Classics
Condition of the Working Class in England By Frederick Engels
This book by Engels is one of the earliest pieces of Marxist scholarship,
looking at the real conditions of working class life in England in the mid-19th Century,
at the same time issuing a passionate call to revolt.
The Poverty of Philosophy By Karl Marx
Marx's critique of the anarchist Proudhon - often quoted as the earliest
work of mature Marxism. In the course of a convincing critique of Proudhon, Marx presents
the elements of his own ideas on economics and working class struggle.
1905 By Leon Trotsky
Trotsky's account of the Russian Revolution of 1905.
The Mass Strike By Rosa Luxemburg
Based on the experience of the 1905 revolution, The Mass Strike is
an important discussion of the centrality of mass strike action in a revolution, but also
on the nature of the relationship between economic and political action, and organised and
spontaneous action by workers.
The State and Revolution By V.I. Lenin
Lenin's crucial exegesis of the Marxist theory of the state, including the
class nature of the state and the role of the bourgeois and workers' states in revolution.
Left Wing Communism, an Infantile Disorder By V.I. Lenin
A critique of ultra-left politics in the revolutionary movement.
Literature and Revolution By Leon Trotsky
On the relationship between politics and culture.
The First Five Years of the Communist International
By Leon Trotsky
The history and politics of the Comintern in its revolutionary phase.
Their Morals and Ours By Leon Trotsky
The relationship between politics and morality, in particular a discussion
of the oft talked about but little understood notion of means and ends.