In The Principal Contradiction, Torkil Lauesen introduces readers to the philosophy of dialectical materialism as a tool for changing the world.

Dialectical materialism allows us to understand the dynamics of world history, the concept of contradiction building a bridge between theory and practice, with the principal contradiction telling us where to start. 

“There was a time when we proclaimed that we were part of a beautiful and fragmented chaos of affinity groups, conflicted organizations, disorganized rebels, all of whom were somehow part of the same social movement that was greater than the sum of its parts. We were more accurately a disorganized mob of enraged plebeians shaking our fists at a disciplined imperial army. Years ago we spoke of social movementism but now it only makes sense to drop the ‘social’ since this phase of confusion was incapable of understanding the social terrain.

This collection of texts by V.I. Lenin was originally compiled by the Communist Working Circle, a Danish anti-­imperialist group. In the late 1960s, the CWC developed the so-­called “parasite state” theory linking the imperialist exploitation and oppression of the proletariat in the Global “South” with the establishment of states in the Global “North” in which the working class lives in relative prosperity. In connection with studies of this division of the world, CWC published these texts by Lenin with the title “On Imperialism and Opportunism.”

Kuwasi Balagoon was a participant in the Black Liberation struggle from the 1960s until his death in prison in 1986. A member of the Black Panther Party and defendant in the infamous Panther 21 case, Balagoon went underground with the Black Liberation Army (BLA). Captured and convicted of various crimes against the State, he spent much of the 1970s in prison, escaping twice. After each escape, he went underground and resumed BLA activity.

1978: A New Stage in the Class War? Selected Documents from the Spring Campaign of the Red Brigades, presents for the first time to English language readers a selection of documents on the strategic logic and conjunctural analysis behind the 1978 offensive of the Red Brigades which brought that organizations strategy of “attack on the heart of the state” to a climax and induced a national political crisis. The book includes:

When Strike One to Educate One Hundred was written, Italy’s Red Brigades were crashing out of our daily newspapers into everyone’s awareness. Yet, almost no real information about them was available here.  Strike One was written for that need.  It was not an academic study. It was written by people who were doing it, and read by people who wanted to do it.