Study courses

Here you can find a wealth of resources to learn or teach about Workers' Liberty and socialist ideas.

Workers' Liberty 101 and the Communist Manifesto
Guidance on training in practical skills
Resources to supplement reading
Capitalism: how it works
Historical materialism
Workplace and trade union organising
The revolutionary socialist party and the working class
Workers' government and transitional demands
Democracy, state, and revolution
Women's liberation
Racism
Fascism
The Russian Revolution and its fate
Stalinism, and the fight against Stalinism
Europe
Israel/ Palestine
Ireland
Capitalism as a world system; imperialism
Consistent democracy on national conflicts; fighting antisemitism
Anarchism
Socialists and war
British labour history and the Labour Party
History of the AWL
Marx and Engels
Lenin
Trotsky
Luxemburg
Gramsci
More resources from Workers' Liberty week schools


Workers' Liberty 101

We have a introductory study course (2023) for all interested in Workers' Liberty and all new members. Get all the books discounted here, with a printed copy of the study guide (PDF here, docx file here). This is based on the books Can Socialism Make Sense?, Democracy, direct action, and socialism, and The left in disarray; plus Why Socialist Feminism? and Two Nations, Two States.

Six Marxist texts study course (6 sessions)

Communist Manifesto: study notes

Two texts for new readers on what we mean by workers' rule and by socialism: America under the workers' rule

What a Socialist America will look like, by James P Cannon

Old first education programme (2011) based on the AWL pamphlet "We Stand For Workers' Liberty" (12 sessions)

The Bolshevik-Trotskyist Tradition

AWL's short "first six months" reading list for activists

Six-session course on socialism, the working class, the revolutionary party, democracy, revolution, and the AWL

Old AWL first political education course (34 sessions).


Guidance on training in practical skills

AWL training sessions: contact work, public speaking, how to do educationals, arguing, debates, mentoring, paper sales


Resources to supplement reading

Socialist cartoons

Films with a socialist political dimension: some of these can be viewed online (check with Google)

Socialist political cartoons of the mid-20th century, dealing with class struggle, Stalinism, war, racism, imperialism, and more.



Capitalism: how it works

Study course on Marx's Capital (12 sessions) plus discussion stuff from the 2020 Zoom run of the course

A 19 part video series on Capital Volume 1 is also available

Further notes and resources on all three volumes of Capital, including notes on David Harvey's lectures on volume 1

Karl Marx's Capital, volume 1, abridged by Otto Ruhle: or click here to buy that as a booklet

"150 years of Capital": Powerpoint presentation

Workers' Liberty 3/59: pull-out on "150 years of Capital"

Wage-labour and profit: PowerPoint presentation

Notes on Marx's Wages, Price, and Profit

Wage Labour and Capital: discussion points

AWL day school 2007: Marx's Capital

Note on the word "valorize" in Fernbach's translation of Capital

Marx on capitalist crises - Brisbane Workers' Liberty study course, 2000

Marx's Grundrisse - Brisbane Workers' Liberty study course, 2006-7, and Zoom study course, 2020-1, plus 15 PowerPoints from 2020-1 course, collated into a single pdf

Capital tutors' school, for people leading sessions in the course on Capital

Older 11-session study course on Marx's Capital (11 sessions) plus supplementary notes (pdf)

The booklet What is Capitalism? Can it Last? includes: What is capitalist crisis? by Colin Foster; Keynes, the educated bourgeois, by Martin Thomas; and more. Download text as pdf here.


Historical materialism

Historical materialism: what is it? Short explanations by Marx and Engels

Anti-Dühring (Engels): discussion points

The Poverty of Philosophy: notes for study sessions

Theses on Feuerbach: background notes. See also this summary of who Feuerbach was and what his ideas were and Engels' "Ludwig Feuerbach": notes and talking points.


