Monthly Sunday Reading Group at RZH

RZH

Mar 8, 2026 • 5 min read

We meet monthly to discuss readings that question capitalist production, social reproduction and capitalist states.

We put together a reading list below as a jumping off point.

We are about thinking big, thinking local, forming connections and foundation.
We are happy to discuss past readings with you too. Check out the resources below.

Next discussion group meetup:

Sunday, April 12

The Zapatista Experience Rebellion, Resistance, and Autonomy by Jérôme Baschet and translated by Traductores Rebeldes Autónomos Cronopios.
Finishing the book (Chapters 3-5).

The autonomous rebel territories of Chiapas are among the most developed and radical of the "real utopias" that exist in the world today, exceptional in their experiments in self-governance and anti-State political form, argues Jérôme Baschet. The Zapatista Experience orients readers in the profusion of Zapatista writings concerning, for example, the elaboration of a different understanding of politics, the Zapatistas' planetary conjunctural analysis of capitalism as a total war against humanity, their conception of Indigeneity that breaks with both modernist individualism and identity politics, and their notion of time and history. All this in clear opposition to neoliberal capitalism.

Coming up soon:

The Operating System: An Anarchist Theory of the Modern State by Eric Laursen

One of the most unique aspects of anarchism as a political philosophy is that it seeks to abolish the state. But what exactly is “the state”? The State is like a vast operating system for ordering and controlling relations among human society, the economy, and the natural world, analogous to a digital operating system like Windows or MacOS. Like a state, an operating system “governs” the programs and applications under it and networked with it, as well as, to some extent, the individuals who avail themselves of these tools and resources. No matter how different states seem on the surface they share core similarities, namely:

The State is a relatively new thing in world history
The State is European in origin and outlook
States are “individuals” in the eyes of the law
The State claims the right to determine who is a person
The State is an instrument of violence and war
The State is above the law
The State is first and foremost an economic endeavor

Anyone concerned with entrenched power, income inequality, lack of digital privacy, climate change, the amateurish response to COVID-19, or military-style policing will find eye-opening insights into how states operate and build more power for themselves—at our expense. The state won’t solve our most pressing problems, so why do we obey? It’s time to think outside the state.

Check out What Is the State?, a video produced by Agency, based on the The Operating System.

Mistaken Identity: Mass Movements and Racial Ideology by Asad Haider

RIP Asad Haider.

In March and April we'll read his book Mistaken Identity, a critique of identity politics, including working class identities.

Read Asad's obituary here.

Check out articles by Asad in Viewpoint, the magazine he co-founded here.

Viewpoint Magazines issues on topics like Occupy, Theory and Practice, Workers' Inquiry, The State, Social Reproduction and Imperialism are rich resources worth your time.

More info on the book:

Whether class or race is the more important factor in modern politics is a question right at the heart of recent history’s most contentious debates. Among groups who should readily find common ground, there is little agreement. To escape this deadlock, Asad Haider turns to the rich legacies of the black freedom struggle. Drawing on the words and deeds of black revolutionary theorists, he argues that identity politics is not synonymous with anti-racism, but instead amounts to the neutralization of its movements. It marks a retreat from the crucial passage of identity to solidarity, and from individual recognition to the collective struggle against an oppressive social structure. Weaving together autobiographical reflection, historical analysis, theoretical exegesis, and protest reportage, Mistaken Identity is a passionate call for a new practice of politics beyond colorblind chauvinism and “the ideology of race.”

Good places to start list / past readings:

Introduction to Capital - Michael Heinrich‌‌‌‌
See our discussion guide/zine for more resources: ‌‌
https://libcom.org/article/beyond-money-commodities-and-state-discussion-guide-heinrichs-introduction-capital‌‌

Family Abolition - M.E. O'Brien‌‌‌‌
Optional stuff/critique: ‌‌
The Welfare State and the Bourgeois Family-Household - Kirstin Munro‌‌

“We are brown, we are short, we are fat … We are the face of Oaxaca”: Women Leaders in the Oaxaca Rebellion - Lynn Stephen‌‌

The Communes of Rojava: A Model In Societal Self Direction - Neighbor Democracy (40 minute video)‌‌

‌‌‌‌Analytic Social Psychology as Critical Social Theory: A Reconstruction of Erich Fromm’s Early Work - J. E. Morain (See section #4: The Family as Mediator)‌‌

Fetishism, Money and the State Readings:

Fetishism - John Holloway ‌‌
(Chapter 4 of Change the World Without Taking Power)‌‌
John Holloway had a huge impact publishing the book Change the World Without Taking Power in 2000. Here he outlines the concepts of commodity fetishism and reification. Fetishism can also be extended to the state and money.

Money - Samuel Chambers ‌‌
Chambers writes that all money is a credit-debt relationship of trust and representation of value. Building on concepts of fetishism, Chambers claims money has no value itself.

Fetish Speaks Comic Zine - Freddy Perlman ‌‌
Perlman's short zine on commodity fetishism and reification. Enjoy the restored art from this 1973 comic.
Updated translations of fetishism and trinity formula to go along with comic here.

Towards A New State Theory Debate - Chris O'Kane
‌‌O'Kane outlines a critical theory of the state by bringing together the work of Johannes Agnoli, Werner Bonefeld, and Simon Clarke. Agnoli is known as a leading voice in extra-parliamentary opposition in Germany in 1968 and coined the term "open Marxism" as an anti-state critical theory which Bonefeld, Clarke, Holloway and others are a part of.