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Reading Group Resources

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Reading Group Resources for Chapters and Reading Group Coordinators

Welcome to the MDC DSA reading group resource page! This page includes syllabi from previous MDC DSA reading groups, community guidelines, and facilitation tools.

Click the links below to jump to the relevant resource if you already know what you’re looking for or feel free to browse the whole page if you’re looking for ideas. 

If you’re interested in starting a reading group or if you have more questions about MDCDSA’s experience running a reading group, please reach out to us at politicaleducation@mdcdsa.org – we’d love to see how we can work with you!

Please note that reading groups are just one of several different forms of political education in the Chapter. You can find out more about our Socialist Night School program here and walking tours here. We also hold regular book exchanges and other one-off events, which will be listed on the chapter calendar.

Outline

Reading Groups Sponsored by MDC DSA Formations
Other Reading Groups
Tools for Facilitating a Reading Group

Groups Sponsored by MDC DSA Formations

Abolition/Defund
Ecosocialism/WePower
Internationalism
Labor
Migrant Justice
Reproductive Justice/Bodily Autonomy
Socialist Feminism
Stomp Out Slumlords (Housing Justice/Tenant Organizing)

Other Groups

How did we get here?

Books on the Origin of Our Current Economic System

Where might we be going?

Groups Covering Manifestos and Liberatory Models

Black Radicals
Palestine Liberation
Industries and Organizing
Culture
Fiction
Theory and People

Tools for Facilitating a Reading Group

Community Guidelines

Typically, our reading groups discuss and agree upon a set of community guidelines that all reading group members will uphold throughout the group. Holding members accountable for the community guidelines should be the responsibility of everyone in the group, so it’s important that all members feel ownership of the guidelines. While some groups built their guidelines from scratch, most groups find it easier to start with existing guidelines, such as the guidelines for your chapter. Links to a few examples are provided below.

Facilitation Tools

Our reading groups typically practice rotating facilitation (although this may vary depending on the needs of the group). Therefore, each session of the reading group is typically hosted by a different group member. This rotating facilitation model aims to do a few things: encourage community ownership of the group; encourage leadership by different voices; and build facilitation skills among all group members. The aim is that facilitation skills built in reading groups will build the capacity of members to engage in conversations about these issues among their own networks and to facilitate conversations in other organizing work. 

MDCDSA typically holds a facilitation training for reading groups at the beginning of each reading group session: notes from a session and tools for facilitators are linked below.