorder, would probably be my favorite, as it pretty clearly outlines revolutionary strategy, the pitfalls the bolsheviks experienced, and how they avoided them to win state power and expel the propertied classes.
About actually doing revolution, read things from the experience of existing communist parties, learn from their mistakes. Research the Cuban revolution (my life, motorcycle diaries), Russian revolution (what is to be done, foundations of Leninism, Trotsky’s writing), Chinese revolution (guerrilla warfare), existing communist parties (building the communist party of Kenya, speeches from the EFF), US specific stuff (basic politics of movement security, revolutionary suicide, black against empire, red deal, AIM stuff). These are just starting places, you can find more in each of these categories. Some of the titles I wrote are just general or incorrect. I keep remarking on the fact that I know many book titles and their general ideas, but have yet to read most of them. It’s also important to study material conditions and general security and survival knowledge.
