Saturday, January 10
2:00 – 4:00 pm
Indianapolis Liberation Center
It’s not too late to join the Indy Liberation Store‘s first book study of 2026: Marx’s Capital (Vol. 1). In this session, we’ll cover the first part of the book (chapters 1-3) on commodities, exchange, and money. These are the most difficult chapters, so after this session we’ll be on our way out of the woods (and remember, the facilitator is available for office hours upon request).
While at times challenging, these three chapters alone explain so much of our experience under capitalism. We still speak of schools, water, and other public goods being “commodified,” after all. Now, however, we’ll know exactly what a commodity and commodification are. We’ll also learn why we hate our jobs even if we enjoy what we do, the reasons behind the deskilling and/or automation of our labor, and how money arises.
Throughout, we’ll start getting at the roots of the contradictions that cause so much suffering in our lives, city, and world. Not to oversell it, but this class will forever change the way we experience exchanging money for goods at the supermarket, online, etc.
Readings and resources
While you can use any complete edition of the first volume of Capital, we recommend the International Publishers edition, which is the original English translation of the book. This is the preferred edition for political and and literary reasons, which we’ll cover in class.
It’s also the edition available for free online here).
The other main version is the Penguin edition, which is perfectly fine. However, it’s easiest if we’re all on the same page (literally), although the facilitator will try to identify the key passages in both versions.
Reading guide for chapters 1-3: PDF
Reading Capital with Comrades
Episode 2 (Chapter 1)
Episode 3 (Chapters 2-3)