Sign-In
Cart
Coffee Break Socialism: Conversations on Work, Power, and Freedom
Paperback
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Nov 26 2025
Pages: 230
Weight: 0.69
Height: 0.48 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
You work hard. You're still broke. You're exhausted, frustrated, and wondering why everything feels broken. It's not you-it's capitalism.
Coffee Break Socialism meets you where you are: overworked, underpaid, and ready for answers. Through fifteen accessible conversations between working people grappling with the same questions you have, this book reveals why capitalism creates the crises we face-and how socialism offers real solutions.
Follow the journey from frustration to action:
Devon, a tech worker drowning in debt despite his good job, discovers his struggles aren't personal failures-they're systemic exploitation.
Professor Chen realizes that loving her work doesn't mean accepting powerlessness over her working conditions.
Marcus learns why he's being priced out of his neighborhood and what tenant organizing can do about it.
Riley connects climate catastrophe to capitalism's growth imperative and understands why we can't reform our way out.
And Sasha, a barista and organizer, guides all of them-and you-toward understanding that transforms into action.
This book answers the questions you're actually asking:
- Why do I work so hard and still struggle financially?
- Who benefits from how things are organized?
- What even is socialism, really?
- But didn't socialism fail everywhere it was tried?
- How do I start organizing where I am?
- Can we actually win?
Unlike dense theory or academic texts, Coffee Break Socialism uses the Socratic dialogue format-the same method that's taught critical thinking for millennia. You'll follow real conversations that start with concrete frustrations (rent, wages, climate, healthcare) and build toward systemic analysis and collective action.
What you'll learn:
✓ How exploitation actually works-where profit comes from and who pays the cost
✓ Why capitalism creates artificial scarcity despite abundance
✓ How capitalism was created through violence and maintains power through it
✓ What democratic socialism means in practice-worker cooperatives, tenant unions, mutual aid
✓ Why past socialist experiments faced the challenges they did and what we can learn
✓ How to start organizing in your workplace, building, or community
✓ What it actually looks like to live the alternative (spoiler: it's better)
✓ How to connect your local struggle to broader movements for transformation
This isn't just analysis-it's a guide to action. Every dialogue ends with reflection questions and concrete next steps. You'll learn not just what socialism is, but how to build it where you are, starting with conversations that lead to organizing.
Perfect for:
- Workers tired of exploitation who want to understand why the system fails them
- Activists and organizers looking for accessible educational tools
- Anyone who suspects capitalism is the problem but needs help articulating why
- Study groups wanting discussion-based political education
- People new to socialism seeking a friendly, jargon-free introduction
- Experienced leftists who need clear explanations to share with others
The characters in these dialogues are fictional. The questions are real. The frustrations are real. The urgency is real. And the alternative-socialism, worker power, collective liberation-is real too.
You're already having the conversations this book captures. You're already experiencing the contradictions it explains. Now it's time to turn understanding into action.
The conversation is over. The organizing begins.
Start where you are. Build with who's around you. Connect to the movement. Fight for something better.
Coffee Break Socialism shows you how.
Also from
Cassian, Elias
Everything You Know About Socialism Is Wrong: An Evidence-Based Rebuttal of Capitalist Talking Points
Cassian, Elias
Paperback
Also in
Social Movements
Urban Revolutions: Urbanisation and (Neo-)Colonialism in Transatlantic Context
Kipfer, Stefan
Paperback
In Search of the Black Fantastic: Politics and Popular Culture in the Post-Civil Rights Era
Iton, Richard
Paperback
By the Light of Burning Dreams: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Second American Revolution
Talbot, Margaret
Talbot, David
Hardcover
Revolution and Its Alternatives: Other Marxisms, Other Empowerments, Other Priorities
Brass, Tom
Paperback
Turning the Tide: U.S. Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace
Chomsky, Noam
Paperback
With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful
Greenwald, Glenn
Hardcover
Doing History from the Bottom Up: On E.P. Thompson, Howard Zinn, and Rebuilding the Labor Movement from Below
Lynd, Staughton
Paperback
They Stole a City: Wilmington's White Supremacist Coup and the Families Who Live with Its Legacy
Collins, Lauren
Hardcover
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home
Grant, Stephen Starring
Paperback
Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care
Kaba, Mariame
Hayes, Kelly
Paperback
How Bright the Path Grows: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the March on Washington
Chatelain, Marcia
Hardcover
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
Davis, Angela Y.
