THE LIST is a collection of suggested reading to help us better understand the dynamics of opposing systems in the world.
With a broader understanding, not necessarily agreement, of the implications of governance serving the people, capitalism, corporate empire, new faces of slavery, militarism and preemptive -war we can better move forward an agenda that addresses the needs of not only our local communities, but the larger national and world communities.

Behind the Invasion of Iraq
by the Research Unit for Political Economy
http://www.monthlyreview.org/0503rupe.htm

About the authors:
The Research Unit for Political Economy is based in Mumbai, India. The group publishes the journal Aspects of India's Economy and a range of research publications in English and Hindi.

An excellent exposition of the underlying politics and economics of the invasion. A masterful essay, concise, and chisled to perfection.

From the publisher’s excerpt:
“Three themes stand out in Iraq’s history over the last century, in the light of the present U.S. plans to invade and occupy that country.
“First, the attempt by imperialist powers to dominate Iraq in order to grab its vast oil wealth. In this regard there is hardly a dividing line between oil corporations and their home governments, with the governments undertaking to promote, secure, and militarily protect their oil corporations.
“Second, the attempt by each imperialist power to exclude others from the prize.
“Third, the vibrancy of nationalist opposition among the people of Iraq and indeed the entire region to these designs of imperialism. This is manifested at times in mass upsurges and at other times in popular pressure on whomever is in power to demand better terms from the oil companies or even to expropriate them.”
_________________________________________
Cuba: A Revolution in Motion
by Isaac Saney
http://zedbooks.co.uk/books.asp?catid=300

This Canadian best-seller might be the best book to read on the structure of Cuban democracy. No other book delves so deeply into such things as the Cuban electoral system, its criminal justice system and its globally unprecedented exercise in mass democracy that guided the vast economic changes made in response to the collapse of Eastern Europe’s economies in the early 90’s.

From a reviewer:
“Saney provides a most impressive sweep over the dynamics of survival and change in the Cuban revolution over the last decade. As a highly informative and insightful look into the Cuban Revolution today there is no book like it. It is a must read not only for Cubanologists but anyone interested in understanding not only how the Revolution has managed to survive decades of US imperialism and the most severe crisis in its history but the fact that it continues to work--and serve as an example, if not model, of a systematic alternative to world capitalism. Well researched and very well written.”
--Henry Veltmeyer, Saint Mary's University, Halifax and co-author Globalization Unmasked: Imperialism in the 21st Century
_____________________________________________________

"Worldchanging” - editor Alex Steffen
- Susan Fornoff, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday, December 16, 2006
The new book "Worldchanging" has 596 pages and weighs enough that if you were hit over the head with it, it could seriously hurt.
Hitting readers over the head, however, isn't really the style of editor Alex Steffen and the staff of four "solution-based" journalists at Seattle's WorldChanging.com. That's is a fortunate thing during the holiday season, when save-the-earth types could find so many reasons to batter consumers. The No. 1 shopping guideline: Consider the backstory.

Sent to us from Bruce Baum, our local Zero Waste hero...
__________________________________________________

Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope
by Tariq Ali
http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=184467102x

A brand new book from the great British writer and speaker, well-known to KPFA listners for his vivid, incisive and witty commentaries on global politics.

From the publisher...
A revolution is moving across Latin America...
Since 1998, the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela has brought Hugo Chávez to world attention as the foremost challenger of the neoliberal consensus and American foreign policy. While Chávez's radical social-democratic reforms have brought him worldwide acclaim among the poor, he has attracted intense hostility from Venezuelan elites and Western governments.
Drawing on first-hand experience of Venezuela and meetings with Chávez, Tariq Ali shows how Chávez's views have polarized Latin America and examines the hostility directed against his administration. Ali discusses the enormous influence of Fidel Castro on both Chávez and Evo Morales, the newly-elected President of Bolivia, and contrasts the Cuban and Venezuelan revolutionary processes. Infused with references to the culture and poetry of South America, Pirates of the Caribbean guides us through a world divided between privilege and poverty, a continent that is once again on the march.
_________________________________________________
MICHAEL PARENTI BOOKS

The Culture Struggle
by Michael Parenti
http://www.michaelparenti.org/CultureStruggle.html

The latest book from the prolific and eloquent Michael Parenti. According to Parenti’s website, the book is on“How to think about cultural imperialism, cultural relativism, racism and gender oppression; this book treats culture as a component of social power and political struggle in the United States and elsewhere.”

