NDYA: reading suggestions
We'll be bringing over the reading list from the old site shortly and adding newer entries.
Walter Stewart, The Life and Political Times of Tommy Douglas (2003)
Level: Introductory Reading
Subject(s): CCF, NDP, democratic socialism, Tommy Douglas
Vision and eloquence, two qualities valued most in a political leader, were what Tommy Douglas was all about. Social policies we take for granted today — medicare, a Canada-wide pension plan, bargaining rights for civil servants, a Wheat Board to protect farmers — were first advocated by Douglas. And medicare, his finest achievement, was wrestled into place in Saskatchewan, and finally embraced by all Canada as one of our finest national accomplishments. As Walter Stewart writes, "Tommy was a little man, but he cast a long shadow. There was no one like him."
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James Laxer, In Search of A New Left (1997)
Level: More In-Depth Like
Subject(s): CCF, NDP, the Waffle, New Left
This is an essential book for anyone who is looking to learn more about the history of the NDP and about some of the factors which helped shaped the Canadian political climate into what it is today. The author, James Laxer, was also a candidate for the leadership of the NDP in 1971 and came second place to David Lewis.
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Fidel Castro, War, Racism, and Economic Injustice (2002 re-print)
Level: More In-Depth Like
Subject(s): capiatlism, racism, the Third World
A damning analysis of the world economic and political order from one of the principal voices of the Third World. Fidel Castro speaks directly to those who are demanding an alternative to the global ravages of capitalism: "People used to talk about apartheid in South Africa. Today we could talk about apartheid throughout the world, where over four billion people are deprived of the most basic rights of all human beings.
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Frederick Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1986 re-print)
Level: More In-Depth Like
Subject(s): anthropolgy, patriarchy, class struggle
Tracing the evolution of the social forces of production from the most primitive stages to class-divided society, and the growth of the family unit, from primitive group marriage to monogamy, Engels develops his arguments on private property and its relationship to the subjugation of women. He then goes on to analyse in detail the rise of the state. His final section extends his theory further to consider how class and exploitation arose out of the division of labour.
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Alan Woods & Ted Grant, Lenin and Trotsky - What they really stood for (2000)
Level: More In-Depth Like
Subject(s): socialism, revolution, Marxism
The ideas of Lenin and Trotsky are without doubt the most distorted and slandered ideas in history. For more than 80 years, they have been subjected to an onslaught from the apologists of capitalism, who have attempted to present their ideas - Bolshevism - as both totalitarian and utopian. An entire industry was developed in an attempt to equate the crimes of Stalinism with the regime of workers' democracy that existed under Lenin and Trotsky. This book aims to present what actually happened in revolutionary Russia and the actual ideas behind the historic event.
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Naomi Klein, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies (2001)
Level: Introductory Reading
Subject(s): globalisation, capitalism, consumerism
Amazing, illuminating, easy to read, page-turning overview of why so many social movements are converging around the fair-trade and anti-globalization movements. No Logo isn't about "destroying logos" (though anti-advertising activism is covered). It's an exposé of how "modern companies" (like Nike and the Gap) have divested from any committment to labour, the environment, or to local communities, and in turn sell us back "symbols" (brands) that replace what they have destroyed with nostalgia. And it's about activist strategies for dismantling corporate power to regain the autonomy of our communities.