Paperback
Socialism: The Real History from Plato to the Present: How the Deep State Capitalizes on Crises to Consolidate Control [With Paperback Book]
Federer, William J.
Paperback
Exceptional Hatred: Antisemitism and the Fight Over Free Speech in Modern America
Loeffler, James
Hardcover
The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth
Fowler, Jermaine
Paperback
In Sickness and in Health: Love Stories from the Front Lines of America's Caregiving Crisis
Mauldin, Laura
Hardcover
Killed to Order: China's Organ Harvesting Industry and the True Nature of America's Biggest Adversary
Jekielek, Jan
Hardcover
Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea's Personality Cult
Cheng, Jonathan
Hardcover
The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America
Rosen, Jeffrey
Hardcover
The Death of Trotsky: The True Story of the Plot to Kill Stalin's Greatest Enemy
Ireland, Josh
Hardcover
Handbook for the Revolution: Building a More Perfect Union for the Twenty-First Century
Palmer, Derrick
Hardcover
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home
Grant, Stephen Starring
Hardcover
I Won't Pretend These Missiles Are Stars: Life in Iran During the 12-Day War
Collective, The Cartoonist
Paperback
Strange People on the Hill: How Extremism Tore Apart a Small American Town
Hayden, Michael Edison
Hardcover
Searching for Jane Crow: Black Women and Mass Incarceration in America from the Auction Block to the Cell Block
Leflouria, Talitha L.
Hardcover
Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence
Ghodsee, Kristen R.
Paperback
Irresistible Revolution: Marxism's Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military
Lohmeier, Matthew
Hardcover
A Flower Traveled in My Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children
Gilliland, Haley Cohen
Paperback
America in 25 Revolutions: The Story of Our Imperfect Nation's 250-Year Quest to Become a More Perfect Union
Graff, Garrett M.
Hardcover
This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible
Cobb, Charles E., Jr.
Paperback
Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply
Miller, Matthew
Popovic, Srdja
Paperback
We've Been Here Before: How Rebellion and Activism Have Always Sustained America
Dodson, Angela P.
Days, Michael I.
Hardcover
College Girl, Missing: The True Story of How a Young Woman Disappeared in Plain Sight
Cohen, Shawn
Paperback
How We Get Free (Updated 2nd Edition): Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective
Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta
Paperback
The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America
Witt, John Fabian
Hardcover
We Are Heirs of the World's Revolutions: Speeches from the Burkina Faso Revolution 1983-87
Sankara, Thomas
Paperback
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America (20th Anniversary Edition)
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
Black Marxism, Revised and Updated Third Edition: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition
Robinson, Cedric J.
Paperback
Moon U.S. Civil Rights Trail: A Traveler's Guide to the People, Places, and Events That Made the Movement
Moon Travel Guides
Douglas, Deborah D.
Paperback
The Myth of Red Texas: Cowboys, Populism, and Class War in the Radical South
Griscom, David
Paperback
Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism - A Popular Outline: Unabridged with original tables and footnotes (Aziloth Books)
Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich
Paperback
Against the State: Anarchists and Comrades at War in Spain, Myanmar, and Rojava
Stout, James
Paperback
As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance
Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake
Paperback
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects
Wollstonecraft, Mary
Paperback
Trade Up: Why the Future Belongs to Skilled Trades and How Career Education is Transforming the Workforce
Burr, Riley
Altmire, Jason
Paperback
Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement
Terry, Brandon M.
Hardcover
Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better
Pahlka, Jennifer
Paperback
The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex
Incite!, Incite! Women of Color Against
Paperback
Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World--And How You Can, Too
Oluo, Ijeoma
Paperback
Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the Fbi, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence
Burrough, Bryan
Paperback
Working: People Talk about What They Do All Day and How They Feel about What They Do
Terkel, Studs
Paperback
The Naked Communist: Exposing Communism and Restoring Freedom
Skousen, W. Cleon
Skousen, Paul B.
Paperback
Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times
Montgomery, Nick
Bergman, Carla
Paperback
White Evangelical Racism, Second Edition: The Politics of Morality in America
Butler, Anthea
Paperback