Books | Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research https://thetricontinental.org/books/ international, movement-driven institution focused on stimulating intellectual debate that serves people’s aspirations. Wed, 03 Jun 2026 21:46:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Amílcar Cabral https://thetricontinental.org/book-amilcar-cabral/ Tue, 02 Jun 2026 18:11:33 +0000 https://thetricontinental.org/?p=145254 This edition features 17 publishers from various countries in the Global South, as well as the Amílcar Cabral Foundation of Cape Verde and the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research. These texts highlight the importance of the Russian Revolution and Lenin’s legacy for anti-colonial struggles, particularly for the liberation movements in Africa during the 1970’s. This book includes an introduction by Desmond Fonseca that contextualizes Amílcar Cabral’s life and thought within the history of Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, and the leftist movement. In addition, the texts by Luiz Fonseca, president of the Amílcar Cabral Foundation in Cape Verde, and João Pedro Stedile, a member of the coordinating committee of Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement, highlight the importance and relevance of Amílcar Cabral’s thought and praxis for social struggles today.

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]]> Ruth First https://thetricontinental.org/text-ruth-first-selected-writings/ Mon, 01 May 2023 05:00:48 +0000 https://thetricontinental.org/?p=76978 The International Union of Left Publishers releases Ruth First: Selected Writings on International Workers’ Day 2023, an effort of 25 publishing houses in more than 17 languages. The collection brings together five stirring essays on a range of topics such as the landmark 1956 Women’s March, the workings of the apartheid state and the history of armed struggle against the former, introduced an essay on First’s life and legacy written by the labour activist Vashna Jagarnath.

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]]> Kollontai 150 https://thetricontinental.org/text-alexandra-kollontai-150/ Sat, 30 Apr 2022 20:45:52 +0000 https://thetricontinental.org/?p=59024 In honor of the 150th anniversary of the soviet militant and intellectual Alexandra Kollontai’s birth on 31 March 1872, the International Union of Left Publishers releases Kollontai 150, an effort of 25 publishing houses in more than 20 different languages.

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]]> Paris Commune 150 https://thetricontinental.org/text-paris-commune/ Wed, 26 May 2021 22:07:33 +0000 On the 150th anniversary of the bloody defeat of the Paris Commune, dozens of publishers across the world commemorate its legacy and continued importance for the working people of the world. Paris Commune 150, published in a range of languages reflective of the diversity of the working class, collects historic texts from Karl Marx and V.I. Lenin with important reflections from scholars Vijay Prashad and Tings Chak. This short book is imbued with designs and cultural materials reflective of the Commune’s commitment to use art to usher in a new world from the ruins of past empires.

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]]> Che https://thetricontinental.org/text-che/ Thu, 08 Oct 2020 14:21:52 +0000 Twenty left publishers from around the world release a joint edition including two essential texts by Che Guevara on the fifty-third anniversary of his assassination by the CIA in Bolivia. These texts, with insight from Aijaz Ahmad and María del Carmen Ariet García, provide us with a clear and resolute summation of Che’s spirit of conviction, scientific insights, human compassion, and unrelenting will to achieve the victory of the oppressed over the oppressors.

]]> Mariátegui https://thetricontinental.org/books-mariategui/ Sun, 14 Jun 2020 06:54:29 +0000 https://www.thetricontinental.org/?p=21668 José Carlos Mariátegui (1894-1930) is one of the most important Marxist intellectuals and communist militants in Latin America. He brought Marxism into a deep and enduring conversation with the concrete conditions of Latin American – specifically Andean – social life; and he developed a deeply ethical foundation for the growth of Communist politics. This volume, produced by six publishing houses in six languages, collects three of Mariátegui’s texts along with an introduction by the Brazilian Marxist intellectual Florestan Fernandes (1920-1995) and a preface by the collective from the Escuela José Carlos Mariátegui (Argentina).

We certainly do not want socialism in Latin America to be a copy or imitation. It should be a heroic creation. We have to give life to Indo-American socialism with our own reality, in our own language. Here is a mission worthy of a new generation.

