What is the relationship between socialism and the state? Is socialism when the state owns things? What is the difference between socialism and communism? In this episode we discuss Marx's critique of the Gotha programme, an early German socialist party manifesto. Here Marx lays out his unique vision of state and society, socialism and communism.

📖EPISODE READING
Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875)
www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/

📚NEXT READING
Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875)
www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/

EP4 | Critique of the Gotha Programme I | Iron Laws

We talk about Marx's conception of the bourgeois state in contrast to the revolutionary state, the absolute limits of reform under capitalism and the place of principles in politics. All this and more in our second episode discussing the Critique of the Gotha Programme.

NOTE: This episode was recorded in early June 2020 so the news discussion reflects the state of the protests at that time.

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📖EPISODE READING
Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875)
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/

📚NEXT READING
Ambalavaner Sivanandan, From resistance to rebellion: Asian and Afro-Caribbean struggles in Britain (1981)
https://libcom.org/files/ambalavaner-sivanandan-from-resistance-to-rebellion-asian-and-afrocaribbean-struggles-in-britain.pdf

EP5 | Critique of the Gotha Programme II | Speak And Save Your Soul

A Left-wing reading group in the form of a podcast 🐒📚
Hosted by Ajmal (@ajmal_khalqi) and Jamil (@Jkowcu).

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On Lenin’s desk stood a statuette of an ape squatting on a pile of books contemplating a human skull. Armand Hammer, who presented the ape to Lenin as a diplomatic gift in 1922, recalled that Lenin interpreted its meaning to be a warning to 'mankind that it might degenerate into the primordial state if people did not put an end to wars and learn to live at peace with one another.'

Logo derived from 'Rheinhold's Affe mit Schädel' by Jfderry, used under CC BY 3.0.

QUESTIONS FROM WORKERS WHO READ