The Radical Education Department (RED) is rebooting itself as a Marxist militant research group, whose goal is to collectively produce historical materialist analyses that elucidate the contemporary world and contribute to building revolutionary power. RED’s members are involved in various revolutionary parties and organizations. Below is a very brief account of our evolution, as well as the first contribution to our new orientation: RED Resources.

Founded in 2017, RED originally functioned as a rather flexible, autonomous collective that brought together communists and anarchists. Our activities included militant research, interviews with organizers, public events and some direct action. The practice of working together and exploring diverse approaches across the revolutionary Left has been essential to our political education and our evolution as a group.

RED was never a base-building endeavor, and many of us have been involved over the years in mass organizations and parties. Over time, our core members have become increasingly involved in revolutionary socialist organizing. Although we continue to work with anarchist comrades and consider it important to avoid sectarian division on the Left, we are convinced that historical materialism provides the most rigorous account of the capitalist world system and the best tools for organizing to overthrow it.  

If you are interested in knowing more about the various steps in this process, you can read an account of why we decided to launch RED, our original manifesto, and a reflection on our first year of activities. For our first project together under this new orientation, a number of comrades have helped us compile an annotated list of radical education resources (see below). This includes reliable news sources, podcasts, publishing houses, video archives, schools, educational resources for the youth, and much more. We hope that this list will be useful for bringing people into the revolutionary struggle, as well as for contributing to the ongoing political education of radical organizers and activists. If you have any corrections or additions, please reach out to us!

– RED

RED RESOURCES

RED is dedicated to providing reliable resources for autonomous education in the deep and rich history of the revolutionary Left, as well as in the power struggles that define the contemporary world. To this end, we have developed RED Resources, based on the general categories below. Although we do not agree entirely with all of the viewpoints expressed in the resources below, we recommend consulting and supporting them.

News

• Black Agenda Report — news, commentary and analysis from the Black left.
• BreakThrough News — TV broadcast style news, aiming to be an alternative to the corporate, monopolized, media landscape.
• Common Dreams — a progressive non-profit news source that runs on reader donations.
• CovertAction Magazine — a progressive platform for investigative journalism, with a particular focus on covert operations
• CounterPunch — a  popular reader backed leftist news site that also provides substantial analysis in a variety of forms.
• Economic and Social Research Aotearoa — a “cross-sectoral” left think tank that aims to provide opposition to neoliberal, capitalist, media (based in New Zealand)
• The Empire Files –an independent documentary and interview series hosted by Abby Martin, who reports on war and inequalities from the heart of the empire (the USA)
• Granma — official news source of the Cuban Communist Party central committee whose principle objective is the dissemination, through news articles and commentaries, of the Revolution’s work and principles
• The Grayzone — an independent news website, headed by Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton, dedicated to original investigative journalism and analysis of politics and empire
• Hood Communist — an internationalist news source unified around decolonization, anti-imperialism, African unity, self-determination, anti-patriarchy, abolition, and centering Africans and the African diaspora
• Information Clearing House — a non-profit, anti-imperialist news site promoting free access to information
• Jadaliyya — an independent ezine produced by the Arab Studies Institute
• Labor Notes — a news site focusing on the American organized worker’s perspective which aims to “put the movement back in the labor movement” by providing news, strategies, and analyses
• La Izquierda Diario — a Trotskyist newspaper in Spanish that is part of the Trotskyist Fraction and a network of revolutionary online newspapers
• Left I on the News — a left view of daily news specifically focusing on the way news is presented in mainstream media.
• Left Voice — a Trotskyist newspaper that is part of the Trotskyist Fraction and a network of revolutionary online newspapers
• Liberation News — a Marxist-Leninist newspaper of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which provides both analysis and militant journalism
• MintPress News — a for-profit but independent site providing detailed investigative journalism and analysis of the nation’s most pressing issues
• Monthly Review — a theoretically-minded socialist magazine established in 1949 with a main aim of analyzing news from a Marxist perspective
• Mutiny — a socialist platform featuring writers connected with the Labor Party
• Nonsite — an online, peer-reviewed quarterly journal for scholarship in the humanities focused especially on the ontology of works of art, the question of intentionality, and competing materialisms
• People’s Daily Online — a website made to introduce the ideas, theories, policies, and information of the Chinese Communist Party in English
• Pinko — a collective for thinking gay communism together, which publishes a biannual print issue, periodic zines, essays, translations and archival material
• Project Censored — an online news source created to research and publicize the United States’ censorship of media, funded by The Media Freedom Foundation
• Puntorojo — a news focused website that publishes the views and voices of Mexicanx, Chicanx, Latinx, transborder and transnational thinkers, workers, and activists whose experiences and perspectives are shaped by the ongoing effects of US imperialism and resistance to the US empire
• The Real News Network — a network that publishes news and analyses from the perspective of fighting against capitalism, white supremacy, and imperialism (reader funded with major funding from these sources)
• Redfish — an anti-capitalist editorially independent video-based news source for on the ground news and short-form documentaries
• RED – Radical Education Department — a Marxist militant research group that publishes analyses of the contemporary situation and interviews with activists
• Red Wedge — an online resource for art and commentary on art which is Trotskyist leaning and inspired by their manifesto, which details the need to have a revolutionary imagination and to connect art to struggle
• Révolution Permanente — the French language website which is part of the Trotskyist Fraction and a network of revolutionary online newspapers
• ROAR Magazine — a magazine run by activists with the hope of providing grassroots perspectives on the global struggle for democracy
• Salvage — a bi-annual journal of revolutionary arts and letters that aims to publish poems, art, essays, and fiction without sectarian constraint
• Socialist Register — an annual socialist journal which aims to publish book reviews, essays on socialist theory and practice, and general year-in-review style commentary from a socialist perspective
• Telesur and Telesur English — a multimedia platform oriented towards telling stories and breaking news from the global south for a broad audience
• Truthout — a non-profit news source dedicated to publishing transformative ideas, critical analysis, and investigative reporting on the contemporary moment
• WikiLeaks — a multi-national media organization and library founded by Julian Assange to analyze and publish restricted official documents involving politics, war, spying, and corruption
• World Socialist Web Site — a socialist news site of the world Trotskyist movement and the Fourth International

