SocialistStories حكايات اشتراكية

A Child Dies
by Sipho Sepamla

He was a mere kid
consumed by curiosity
which brought him one morning
to a burning scene of a shop
the fire raged before his eyes
is was angry
eating up every article
then came an alarm
because a monster was know to stalk the streets
unthinking
the child fled
he just ran and ran
away from the fire
but his mind was engrossed by the fascination
his eyes fixed on the burning scene
unthinking
the child ran and ran
until he fell smack
into the hands of a towering giant
he was grabbed
he was hurled to the ground

The Cops and the Guards
by Roque Dalton

They always saw the people
as a mass of backs running away
as a field on which their clubs fell with hatred.

They always saw the people with an eye on sharpening their
aim
and between the people and their eye
the sight of a pistol or a rifle.

(They too were once people
but with the excuse of hunger and unemployment
they accepted a weapon a club and a monthly salary
to defend the makers of hunger and unemployment.)

They always saw the people enduring
sweating
shouting
raising placards

The Betrayer
by The Revolutionary Peasants and Workers of the Mau Mau Resistance

Long ago the British came upon us
With weapons of war
And they successfully fought us
And drove us out and took our land.
Go away, go away, you whites,
The time is soon coming
When you will be crying for mercy.

There is a great wailing
In the land of the African people
Because of land hunger.
The wise and even the foolish,
Who among you does not see
The overcrowding in our land?

You whites are like beasts in sheep's clothing

Even Beneath This Bitterness
By Otto Rene Castillo

At the bottom of the night
the footsteps descend and retreat.

Shadows surround them.
Streets, drunks. Buildings.
Someone running away from himself.
A broken bottle, bleeding.
A widowed paper sailing around a corner.
A freethinker pissing on the grass,
where tomorrow the well-dressed children
will play
beneath the dew.

Far away something screams, dark metal, genital.
Asphalt and blind stones, sleeping air,
darkness, cold, police, cold, more police.
Streets, whores, drunks, buildings.

This is a short story (5pg) by Italian writer Giovanni Verga. I have read a lot of his work, including two novels which I will be posting soon, and he always writes more like a socialist than a normal writer, which is why I have posted, and will continue posting, his work. This story attacks the repressive foundations and support of the capitalist state, i.e. laws, courts, and "law enforcement" (otherwise know as dirty fucking pigs). This short quote from the story best explains what it is about, and I would even say that this statement is the foundation on which the story was written:

This is a very informative and interesting article (4pg) written by Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci in 1916 about the struggles of textile workers in and around Turin. I found it especially informative and significant due to the large number of industrial disputes in, and radicalization of, the textile sector in Egypt, with workers in Mahalla being in the vanguard and most well known, but also in places like Shebeen il-Kum. It also makes the very accurate point that when workers struggle together in solidarity they will never lose. Enjoy comrades:

Liberation:

This is my favorite play of Dario Fo's (that I have read anyway). As with all of Fo's plays it is very comical, yet the theme of the play is only reinforced by this not cheapened. Since Fo's is a socialist most of his plays have elements of socialist ideology in them, but Can't Pay, Won't Pay, in my opinion carries a much more explicitly socialist message than most of Fo's plays.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce Dario Fo (1926-), an Italian radical leftist playwright, and the best playwright I have ever read by far. Although you may be wary of political theater, or as Fo put it "Political theater has become a kind of byword for boring theater, conceited theater, pedantic theater, mechanical theater, a non-enjoyable theater," Dario Fo's plays are one of a kind. What do I mean by that? I mean that Dario Fo, while always focusing on social and political issues in his plays, always combines this with irresistible humor. I have never seen even a mediocre imitation of what Fo does in his plays, combining politics and humor more successfully than could be thought possible. That being said, I have read many of Fo's plays already, many several times, and will be posting them all eventually, so if you enjoy this play, don't worry there is more to come!

This is another humorous story (2 pages) from the Czech author Jaroslav Hasek which mocks government "efficiency" and how the repressive state attempts to entrap people. Enjoy!

Liberation:

An Investigative Expedition - Jaroslav Hasek.pdf

This very short story or sketch is by Czech author Jaroslav Hašek (1883-1923), an active anarchist who was drafted to fight in WWI and was subsequently captured by the Russians. Later he became a supporter of the Bolsheviks and he stayed in Bolshevik Russia until 1920. Hopefully I will post several such stories or sketches by Hašek, who is most known for The Good Soldier Švejk. Hašek almost always writes in a satirical, comical vein although many of his works, like this one, do address social and political issues. This story describes a toll-collector on a certain bridge in Prague, the type of arrogant, petty official we all have had experience with. So enjoy this somewhat lighter example of socially conscious literature comrades:

Liberation: