This page collects study guides and notes developed over the years by Workers' Liberty.
It should be taken as a collection of resources to be dipped into and adapted, rather than anything rigidly prescriptive.
Some items are explanatory background notes on texts or topics, which can aid individual reading. Others are outlines designed to help people with a good knowledge of a particular text to structure study sessions with newer people.
Some items have been worked and re-worked in the course of many study groups on the text(s) in question; some are drafts yet to be tested in practice. All should be regarded as work-in-progress.
When you use an item from his collection, it will be useful if you can email awl@workersliberty.org with any new resources you created for your study group, or any new resources you developed to remedy faults or deficiencies in the item.
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
Introductory study course (2023) for all interested in Workers' Liberty and all new members, based on some AWL books and pamphlets.
Marxist points of reference: a minimum reading list to give sufficient “points of reference” from historic Marxist texts to be able to participate as an informed Marxist in current debates (49 items)
Six Marxist texts study course (6 sessions)
Communist Manifesto: study notes
Critique of the Gotha Programme: background notes and talking points
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 (2012)
Older AWL first political education course (34 sessions).
Guidance on training in practical skills
Resources to supplement reading
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)
- Latest revision of a study course first drafted in the 1990s, and revised and revised again with each successive run of the course
- See here for discussion materials from the 2020 Zoom run of the course
- Further notes and resources on all three volumes of Capital, including chapter-by-chapter notes on David Harvey's lectures on volume 1, and "tutor notes" on the questions posed in the study course
- Karl Marx's Capital, volume 1, abridged by Otto Ruhle: or click here to buy that as a booklet
- Note on the word "valorize" in Fernbach's translation of Capital
19 part video series on Capital Volume 1
"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
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.
Notes on "What to read if you want to start learning about economics", including academic texts which are not Marxist but useful for understanding some of the current disputes within bourgeois economics. See also "The Economics of Inflation" (an issue not much discussed by Marx or "classical" Marxists).
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 notes from AWL 2024 study course on Theses on Feuerbach, and links there which include this summary of who Feuerbach was and what his ideas were and Engels' theses on Feuerbach, also from 1845. 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
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
Discussion points on The Civil War in France, by Marx
Women's liberation
Women's Oppression, Feminism and the Left (collection of readings)
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.
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.
For studying chapter 6: map of Russian Army advance in Eastern Europe 1943-44 - download it, and read notes, 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
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
"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
- The Bolsheviks as they really were, by Pierre Broué
- Propaganda and agitation: what they mean. Excerpts from AWL publications, and Plekhanov's classic discussion
- Plans, initiative, intervention: comment on What Is To Be Done?
- Review by Paul Hampton of Lenin Rediscovered
- Hal Draper on What they did to What Is To Be Done?
- Notes from Brisbane Workers' Liberty study group on Lenin Rediscovered
- Timeline used by Brisbane study group
- Review by Paul Hampton of Lenin
- Interview with Lars Lih
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
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)
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
- The Bolsheviks as they really were, by Pierre Broué
- Propaganda and agitation: what they mean. Excerpts from AWL publications, and Plekhanov's classic discussion
- Plans, initiative, intervention: comment on What Is To Be Done?
- Review by Paul Hampton of Lenin Rediscovered
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.
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