Podcasts

• Against the Grain — progressive and radical analysis and commentary on politics
• By Any Means Necessary — a podcast that aims to connect the social, political, and economic movements shaping the world with a working-class analysis
• David Harvey’s Anti-Capitalist Chronicles — a podcast by David Harvey that examines the failings of capitalism from a Marxist lens.
• Empire Files — the podcast version of Abby Martin’s “The Empire Files” documentary series
• Green & Red — a radical environmental and anti-capitalist podcast that discusses politics with organizers, activists, academics, and others
• Groundings — a podcast hosted by Devyn Springer that connects organizing, theory, and history with dialogue, experience, and storytelling
• Philly Liberation Radio — a podcast hosted by members of the Philly branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and volunteers at the Philly Liberation Center discussing local politics with workers, organizers, and activists in Philly
• Marxism Today — a podcast that analyzes current trends in Marxism with invited guests
• Moderate Rebels — a podcast and video show hosted by Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton focusing on US foreign policy
• Project Censored — based in Berkeley, Project Censored focuses on “News that Didn’t Make the News” through analyzing social, political, and economic news and its relation to public affairs
• Pushback — a podcast featuring Aaron Maté that discusses weekly news via an anti-capitalist lens with a wide variety of guests (presented by the Gray Zone)
• Revolutionary Left Radio — a communist oriented podcast focusing on history, working-class struggle, and revolutionary theory

Publishing Houses & Online Databases

• City Lights Books  — an independent bookstore and publisher that specializes in progressive politics, the arts, and world literature
• Common Notions — a publisher that seeks to advance new formulations in liberation and autonomy to amplify movements for social justice
• Haymarket Books — a radical, independent, and nonprofit publisher focusing on books and authors that challenge capitalist hegemony (a project of the Center for Economic Research and Social Change)
• LeftWord Books — a New Delhi based publishing house which seeks to reflect views on the Left from Southeast Asia and India
• Marxists Internet Archive — a non-profit public library and online archive of Marxist writings
• Monthly Review Press — the publishing house of Monthly Review, academically minded and Marxist in orientation
• Pathfinder Press — a publisher focused on publishing anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist texts
• Pluto Books — a British independent publisher focused on anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, and left-wing non-fiction books
• PM Press — an independent publisher of books that prints all genres with the aim of supporting radical authors
• PSL Publications — the publishing house of the Party for Socialism and Liberation that provides Breaking the Chains (a feminist, socialist, anti-imperialist magazine) and a wide range of party commentary and analysis from organizers on the ground around the country
• Red and Black Publishers — a publishing house for a wide range of topics, including socialist, anarchist, and Marxist theory, history, and social commentary
• Seven Stories Press — an independent, global publisher specializing in all types of writing that delves into human rights, social and economic justice, and the media
• Verso Books — a large, independent, Anglo-American publishing house specializing in progressive and academic-minded texts
• Zed Books — an internationally minded publishing house that aims to be a platform for marginalized voices across the globe

Educational Videos and Documentary Films

• Empire Files — an independent documentary and interview series hosted by Abby Martin, who reports on war and inequalities from the heart of the empire (the USA)
• Metanoia Films — a collection of films by Scott Noble that examine propaganda, empire and the deep state
• Michael Parenti’s Recorded Lectures — a Youtube archive of Michael Parenti’s recorded lectures on a wide variety of topics ranging from the Soviet Union to globalization

Schools & Radical Education Resources

• Critical Theory Workshop — a university level, international school for committed research that offers online classes, symposiums in Philadelphia and a summer program in Paris
• The Hampton Institute — a proletarian think tank named in honor of Black Panther Party member Fred Hampton
• Liberation School — a Marxist education platform with courses, study guides, videos and much more
• The Marxist Education Project — a Marxist education group based in NYC that offers classes, study groups and public events
• Revolutionary readers available free of charge via the Communist Research Cluster — readers created to synthesize revolutionary writings from the late 19th century to the 1980s

Educational Resources for Students & Younger Audiences

• AK Press’s Comics and Graphic Novels — a collection of child and young-adult friendly texts dealing with history and politics from a progressive perspective
• Beginner’s Guide to Marxism — an online resource developed by the Marxists Internet Archive
• Haymarket Book’s Graphic Novels — graphic novels published through Haymarket for a younger audience
• Oliver Stone, “The Untold History of the United States“ — a TV series that looks at the rise of the United States’ Empire through the 20th century
• Zinn Education Project — a large database of resources dealing in people’s history and includes resources for teaching and learning history from below
• Howard Zinn, A Young People’s History of the United States: Columbus to the War on Terror — the young person’s version of Howard Zinn’s famous text

Arts & Culture

• Kanopy — a public library-supported movie and visual media database
• Means TV — anti-capitalist entertainment service owned by workers

Community Centers in the Philadelphia Area

• Philly Liberation Center — a community center based in Kensington run by the Party for Socialism and Liberation that is focused on three elements of work: serving, studying, and struggling alongside the poor and working class people of Philadelphia
• Making Worlds Bookstore — a social center for abolition, autonomy, liberation, and ecological self-determination as imagined by Black, Brown, and Indigenous people