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While it might raise eyebrows in the urbane and largely liberal dominated corridors of academe to publish the collected works of one of the Twentieth Century’s most debated and misunderstood revolutionaries, Josef Stalin’s Collected Works are none the less accessible and important, and they deserve to be studied not only as world-historical and practical applications of the development of Marxist-Leninist political theory, but—especially in an era where the rise of destructive imperialisms and the decay of capitalism leads to an ever-increasing fascist reaction—also as normative political-theoretical texts in their own right. As foundational theoretical texts, Stalin’s writings continue to underpin extant socialist state governance, policy, legislation, and practice.

With the world presently on the brink of a Third World War, and while a virulent pandemic continues to rage across the globe, it is important to remember that Stalin lived through similar conditions; and, because of this, his writings have the potential to speak to us in the present day. His writings showcase his wit and his charm, his revolutionary fervor, and his engagement with the people during a time when the whole world seemed to be in upheaval. Now, in our own time of upheaval, it is critical that contemporary organizers, scholars, and theorists have easy access to these works.

This project is entirely a labor of love. No profit is being made from these books, and their publication is a collective effort from the comrades at Iskra Books—our goal is simply to get these volumes printed and distributed amongst the proletarian workers, organizers, and scholars of the world.

Publishing the selected works of Kim Il-Sung on education is a controversial move in the United States. In fact, there’s almost a proportional relationship between the demonization of the DPRK and the level of ignorance one has about the state, the country, its government, its people and society, and its history. This is particularly striking given the recent interest in decolonial and anti-colonial education, in socialist and com- munist educational methods, and in socialism and communism more generally. Given these recent activist and scholarly interests, Riley Park and Cambria York’s new collection, Socialist Education in Korea, is a welcome contribution. Their book not only provides key insights into the socialist educational project in Korea—including its pedagogical philosophies and practices, organizations, purposes, government institutions, and more. It also helps provide a more accurate description of the DPRK’s socialist project as articulated by the state’s founder and, for almost five decades, central leader.

In Encountering Education, organizer, and political and educational theorist Derek R. Ford develops new marxist pedagogical elements to advance the class struggle. Ford argues that the entire marxist project of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat and creating a classless society entails an educational praxis that builds up disinterpellative encounters. Through an inventive reading of Marx Althusser, Glissant, and others, they advance two dialectical pedagogical processes of inquiry and presentation, developing both-and the political relations between the two-through a range of theorists and situations. Encountering Education both illuminates the historical, political, spatial, technological, and sonic conditions of our struggle and assembles new pedagogical forms of reading, writing, listening, and learning through which we can encounter and realize an alternative social formation and, through the guidance of the Party, a new mode of production.

Appearing for the first time in English, Art and the Working Class is the work of Alexander Bogdanov, a revolutionary polymath and co-founder, with Vladimir Lenin, of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. Bogdanov was a strong proponent of the arts, co-founding the Proletarian Culture (Proletkult) organization to provide political and artistic education to workers.

José Carlos Mariátegui was born in Moquegua, Peru, to a poor mestizo family on July 14, 1894. Considered by many to be the father of Latin American Communism, he is celebrated for being the first person to utilize Marxist methods of analysis in order to better understand concrete reality in Peru and for carving a path to revolution based off of these particular historical conditions. As such, he was one of the first Latin American socialists to acknowledge the revolutionary potential of the peasantry and Indigenous peoples. Rather than take a paternalistic or humanitarian position, Mariátegui believed that these overlapping groups needed to be the architects of their own liberation and to do so using their own cultural knowledge, experience, and language.

Kemunculan wabah Corona dan wabah lain sebetulnya tidak bisa dilepaskan dari cara manusia memenuhi kebutuhan hidupnya saat ini—yang berbeda dibandingkan empat abad lalu. Kami akan mengulas bagaimana sistem produksi kapitalis saat ini membentuk dan mempersering kedatangan wabah: entah itu yang menjadi endemi, epidemi, ataupun pandemi.

Lantas, bagaimanakah cara kita memenuhi kebutuhan hidup selama ini? Bagaimana sistem kapitalisme yang disebut-sebut itu, merusak hubungan sosial dan lingkungan kita? Bagaimanakah ia memproduksi wabah, dan apa yang harus kita lakukan? Buku saku ini dengan ringkas akan mendiskusikannya.