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I've got two very old books on Marxism. They came from local library discards. They are both well thumped through. So I take that to mean that back in the Thirties there were a lot of books around that did what you note above about the conservatives.
Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States looks like something very useful for this purpose. I was reading a little of it on line. The basic point (I think) is that people make history, not just the fat cats and big wigs.
``... zip down to the real virginia and come to one of our lecture series. or guest teach a course, 2hrs every sat for a month...'' shag
So, thinking about this, maybe build a course around Zinn's book, and show how people make history to better their conditions. It's a pretty simple story, it is a great positive message, and it is something that seems possible.
Also, what I found in causal `organizing' that local history is even more compelling. The Studs Terkel thing. Did you know, your great grandmother, led a march of women, the mothers, wives, and daughters on coal company meeting to ... It makes the little guy autobiography the central force of events---and that is pretty much the point. Get your head right, these guys are fucking you.
Here is a Studs interview worth watching for a general plan for a working class reading and discussion group. (Go through it. He starts to address working class fascism around 19:50/mins.) You don't have to sound like Studs, to be Studs. (Notice his red socks and pink shirt.) You just listen to the way he thinks and you get the idea. This really ain't like rocket science. You call on people to take up their (left) heritage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmDUwlseN4M
Below is a link to David Harvey. It makes the link between a local political geographical story and issues with a global matrix:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmDUwlseN4M
Both of these interviews are at a higher level than most people are likely to follow, but they are also close enough to material conditions people recognize, that they can be translated into a street level understanding of the world.
CG