Workplace and trade union organising

Marxism and Trade Unions (6 sessions)

AWL day school 2005: Marxists and the trade unions

Working class and trade unions: Marx and today - Brisbane Workers' Liberty study course, 2005-6

Trade unions, socialism, and working-class sectionalism (excerpts from Marx, Engels, Connolly, and Gramsci)

Working class and trade unions: Marx and today - Brisbane Workers' Liberty study course, 2005-6

Notes and discussion points on Beverly Silver's Forces of Labor - Brisbane Workers' Liberty study course, 2005

The working class in globalised capitalism - Brisbane Workers' Liberty study course, 2003

Study guide to "Teamster Rebellion", by Farrell Dobbs

The book Plundering London Underground, by Janine Booth, includes material to prompt educational discussion on political representation, the Labour Party, capitalism/profit/etc, transitional demands, trade unions.

Reading pack on "New unionism: how workers can fight back", from a 2012 dayschool

The booklet What is Capitalism? Can it Last? includes: The Minority Movement, by Stan Crooke. Download text as pdf here.


Democracy, state, and revolution

Socialism and Democracy: a debate with Michael Foot (AWL pamphlet)

State and Revolution, by Lenin: notes for a study course


Women's liberation

Women's Oppression, Feminism and the Left (collection of readings)


Racism

AWL day school 2006: racism


Fascism

Trotsky on the united front against fascism in Germany: discussion points


The Russian Revolution and its fate

The Russian Revolution: when workers took power

A book published by Workers' Liberty in 2017. Buy online here.

Study guide

Power point on the events of 1917

Power point reviewing the key issues in the revolution

Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution: notes from Zoom study course 2020

The fate of the Russian Revolution

Buy the book online in paper and ebook formats here.

Study guide to The Fate of the Russian Revolution volume 1

The Fate of the Russian Revolution volume 2: The two Trotskyisms confront Stalinism

Buy the book online in paper and ebook formats here.

Download a study guide here.


History of the AWL

History, traditions, and ideas of the AWL: London AWL study course, 2008-9. See also chronology and texts from an AWL week school on AWL history, 2009.


Stalinism and the fight against Stalinism

Socialism, Revolution, and Stalinism: Nottingham study course

AWL day school 2007: "Socialism vs Stalinism: twelve debates"

Stalinism study course (10 sessions: partial notes)

Revolution Betrayed: study notes, plus discussion items from the 2020 Zoom study course based on those study notes

What Now?, from The Third International After Lenin (Trotsky): discussion points


Workers' government and transitional demands

The booklet Marxist Ideas to Turn the Tide contains: The heroic period of the Communist International, by Al Glotzer; The 4th Congress of the Comintern, a university of Marxism, by Paul Hampton; Conditions for revolution, by Leon Trotsky; The United Front, by Leon Trotsky; The workers' government, by Clara Zetkin; The myths of anti-Trotskyism, by Alfred Rosmer; The nature of our action program, and What is an action program, by Sean Matgamna; and more. Download text as pdf here.

The booklet What is Capitalism? Can it Last? includes: What is a workers' government?; The Bolshevik-Trotskyist tradition, by Sean Matgamna; The Minority Movement, by Stan Crooke; and more. Download text as pdf here.

"Workers' government": what it means

Capitalist crisis and workers' plan: London AWL study course, 2008-9


Europe

Socialists and Europe: N E London AWL study course, 2012


Israel and Palestine

AWL day school 2006: Israel-Palestine

AWL day schools 2008: globalisation, imperialism, political Islam, Israel-Palestine


Ireland

AWL day school 2006: Ireland

Discussion/study notes on Workers' Liberty 3/45 ("Trotskyists debate Ireland"


Capitalism as a world system, imperialism, globalisation

AWL day school 2005: globalisation and imperialism

Marxism and Imperialism study course (7 sessions)

AWL day schools 2008: globalisation, imperialism, political Islam, Israel-Palestine

AWL four-day school 2014: Marxism and imperialism

The booklet What is Capitalism? Can it Last? includes: Reassessing imperialism; and more. Download text as pdf here.


Consistent democracy on national conflicts; fighting antisemitism

Marxism, national questions, and nationalisms: Agenda and reading for day schools, 2018

The booklet What is Capitalism? Can it Last? includes: Includes: The truth about BDS, by Harry Glass; What is the Muslim Brotherhood? by Clive Bradley; Reassessing imperialism; and more. Download text as pdf here.

