Book Club WG

The Mission:
To create a community that delves into both leftist theory and explores a wide range of written works. We engage in thought-provoking discussions about essays, speeches, theory, plays, novels, short stories, poems, and more. 

What is Socialism? – DSA NPEC module

This module from the National Political Education Committee (NPEC) includes three short readings that discuss why socialists aim to replace capitalism and what the new system of socialism should look like:

• “Democratic socialism, explained by a democratic socialist” by Meagan Day (Vox)
• “Building Socialism from Below: Popular Power and the State” by Ben Tarnoff (Socialist Forum)
• “Socialism for Realists” by Sam Gindin (Catalyst)

The Tulsa Race Massacre: The Dept. of Justice Review & Evaluation

The Tulsa Race Massacre stands out as a civil rights crime unique in its magnitude, barbarity, racist hostility, and its utter annihilation of a thriving Black community. This 2025 report of the massacre shows that it was the result not of uncontrolled mob violence, but of a coordinated, military-style attack on Greenwood.

Consider visiting or donating to the Greenwood Rising Black Wall Street History Center

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

(Translated into English by Myra Bergman Ramos)
A foundational text in the field of critical pedagogy, a practice which attempts to help students question and challenge domination and the beliefs and practices that dominate.

Caliban and the Witch: Women, The Body, and Primitive Accumulation by Silvia Federici

A feminist analysis of the historical transition from feudalism to capitalism, arguing that the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries were a crucial tool in subjugating women’s bodies. Federici draws connections between the oppression of women and the exploitation of the working class, highlighting how both were essential for the development of capitalism.

Drug Cartels Do Not Exist: Narcotrafficking in US and Mexican Culture by Oswaldo Zavala

(Translated into English by William Savinar)
The realities of violence in Mexico and along the border are obscured by the books, films, and TV series we consume. Oswaldo Zavala makes the case that the very terms we use to describe drug traffickers are a constructed subterfuge for the real narcos: politicians, corporations, and the military.

Abolish Rent: How Tenants Can End the Housing Crisis by Tracy Rosenthal & Leonardo Vilchis

From two co-founders of the largest tenants union in the country, this deeply reported account of the resurgent tenant movement centers poor and working-class people who are fighting back, staying put, and remaking the city in the process. These are the seeds of the revolutionary movement we need to make our housing, our cities, and the world our home.

(To get involved with local tenant organizing, check out the Oklahoma Tenants Union.)

People’s Republic of Walmart: How the World’s Biggest Corporations are Laying the Foundation for Socialism by Leigh Philips & Michal Rozworski

The authors posit the idea that multinational corporations prove that modern capitalism actually relies on a large amount of centralized planning, and propose that the key to creating socialism is exploiting and transforming the existing mechanisms for that planning.

Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark Fisher

Fisher details how neoliberalism affects different facets of society to create and reinforce a narrative that capitalism is the only viable political and economic system, stifling any attempt to imagine an alternative.

Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis

A series of interviews and writings from renowned activist Angela Davis examining the connection between domestic struggles against oppression with the broader anti-imperialist struggle worldwide.