]]> Red Books Day Celebrated on Each Continent. https://thetricontinental.org/booklet-red-books-day/ Thu, 30 Apr 2020 13:27:59 +0000 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto on 21 February 1848. The book came just before a continent-wide revolt in Europe against its monarchies; a counter-revolution that began in France would sweep away the ambitions of the revolt. The ambitions of the revolt had, however, already been condensed in Marx and Engel’s remarkable book, which would become one of the most influential texts in human history. Certainly, Marx’s mature writings would have a shaper and more accurate assessment of the capitalist mode of production, but the sheer brio of the Manifesto was never surpassed. ‘We have a world to win’, wrote Marx and Engels; this remains true 172 years later.

Celebration of the publication of this text has been virtually non-existent. That is one of the reasons why LeftWord Books suggested that Red Books Day should be held on 21 February. The idea for Red Books Day, however, was not merely to celebrate the publication of the Manifesto. Over the past decades, the legions of the far right have specifically targeted left authors, publishers, distributors, and booksellers. Against Marxism and rational thought, the far right has pushed obscurantist and unscientific ideas, a fog around humanity. One of those Marxists who was killed was the Indian Communist leader Govind Pansare, targeted by the far right for his rationalism and for the publication of his book Who Was Shivaji?. Pansare was killed on 20 February 2015, on the eve of the day when the Manifesto had been published.

LeftWord Books and our partner publishing houses in India – Bharati Puthakalam, Chintha, National Book Agency, Nava Telangana, Prajasakti, and Vaam – gave the call for Red Books Day to be held on 21 February 2020 as a way to fight back against the unreason of the far right. We asked people around the world to go into public places and hold readings of The Communist Manifesto in their own languages. The effort was immediately supported by the International Assembly of the Peoples and by several political parties, publishing houses, bookstores, writers, and artists. The Indian designer Orijit Sen created the logo; Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research developed a range of posters.

On 21 February 2020, more than thirty thousand people from South Korea to Venezuela joined the public reading of the Manifesto in their own languages. The epicentre of Red Books Day was in the four Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, where the bulk of the public readings took place. Without question, Bharati Puthakalam and the Tamil Nadu State Secretariat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) created the greatest number of events, from a morning reading of the Manifesto under the labour statue on Chennai’s marina to evening readings at union halls. In Tamil Nadu itself, about ten thousand people participated in the Red Books festival.

Peasant organisations affiliated with the Communist Party of Nepal held readings in rural areas, while the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) in Brazil held readings in the occupied settlements; in Havana, study circles met to read the Manifesto, while in South Africa it was read for the first time in Sesotho. Left publishing house from Expressão Popular (Brazil) to Batalla de Ideas (Argentina) to Inkani Books (South Africa) joined the effort. At Studio Safdar in Delhi, the Manifesto was read in many Indian and European languages, a tribute not only to the text itself but to International Mother Language Day, which also falls on 21 February. Many people report that this was the first time that they opened a book by Marx and that they were enthused to read the captivating prose; this has drawn them to start study circles of Marxist literature.

The left publishers who participated in the effort are now working to build an International Union of Left Publishers. This network will anchor the annual Red Books Day celebration.

]]> LENIN 150 https://thetricontinental.org/books-lenin150/ Wed, 22 Apr 2020 07:30:18 +0000

 

On April 22, we celebrate V. I. Lenin’s 150th birth anniversary. Lenin was the chief theorist of the October Revolution of 1917, and one of the most important leaders of the new Soviet Republic and then the USSR. Three left presses – LeftWord Books (India), Expressão Popular (Brazil), and Batalla de Ideas (Argentina) – in collaboration with Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research have produced a joint commemorative book called Lenin 150. This volume collects Lenin’s 1913 essay on ‘The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism’, Vladimir Mayakovsky’s epic poem written at Lenin’s death (1924), and a brief essay by Vijay Prashad on the theory and praxis of Lenin.

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