Some quotes from Parenti fans:
“America's foremost progressive writer and speaker, Parenti is illuminating, penetrating, and never afraid of the truth.”
-- James Petras, SUNY professor and noted author

“Radical in the true sense of the word, [Parenti] digs at the roots which... sustain our public consciousness.”
-- Los Angeles Times Book Review

Some other great Parenti books:
The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome
http://www.thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&task=view_title&metaproductid=1011

We’ve always been told, “Caesar: bad. Killers: good.” Don’t believe the hype!

History as Mystery
http://www.citylights.com/pub/catalog/BChist.html

How history is mis-written by those who like it that way.

To Kill a Nation
http://www.versobooks.com/books/nopqrs/nopq-titles/parenti_m_yugoslavia.shtml

On the intentional destruction of Yugoslavia, and how we helped do it.

Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism
http://www.citylights.com/pub/catalog/BCblackshirts.html

The big, big lies of anti-communism, and anti-communist history. Or as the Parenti website puts it (in a paragraph as forbidding as Parenti is readable): “Parenti shows how fascism renders service to capitalism, how corporate power undermines democracy, and how revolutions are a mass empowerment against the forces of exploitative privilege. He also maps out the external and internal forces that destroyed communism, and the disastrous impact of the "free-market" victory on Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He affirms the relevance of taboo ideologies like Marxism, demonstrating the importance of class analysis in understanding political realities and dealing with the ongoing collision between ecology and global corporatism.”
___________________________________________
Open Veins of Latin America
by Eduardo Galeano
http://www.monthlyreview.org/openvein.htm

“A superbly written, excellently translated, and powerfully persuasive expose which all students of Latin American and U.S. history must read.”
— CHOICE, American Library Association

From the publisher’s site:
Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx.
Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organized the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation. Thus he is concerned with gold and silver, cacao and cotton, rubber and coffee, fruit, hides and wool, petroleum, iron, nickel, manganese, copper, aluminum ore, nitrates, and tin. These are the veins which he traces through the body of the entire continent, up to the Rio Grande and throughout the Caribbean, and all the way to their open ends where they empty into the coffers of wealth in the United States and Europe.
___________________________________________
The Assassination of Lumumba
by Ludo De Witte
Translated by Ann Wright and Renée Fenby. With a new introduction by the author
http://www.versobooks.com/books/cdef/d-titles/de_witte_lumumba.shtml

About the author:
Ludo De Witte is a sociologist and author of the Dutch book Crisis in Kongo. The publication of The Assassination of Lumumba in Belgium prompted an official inquiry into the assassination by a parliamentary commission; its findings are due to be reported in 2001.

This superb and meticulously researched work brings to light one of the most significant political assassinations of the 20th century, and should make one intensely skeptical of every attempted political or military entry of European, U.S. or U.N. influence anywhere on the continent of Africa.

From the publisher’s site:
Patrice Lumumba, first prime minister of the Republic of Congo and a pioneer of African unity, was murdered on 17 January 1961. Lumumba was at the centre of the country’s popular defiance towards the relentless exploitation of its Belgian coloniser. When independence was finally won in June 1960, his unscheduled speech at the official ceremonies in Kinshasa, which described Belgian rule as “a humiliating slavery imposed by brute force,” received a standing ovation and made him a hero to millions. Within months he was arrested, tortured and executed.
This book unravels the appalling mass of lies and betrayals that have surrounded accounts of the murder. Employing an array of official sources as well as extensive personal testimony, it reveals a network of complicity ranging from the Belgian government, across the United Nations leadership, to the CIA. Chilling official memos which detail ‘liquidation’ and ‘threats to national interests’ are analysed alongside macabre tales of the destruction of evidence, placing in stark and dignified contrast Lumumba’s personal strength and his quest for African independence.
“The only thing we wanted for our country was the right to a decent existence, to dignity without hypocrisy, to independence without restrictions…The day will come when history will have its say.” (From Patrice Lumumba’s farewell letter to his wife.)

From the reviewers:
“De Witte writes without stylish frills or narrative tricks, but this is a vivid and utterly compelling account of a nation strangled at birth by the West.”
– Los Angeles Times

“Thoroughly researched, passionately written, deeply disturbing.”
– Kirkus Reviews

“De Witte has assembled a staggering amount of detail to support his allegations of direct government participation in Lumumba's murder.”
– Washington Post Book World
____________________________________________________
The Communist Manifesto: A Road Map to History's Most Important Political Document,
Phil Gasper, ed.
by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
http://www.haymarketbooks.org/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=Haymarket&Product_Code=MSACM

About the editor:
Phil Gasper is a professor of philosophy at Notre Dame de Namur University in northern California. He writes extensively on politics and the philosophy of science and is a frequent contributor to CounterPunch.

