I can’t promise that these will persuade them too, but I can speak from personal experience when I say that reading Inventing Reality and Human Rights in the Soviet Union strongly reduced my negativity regarding the people’s republics, even if I was still unsure that state socialism was the best way to go. My view on state socialism (‘state capitalism’, I preferred to call it) evolved from it being an obstacle to it being an acceptable alternative (if not inevitability).

I second Anarcho-Bolshevik’s Michael Parenti suggestion. I’d also recommend searching his name on YouTube. Every lecture is gold, and 3–6 lectures is guaranteed to turn anyone communist.

If they’re open minded enough to hear what Marx has to say, David Harvey’s lecture series on reading Capital is good. The first few episodes, he just gets the class warmed up and uses some concrete examples to show how Marxism can highlight and explaining things that are otherwise invisible or impossible to explain.

I could be wrong, but IIRC, but in the first or second video Harvey talks about Anarchism and explains he is a Marxist not because he rejects the ideals of Anarchism per se, but because Anarchism does not have satisfactory answers for questions like, ‘How do we ensure food reaches places where there are famines?’ Again, I could be very wrong about the source for this point, but if I am, you’ve got your comrade to listen to 2–4+ hours of a discussion about Capital.

My friend is anarchist, but he is anti-imperialist and against USA and their puppets, doesn’t have anything against USSR and communism so there’s that.

First things first, you need to be honest and put your best foot forward in all your dealings with this friend of yours. If they’re genuinely interested in Marxist theory then just read it all as normal. People are smart. Most can and will anticipate an angle, so don’t do it. Just share all that good theory; start with the absolute basics if they haven’t gotten that far.

Some more resources in addition to the already great ones suggested below:

• What’s the difference between anarchism and communism?
• What’s the difference in economic structure ( production and distribution) of anarchism, anarcho-communism, anarcho-syndicalism, and Marxist communism?
• Parenti on Anarcho-Syndicalism / Worker-Coops.
• Aimixin - Why Anarchism is fundamentally anti-socialist.
• TheDashRendar - Where do tanks come from? How anarchists vs marxists wage warfare.
• Comrade Hakim - On the difference betweeen “liberatarian” and “authoritarian” socialism.
• Huey P. Newton on the faults of western anarchism.
• What is the communist response to a lot of Anarchist criticisms? A Megathread.
• The tyranny of structurelessness - The failure of anarchist-style organizing in the womens movement.

More than anything do it nice and slow. Be pragmatic, don’t force them to read things you know they’ll hate/things that call them dumb for having that opinion. I find that being caring and respectful while still being honest with your opinion helps. It sounds contradictory but if you explain in a way that makes them understand Leninism better rather than a way like Anarchism or Socialism, which is my favorite book mind you, but Stalin definitely laughs at anarkiddies and shys away just short of calling them dumbasses. Great read tho, and later into their journey into Marxist Leninism if they go further down that path Id suggest that book

See I’m lucky cause the girl I’m talking to supports all anti-imperialists and understands the importance of the state, She is just “personally an anarchist at heart” hahaha

I was like that many moons ago, comrade hakim showed me the light of leninism particularly his video on the fall of the USSR

Do they value Lenin’s theory? He has some stuff on “left unity”. He also has a tirade against anarchists, but that might not be the most constructive approach

The author here is a maoist, but I think it’s really good:

https://dashthered.medium.com/where-do-tanks-come-from-8723ff77d83b

Yo, I’ve gotten people to describe capitalism whilst trying to describe “communism” lol! That’s my accolade.

Try to not disagree with them, try not to argue or debate. Unless they’re very rational and reasonable and not very emotional. So, not most people, lol. Just listen to them and be an example to them any way you can. Be more patient, be more calm, be smarter or kinder, it doesn’t really matter how you are an example. They will change in time. At some point they will start asking questions, then you can show them the the way, the Engles essay and more. You want them to question the group of anarchism. By avoiding antagonizing yourself and leading by being a positive example, anarchists themselves usually scare people off.

The process of change takes time, practice and patience. Good luck!

First I would ask how you’re going about them: Are they seeing the holes in their ideology and you’re looking to patch them with based diamat, or are they content with their ideology and you are looking to move them more radical? Ignore the moral implications to this question, what I’m getting at is there are different ways to go about convincing someone depending on how they are at the moment.

Either way be respectful and considerate of their preexisting ideology. If the former, suggest the reading materials other comrades have suggested. If the latter you can either wait for holes to become obvious or point out the discrepancies. If you do the latter on this then tread carefully and be respectful as they’re likely to take it personally as if it’s you who is tearing apart their ideology instead of the ideology itself natively possessing holes in it’s logic. I’ve found keeping it fact based and pragmatic takes the conversation away from personal interest in these theories and instead enforces a logical standardization removed from both parties in the conversation. They still might get pissed at you though. Just my 2 cents though.