Pamphlet: Left anti-semitism: what it is and how to fight it

Pamphlet: Arabs, Jews, and socialism: Socialist Debate in the 80s and 90s on Israel and Palestine

Pamphlet: Two nations, two states: Socialists and Israel-Palestine


Socialists and war

The War and the International (Trotsky): discussion points


The revolutionary socialist party and the working class

AWL day school 2006: revolutionary party

Additional reading: Trotsky from the 2nd Congress of the Comintern and from Lessons of October; Max Shachtman from Five Years of the Workers' Party; James P Cannon from Theses on the American Revolution; Sean Matgamna from "What is it that a Marxist revolutionary party does?" and "Socialism in disarray"

"Apparatus Marxism: impoverished twin of academic Marxism"

Lessons of October (Trotsky): discussion points

Rosa Luxemburg's "The Mass Strike": discussion points

Notes on James P Cannon's three "party" books

What Is To Be Done?, by Lenin: materials from 2021 Zoom study course with Power Points, etc., study guide, background reading, etc. See also:

Notes on Lars Lih's commentaries

Gramsci study course (six sessions)

Notes on the "Selections from the Prison Notebooks" (Gramsci)

Gramsci's Prison Notebooks - notes from Brisbane study course initiated by Workers' Liberty, 2008

Notes on Pierre Broué, "The German Revolution 1917-1923"


British labour history and the Labour Party

Reading pack and agenda for 2018 day schools on Marxists and the Labour Party (includes the material from the 2007 schools, and more)

AWL day school 2007: Labour Party

British working-class history from 1832 to today (8 sessions)


Anarchism

Marxism, anarchism, and syndicalism (from AWL week schools December/January 2007/8)

Workers' Liberty and the politics of anarchism (articles and debates)


Marx

Study course on Marx's Capital (12 sessions)

Further notes and resources on all three volumes of Capital, including notes on David Harvey's lectures on volume 1

Karl Marx's Capital, volume 1, abridged by Otto Ruhle

Capital tutors' school, for people leading sessions in the course on Capital

Notes on Marx's Wages, Price, and Profit

Wage Labour and Capital: discussion points

AWL day school 2007: Marx's Capital

Note on the word "valorize" in Fernbach's translation of Capital

Historical materialism: what is it? Short explanations by Marx and Engels

Anti-Dühring (Engels): discussion points

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (Engels)

Marx's "18th Brumaire": background notes

The Poverty of Philosophy: notes for study sessions

Communist Manifesto: study notes

Marx's Grundrisse - Brisbane Workers' Liberty study course, 2006-7


Lenin

State and Revolution, by Lenin: tutor notes for a study course

What Is To Be Done?, by Lenin: study course, study guide, background reading. See also:

Lenin (4 sessions)


Trotsky

Trotsky: outline for discussion session (by Paul Hampton, from AWL winter school November 2009)

A selection of key writings by Trotsky, with notes and discussion points

The War and the International (Trotsky): discussion points

The New Course (Trotsky): discussion points

Lessons of October (Trotsky): discussion points

What Now?, from The Third International After Lenin (Trotsky): discussion points

Trotsky on the united front against fascism in Germany: discussion points

Revolution Betrayed: study notes

Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution: notes from Zoom study course 2020


Luxemburg

Rosa Luxemburg's "The Mass Strike": discussion points


Gramsci

Gramsci study course (six sessions)

Notes on the "Selections from the Prison Notebooks" (Gramsci)

Gramsci's Prison Notebooks - notes from Brisbane study course initiated by Workers' Liberty, 2008

PowerPoint for a discussion on Gramsci, January 2021


More resources from Workers' Liberty week schools

AWL week school 2007. Sessions: 1. Skills; 2. Why the working class?/ How to do educationals; 3. Marxism and Economism; 4. Marxism, Anarchism, and Zapatism; 5. The National Question and Israel-Palestine in Particular; 6. Debating and arguing

AWL week school 2010: Sessions: 1. Practical skills; 2. Why the working class?/How to do educationals; 3. Marxists and the Labour Party; 4. The revolutionary party; 5. Marxism and anarchism.

Publications

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