Anybody who fails to complete this month’s reading will be sent to the gulag indefinitely and forced to read all 3000+ pages of G.D.H. Cole’s ‘A History of Socialist Thought’. There will be a test.

Yo @marxisthayaca

Forgot my password and made a new account. Can you guys give me some internet points so I have enough to do this week’s book club post, plz n thnx.

Not red.

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Only read the intro and chapter one so far but the book seems pretty good. I thought the chapter was a good summary of the history of slavery and racism in America from the 1600s to late 1800s, and Cobb does a good job of showing how the creation of ‘race’ as we now know it and white supremacy was undeniably tied to the need to destroy the solidarity between blacks, whites, and natives that was becoming a threat to the slave system, and to make it easier to keep those deemed ‘inferior’ in bondage - exactly the kind of divide and rule that we read about in Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I also enjoyed reading about the reconstruction period, which is not something I have read much about before. A lot of the stories Cobb presents about those who fought for black empowerment, such as the militias and other groups who’d go around killing Klansmen, were quite inspiring and their bravery was incredible. However, these movements were ultimately crushed and I feel that Cobb could have written more about how this could have been avoided rather than just suggesting they needed greater help from the federal government, which he himself says wouldn’t be particularly reliable anyway. For example, just from what Cobb mentioned, it seems things may have gone better if the movement had some kind of organisation unifying these local groups. This obviously isn’t the point of his book though so I can’t be too harsh.

On the whole I thought it was a very good summary establishing the background that the rest of the book will be building from. I do hope Cobb looks into the black liberation movements of the 20s and 30s that we read about in Hammer and Hoe, these seem like they’d be important developments for a book about armed resistance to white supremacy in the US.

Yeah, reading about the reconstruction period was wild. Black militias and Klansmen/police taking over towns, armed to the teeth with guns and cannons, and fighting it out in what was essentially just a continuation of the civil war.

Neither Vertical nor Horizontal by Rodrigo Nunes

Southern liberals too. Like there’s the part with the dodgy mayoral (I think?) election where they’re arguing over who won. During this period the republican candidate essentially washed his hands of a group of blacks and anti racists nearby who were under siege from and in armed conflict with a bunch of Klansmen, and refused to do anything until it was confirmed that he’d won.

Thanks for the rec. I’ll see if I can find an online version to put on Perusall.