Hey -- how many editions of “The Manifesto” have you got on your shelf? But it’s still the most concise explanation of what remains the most powerful analytical theory for understanding industrial capitalim, imperialism, and (perhaps) human society as we know it -- and therefore critical reading if you’re planning to overthrow it.

Comments by Howard Zinn:
Here, at last, is an authoritative introduction to history’s most important political document, with the full text of The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. This beautifully organized and presented edition of The Communist Manifesto is fully annotated, with clear historical references and explication, additional related texts, and a glossary that brings the text to life for students, as well as the general reader.
Since it was first written in 1848, the Manifesto has been translated into more languages than any other modern text. It has been banned, censored, burned, and declared “dead.” But year after year, the text only grows more influential, remaining required reading in courses on philosophy, politics, sociology, economics, and history. The New Yorker recently described Karl Marx as “The Next Thinker” for our era. This book shows readers why.
Phil Gasper’s new edition of The Communist Manifesto comes at a critical moment in world history, when a global capitalism which Marx described with amazing accuracy a hundred and fifty years ago shows all the signs of disarray that he predicted. What Gasper does is to remind us how relevant the Manifesto is to our world today. His Introduction and Afterword are useful guides to the Manifesto and to its importance in our time. His notes give us fascinating tidbits of information which athoughtful reader of the Manifesto will find extremely valuable. Gasper brings alive one of the great classics of modern political thought, an indispensable addition to anyone’s library.
—Howard Zinn, author, A People’s History of the United States

The more those in power reject and ignore Marx and his ideas, the more the world comes to resemble the barbaric social system Marx predicted capitalism was in the process of becoming. Therefore, Marx’s ideas are becoming more and more relevant to understanding what we see before us. This new edition of The Communist Manifesto, with its excellent informative notes and commentaries, enables the reader to appreciate this document both historically and theoretically, both in relation to its own time and in relation to the realities around us.
—Allen Wood, Stanford University
_________________________________________
Dispatches from the People’s War in Nepal
by Li Onesto
http://www.lionesto.net/dispatches.html

There is a new peace agreement in Nepal, with an end to the monarchy in sight. Here is the gripping, evocative, and inspiring account of the social, cultural and armed struggle in the countryside of that rural, mountainous and spectacular land.

From the book jacket:
“This unique, intimate look into the People's War in Nepal provides invaluable background to the world's most vigorous Maoist movement, and insight into the theory and practice underlying contemporary Maoism elsewhere in South Asia and globally. Based on the author's reportage and interviews in guerrilla-controlled areas in 1999, Dispatches from the People's War in Nepal helps to explain why, five years later, the insurgency has acquired control over most of the Nepali countryside.”
--Gary Leupp (Professor of History at Tufts University and Coordinator of the Asian Studies Program)
________________________________________
ZAPATISTA BOOKS

The War Against Oblivion: The Zapatista Chronicles
by John Ross
http://www.commoncouragepress.com/index.cfm

Zapatistas Making Another World Possible; Chronicles of Resistence 2000-2006
by John Ross
http://www.nationbooks.org/book.mhtml?t=zapatistas

the other campaign/la otra campaña
by Subcomandante Marcos and the Zapatistas
(bilingual edition)
http://www.citylights.com/pub/openmed.html

From the publisher:
The Other Campaign is a collection of texts – in English and Spanish – by Subcomandante Marcos and his Zapatista compañeros that articulate a vision for “change from below,” a call to create social change outside and beyond the limits of electoral politics. As Mexico approaches the presidential elections in July 2006, Marcos and supporters are touring the country in an effort to build a broad-based movement to catalyze democratic change. Rather than depending on what they experience as an irreparably corrupt and out-of-touch political system, the Zapatistas are calling for change to come “from below,” from the power that will be unleashed when unrepresented and marginalized communities join forces.
The book includes a recent interview with Marcos, speeches made by Zapatista commandantes, as well as the full text of the Zapatistas’ “The Sixth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle,” a collective statement that places the indigenous struggle for democracy in its historical context and articulates an evolving vision for democracy, dignity, and justice. "The Sixth Declaration" was released to the world in September 2005, putting out a call to all Mexicans and to marginalized groups around the globe, inviting them to join in a network of solidarity.

