Red Book Club

Machinery makes things easier, but for who? 

This time we're talking about the development of machinery, the effects of machinery on the lives of the workers and their families, automation, class struggle and Marx's acknowledgment of domestic labour. 

Join us as we take on the enormous 'Chapter 15 - Machinery and Large-Scale Industry' from 'Capital - Volume I' by Karl Marx. 

If you're looking to brush up on your understanding of dialectics in preparation of this chapter, feel free to check out our previous episode on 'Dialectical and Historical Materialism' by Stalin. 

Follow us on Twitter at @prolesbookclub and shoot us a DM if you need links to companion resources or have any questions. If you'd like to join the book club, you can chip in a dollar to join our parent podcast's discord server. Proles of the Round Table: https://www.patreon.com/prolespod  Our comrades are making brilliant communist content, check out www.prolespod.com/ussp for more podcasts. Thanks to  @NunezKeenan for the intro theme; you can find more of their work here:  http://tiny.cc/keenan  Thanks to the Craig bot for helping us to record via Discord!

Stalin the eco-Marxist? Is China socialist? Some extra discussion on Stalin's 'Dialectical and Historical Materialism'. Enjoy! Follow us on Twitter at @prolesbookclub and shoot us a DM if you need links to companion resources. If you'd like to join the book club, you can chip in a dollar to join our parent podcast's discord server. Proles of the Round Table: https://www.patreon.com/prolespod Thanks to @NunezKeenan for the intro theme; you can find more of their work here: http://tiny.cc/keenan Thanks to the Craig bot for helping us to record via Discord!

This 1938 piece is crucial to understanding the Marxist dialectical method and the conditions of material life and society. We explore the ever mobile, ever shifting state of nature and, with our biggest group yet, try to tackle the central ideas of Marxist-Leninist philosophy. 

Join us as we discuss the extremely concise and approachable 'Dialectical and Historical Materialism' by Joseph Stalin.

 Follow us on Twitter at @prolesbookclub and shoot us a DM if you need links to companion resources. 

If you'd like to join the book club, you can chip in a dollar to join our parent podcast's discord server. Proles of the Round Table: https://www.patreon.com/prolespod 

Thanks to @NunezKeenan for the intro theme; you can find more of their work here: http://tiny.cc/keenan 

Thanks to the Craig bot for helping us to record via Discord!

While the capitalists expropriate our surplus value, we learn how we work better together despite our alienation from one another. But is even this basic human co-operation stolen from us too?

In this episode the Proles dive into 'Chapter 11 - The Rate and Mass of Surplus Value', 'Chapter 12 - The Concept of Relative Surplus-Value', 'Chapter 13 - Co-operation' and 'Chapter 14 - The Division of Labour and Manufacture' from 'Capital - Volume I' by Karl Marx.

Follow us on Twitter at @prolesbookclub and shoot us a DM if you need links to companion resources or have any questions. If you'd like to join the book club, you can chip in a dollar to join our parent podcast's discord server. Proles of the Round Table: https://www.patreon.com/prolespod 

Our comrades are out there making brilliant communist content, check out www.prolespod.com/ussp for more podcasts.

Thanks to  @NunezKeenan for the intro theme; you can find more of their work here:  http://tiny.cc/keenan 

Thanks to the Craig bot for helping us to record via Discord!

Resources: The Marxist Project - Fundamentals of Marx: Surplus Labour and Value https://youtu.be/xzqm9QHls60

Feel like you're always at work? In this wide-ranging discussion we cover the working-day, reproductive labour, the gig economy, unpaid internships and more. 

Listen to the Proles as they take on 'Chapter 10 - The Working Day' from 'Capital - Volume I'  by Karl Marx. 

Diagram mentioned:

Working-day 1: A–––B–C. 

Working-day 2: A–––B––C. 

Working-day 3: A–––B–––C.

