Photo courtesy of Vic Klapa ‘25.
The club’s first meeting was held on Sept. 29.
By Sophie Frank ʼ26 and Mira Crane ʼ27
Books Editor | Contributing Writer
The inaugural meeting of the Red Scare Reading Club kicked off with an icebreaker: What is something that makes you mad?
“Slow walkers” was the most common lighthearted response. The reason for the question, however, was to highlight that anger is a powerful motivator for young progressives to stand up and take action.
The Red Scare Reading Club, which had its first meeting on Sept. 24, is a new student-run book club focused on reading leftist theory and making it more accessible. The group,unrecognized by Mount Holyoke College, is led by Vic Klapa ’25.
Klapa believes in the radical power of anger, but their model for activism comes mainly from their belief in the importance of education. “Education is one of the best ways we can liberate people,” they told Mount Holyoke News.
“Caliban and the Witch” by Marxist feminist Silvia Federici is the first book that the club will read and discuss. Federici, an intersectional feminist activist who has worked with feminist groups in Argentina, Nigeria and Spain, is a professor emerita at Hofstra University. Federici is also the co-founder of the International Feminist Collective, which launched the Wages for Housework Campaign in 1972 and has lobbied for recognition of domestic labor.
Her book, released in 2004, explains how witch hunts reshaped the way women and domestic labor were viewed in early modern Europe, forcing women to conform to a more restrictive model of gender. This subjugation of women, Federici argues, directly served the needs of the developing capitalist system.
This argument is a feminist response to Karl Marx’s theory of primitive accumulation, which concerns the violence perpetuated by those with resources against those without, and how distinctions between social classes manifest. Federici believes that the theory does not consider how violence and subjugation are built into every exchange in a capitalist system, not just interactions between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.
The club intends to steer away from reading strictly traditional theory. “Marxism is an entire discipline that people of many marginalized backgrounds have expanded, criticized and studied,” Klapa explained.
Instead, they want the club to “broaden our horizons from ideas that were largely pushed into us as a result of fear-mongering.” When studying leftist theories, the club acknowledges that it can be easy to fall victim to hopelessness and despair, and so it aims to fight back against that. “Nihilistic is the worst thing leftists can be, because what are you fighting for?” Klapa asked.
In traditional book club fashion, the meetings will be discussion-based, and Klapa encourages members to raise new ideas and push boundaries while respecting each other as peers. “Please be opinionated. Be okay with being wrong. Speak your mind,” they said. While reading theory may not be completely new for students, the club’s mission is for students to have the opportunity to read theory with peers, free from the pressures of a professor or grading system. In keeping with this collaborative community, students get to vote on the books the club reads and can suggest books for the group to vote on.
“My goal is to help people learn,” Klapa said, a self-described theory nerd with a large personal theory library on campus. “I love theory. I eat, sleep and breathe politics. It's really important knowing I have these resources. In the long run, I hope people are able to learn and become more empathetic and have that empathy reflected through their political ideology.”
In addition to intellectual discussion around the material, Klapa would like the club to inspire action on campus. “While education is one of the greatest liberators we have, I think establishing a community and actually putting what we discuss into practice will make us better leftists,” they said.
Potential action items included community potlucks, book and food drives, a pen pal program with those incarcerated in the area, a slam poetry night, creating and distributing a zine and connecting with other campus organizations at Mount Holyoke College and within the Five Colleges. These actions are also designed to bring club members together outside of reading discussions. “I would like to cultivate a community,” Klapa explained.
The group meets every other Sunday in the Abbey Hall common room and can be found on Instagram @redscarereadingclub. Their next meeting will occur on Sunday, Oct. 15, at 6:00 p.m.