Communist Study Group

Current 'Syllabus'/Schedule (Fall 2026):

• Week 0 (09/24): Primitive Accumulation 

  • Marx, Capital Vol. 1, Ch. 24 (Whole Book PDF: link)

  • Bonefeld, "The Permanence of Primitive Accumulation" (link)

• Week 1 (10/01): Community Pt. 1

  • Marx, Grundrisse, "Forms Which Precede Capitalist Production" (link - ctrl. F the section title)

  • Optional: Negri, Marx Beyond Marx, "Lesson Six: Social Capital & World Market" (Whole Book PDF: link)

• Week 2 (10/08): Community Pt. 2

  • Camatte, Capital and Community, "Capital and Material Community" (Whole Book PDF: link)

  • Optional: Endnotes, "The History of Subsumption" (link)

• Week 3 (10/15): Inventing Capitalism Pt. 1

  • Perelman, The Invention of Capitalism, Chs. 1, 5, & 6 (Whole Book PDF: link)

• Week 4 (10/22): Inventing Capitalism Pt. 2

  • Perelman, The Invention of Capitalism, Chs. 8 & 9 (Whole Book PDF: link)

• Week 5 (10/29): Inventing Capitalism Pt. 3

  • Perelman, The Invention of Capitalism, Chs. 10 & 11 (Whole Book PDF: link)

• Week 6 (11/05): The French Revolution

  • Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution (1789-1848), Chs. 3 & 8 (Whole Book PDF: link)

  • Heller, The French Revolution and Historical Materialism, Ch. 12 (Whole Book PDF: link)

• Week 7 (11/12): The So-Called Periphery

  • Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts, Ch. 9 (Whole Book PDF: link)

  • Optional: Foster-Carter, "The Modes of Production Controversy" (link)

• Week 8 (11/19): Ongoing Accumulation

  • Federici, "Women, Land-Struggles, and Globalization: An International Perspective" (link)

  • Optional: Midnight Notes Collective, "The New Enclosures" (link)

• Week 9 (11/26): NO MEETING - THANKSGIVING

• Week 10 (12/03): The Question of Origin

  • Read, "Primitive Accumulation: The Aleatory Foundation of Capitalism" (link)

Note for the interested:

Communist political theory is not known for its ease of access, and "where to start" is probably the single question I've heard most frequently. The one piece of advice I'd give is to just start - it's easy to get overwhelmed and feel like you have to develop a strong background in history/philosophy/economics/whatever else before tackling Marx's tomes, but fighting that feeling and knowing that the texts are supposed to feel challenging because the ideas they contain are challenging is vital. Finally, I'd say to start with the primary sources themselves. People like to look for summaries or more easily accessible pop-theory texts, but in those instances what you're reading isn't really Marx (or Lenin/Engels/whoever the thinker in question is), but someone else's interpretation thereof, which can be problematic in those all-too-often cases where the writer has a specific agenda to push. Ironically, in many instances Marx's texts directly contradict (for the sake of non-partisanship maybe I should say "appear to contradict") their most common interpretations, and reckoning with said contradictions is necessary to developing an understanding of Marx that is both complete and completely your own.