Works and writers mentioned: Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation - Silvia Federici; Alexandra Kollontai; Leslie Feinberg; Breaking the Chains - A Socialist Perspective on Women's Liberation; Capitalist Realism - Mark Fisher; The Condition of the Working Class in England - Friedrich Engels. 

 Follow us on Twitter at @prolesbookclub and shoot us a DM if you need  links to companion resources. If you'd like to join the book club, you  can chip in a dollar to join our parent podcast's discord server. Proles  of the Round Table: https://www.patreon.com/prolespod Thanks to @NunezKeenan for the intro theme; you can find more of their  work here: http://tiny.cc/keenan Thanks to the Craig bot for helping us to record via Discord!

In this underrated text, written during the War of Resistance in mid-1938, Mao Zedong stood strong in the face of criticism from temporary allies, the Kuomintang, and analysed the political situation with incredible clarity and prescience, leading to ultimate victory against the imperialist Japanese invaders.

In this episode we discuss Mao's analysis, the contradictions in Chinese society at the time, how we can apply Mao's teachings to struggles in the present day and the contemporary People's Republic of China.

Follow us on Twitter at @prolesbookclub and shoot us a DM if you need links to companion resources. If you'd like to join the book club, you can chip in a dollar to join our parent podcast's discord server. Proles of the Round Table: https://www.patreon.com/prolespod

Thanks to @NunezKeenan for the intro theme; you can find more of their work here: http://tiny.cc/keenan

Thanks to the Craig bot for helping us to record via Discord!

As Marx clarifies and consolidates his theory of surplus-value; we talk 'dead-labour', 'living-labour' and the laughing-stock that is Nassau William Senior's 'last-hour theory'.

Join the Proles and listen in to this week's discussion on 'Chapter 8 - Constant and Variable Capital', and 'Chapter 9 - The Rate of Surplus-Value' of 'Capital - Volume I' by Karl Marx.

Follow us on Twitter at @prolesbookclub and shoot us a DM if you need links to companion resources. 

If you'd like to join the book club, you can chip in a dollar to join our parent podcast's discord server. Proles of the Round Table: https://www.patreon.com/prolespod 

Thanks to @NunezKeenan for the intro theme; you can find more of their work here: http://tiny.cc/keenan

 Thanks to the Craig bot for helping us to record via Discord!

The workers built the world! Join us in our lengthy discussion on how human beings impose their will on the natural world and how how our old friend Mr. Moneybags expropriates the surplus value that we create. Follow us on Twitter at @prolesbookclub and shoot us a DM if you need links to companion resources. If you'd like to join the book club, you can chip in a dollar to join our parent podcast's discord server. Proles of the Round Table: https://www.patreon.com/prolespod

Thanks to @NunezKeenan for the intro theme; you can find more of their work here: http://tiny.cc/keenan

Thanks to the Craig bot for helping us to record via Discord!

Like (almost) always, there's some bonus talk in this session. Enjoy! 

Follow us on Twitter at @prolesbookclub and shoot us a DM if you need links to companion resources. If you'd like to join the book club, you can chip in a dollar to join our parent podcast's discord server. Proles of the Round Table: https://www.patreon.com/prolespod

Thanks to @NunezKeenan for the intro theme; you can find more of their work here: http://tiny.cc/keenan

Thanks to the Craig bot for helping us to record via Discord!

Wanna see how the free man converts himself into a slave for a fixed amount of time in exchange for a living wage? Join us in our discussion of Ch.6: The Buying and Selling of Labour-Power.

This week we finish up Part 2 of Capital: "Transformation of Money into Capital".

Follow us on Twitter at @prolesbookclub and shoot us a DM if you need links to companion resources. If you'd like to join the book club, you can chip in a dollar to join our parent podcast's discord server. Proles of the Round Table: https://www.patreon.com/prolespod

Thanks to @NunezKeenan for the intro theme; you can find more of their work here: http://tiny.cc/keenan

Thanks to the Craig bot for helping us to record via Discord!