_____________________________________________________
An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire
Arundhati Roy
http://www.southendpress.org/2004/items/OPGE

From the publisher:
Arundhati Roy offers a lucid briefing on what the Bush administration really means by “compassionate conservativism” and “the war on terror.” In An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire, Roy skewers the hypocrisy of this more-democratic-than-thou clan and its cohorts, but more importantly she reminds us that we hold the power to counter tyranny—in all of its forms—in our own hands.
Focusing on the disastrous US occupation of Iraq, Roy urges us to recognize and apply this authority, urging US dockworkers to refuse to load materials heading for Iraq; reservists to reject their call-ups; and activists to organize boycotts of Halliburton. Roy also calls on people in other countries to resist working as “janitor-soldiers,” and leave the detritus of the US invasion untouched.
[S]he examines how resistance movements build power, offering examples of nonviolent organizing in South Africa, India, and the United States. Deftly drawing the thread through ostensibly disconnected issues and arenas, Roy pays particular attention to the parallels between globalization in India, the devastation in Iraq, and the structural racism faced by many African Americans in the United States

____________________________________________________
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
by Barbara Ehrenreich
http://www.henryholt.com/readingguides/ehrenreich.htm

From the publisher:
The New York Times bestseller, and one of the most talked about books of the year, Nickel and Dimed has already become a classic of undercover reportage.
Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages, and one day Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 to $7 an hour?
To find out, Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the "lowliest" occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts. And one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.
Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity -- a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategies for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor.
__________________________________________________
We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party
Mumia Abu-Jamal; Kathleen Cleaver (Introduction)
http://www.southendpress.org/2004/items/WWF

From Kathleen Cleaver’s introduction: “Writing from the barren confines of his death row cell, Mumia Abu-Jamal provides a remarkable testament about the Black Panther Party.… His frank vignettes of unforgettable encounters—with fellow members, hostile opponents, larger-than-life Panther leaders, and brutal police—are a sheer delight to read.”
_______________________________________________
DERRICK JENSEN BOOKS

endgame
The Culture of Make Believe
A Language Older than Words
http://www.derrickjensen.org/
________________________________________________
MAGAZINES

Monthly Review
http://www.monthlyreview.org/

A 50+ year-old independent socialist, little monthly magazine that features sharp, never simplistic yet (almost) always accessible, political and economic analysis of the empire of capital and the capital of empire.

Z Magazine
http://zmagsite.zmag.org/zmagtop.htm

You can often find Chomsky in the pages of this excellent, well-known monthly.

ZNet
http://www.zmag.org

This extensive website comes from Z Magazine features a cluster of new articles and essays daily, like Common Dreams.

Counterpunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/

This is where you find the inimitable Alexander Cockburn.

Project Censored
http://www.projectcensored.org/

This is the organization which brought systematic media criticism and alternative news to a whole new level with its “Most Censored” lists.

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
http://wrmea.com

From the website:
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs is a 100-page magazine published 9 times per year in Washington, DC, that focuses on news and analysis from and about the Middle East and U.S. policy in that region.
The Washington Report is published by the American Educational Trust (AET), a non-profit foundation incorporated in Washington, DC by retired U.S. foreign service officers to provide the American public with balanced and accurate information concerning U.S. relations with Middle Eastern states.
____________________________________________
NEWSPAPERS

For newspapers that regularly provide an explicitly marxist class-view of empire and capitalism, here are three you might like.

Workers World
http://www.workers.org/

This is the newspaper of the Workers World Party, the driving force behind the ANSWER coalition. The Marxist-Leninist perspective of this group might be described as “global class-struggle,” placing it squarely on the side of not just revolutionaries but national anti-imperial struggles as well.

Revolution (formerly known as Revolutionary Worker)
http://rwor.org/

This is the newspaper of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party, the Revolutionary Communist Party. It has been the driving force behind Not in Our Name and the World Can’t Wait movements. In its pages you can find Larry Everest on the middle east, and Li Onesto on the struggle in Nepal.

Workers Vanguard
http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/index.html

This is the newspaper of the Trotskyist party, the Sparticist League. A feisty paper, specializing in harsh criticisms of just about all other marxist parties, including other Trotskyist parties. Its articles often have a great deal of historical background.