autonomism
Autonomia: Post-political politics
Semiotext(e)'s book Autonomia: Post-Political Politics about the Autonomia movement, which contains first-hand documents and contemporaneous analysis from it's most influential theorists.
'Most of the writers who contributed to the issue were locked up at the time in Italian jails.... I was trying to draw the attention of the American Left, which still believed in Eurocommunism, to the fate of Autonomia. The survival of the last politically creative movement in the West was at stake, but no one in the United States seemed to realize that, or be willing to listen.
The abyss opens: The rise and fall of Keynesianism - John Holloway
The state of the world economy is proving John Maynard Keynes right in his claim that capitalism requires significant state spending to prosper.
[b] This article, in the autonomist Marxist tradition, shows how the capitalist class were only able to implement Keynes's policies in the context of the Russian revolution and World War Two. Then, a mere 20 years later, they were forced to retreat from Keynesianism in the face of the workers' revolts of the 1960s and 1970s.
Workerism, Autonomia and Lessons from the Italian Left; What can 2011 learn from Italy in the 1970s
An edition of the Novara radio show discussing the history and analysis of the Italian workerist movement, Autonomia and its continued relevance and resonance within anti-austerity movements today with Federico Campagna of Through Europe.
This week, Workerism, Autonomia and Lessons from the Italian Left; What can 2011 learn from Italy in the 1970s - with Federico Campagna from Zed Books.
Novara - a weekly show discussing political theory, practice and aesthetics. Discussions and interventions will be with workers, theorists, students and activists. Hosted by Aaron Peters.
‘‘A laughter that will bury you all’’: Irony as protest and language as struggle in the Italian 1977 movement
A paper by Patrick Cuninghame reassessing the Italian "1977 movement" and its use of irony to ridicule the institutional old and vanguardist new lefts, particularly by the ‘‘Metropolitan Indians’’, the transversalists and other ‘‘creatives’’.
Perhaps the most innovative aspect of the Italian ‘‘1977 Movement’’ in its conflict with the grey, humourless political system was its use of irony to ridicule its opponents. [1] Irony was central to the identity of the movement and its cultural and political break with the institutional old and vanguardist new lefts.
Books for Burning: Between Civil War and Democracy in 1970s Italy - Antonio Negri
Books for Burning consists of five pamphlets that Negri wrote between 1971 and 1977, which attempt to identify and draw lessons from new conditions of class struggle that emerged in the course of the 1970s. Conceived as organizational hypotheses intended for debate among the members of the political movements Workers' Power (Potere operaio) and Organized Autonomy (Autonomia organizzata), these texts were later misread and misrepresented by the Italian state in its attempt to frame Negri as responsible for the assassination of former Italian president Aldo Moro, as the leader of the Red Brigades, and as the mastermind of an armed insurrection against the state.
Marx and the Anti-Poll Tax Movement - G. Barr
The poll tax was not an act of pure madness but was an attempt to deal with the intractable problems of the public goods crisis that afflicted the developed world. The response by the labour movement is examined in the light of the ideas developed about the state. The internal politics of the anti-poll tax movement and the changes provoked by the poll tax and its failure are then discussed.
INTRODUCTION
In the first part of this paper I will focus on the nature of the state in Marxist thinking. I will move on to look at the crisis in the welfare state. The paper will argue that poll tax was not an act of pure madness but it was an attempt to deal with the intractable problems of the public goods crisis that has afflicted the developed world.
Refusing the Syndicalist v. Primitivist Debate
Ex-Black Panther and ex-political prisoner Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin on being a Black Autonomist, and uninterested in the syndicalist v. primitivist debate.
I spoke in Eugene, Oregon on October, and now there is some “debate” over whether Lorenzo is a “primitivist”? And suddenly I am in the middle of “syndicalist v. primitivist” debate that I have no interest in at all.
This is certainly some manufactured bullshit.
Is revolution back on the agenda? - Mark Kosman
Every attempt to go beyond capitalism has ended in failure. But are capitalism's present problems putting anti-capitalist revolution back on the agenda?
To answer this question, this article looks at past revolutions, with emphasis on aspects rarely considered by the left. These include humanity's origins, gender and military history and the revolutionary transcendence of work and democracy.
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'We will take over!' Women march to Versailles during the French Revolution.
IS REVOLUTION BACK ON THE AGENDA? - Mark Kosman
Workers against work in the Spanish Revolution - Michael Seidman
The achievements of anarchist ‘self-management’ during the Spanish Civil War show that production can be organised without the bourgeoisie or Leninist parties. But any genuinely anti-capitalist revolution in the 21st century will not be about democratic self-management of capitalist industry. Rather, it will be about the transformation of society world-wide so people can collectively fulfill their needs without any external discipline. Consequently, we need to understand workers’ resistance to work during the Spanish revolution rather than to just praise the achievements of anarchist militants (especially when those ‘achievements’ even included the setting up of labour camps!).
Michael Seidman’s Workers against Work: Labor in Paris and Barcelona during the Popular Fronts is a 'must-read' for anyone who wants to learn from the disastrous outcomes of the revolutions of the 20th century. Here are some extracts:
The prevention of communism - Radical Chains
The authors identify capitalism's decay as assuming forms of the prevention of communism. These - notably stalinism and social-democracy - are entirely dependent on capital as well as being its guarantors on a world scale. Yet resting neither upon the law of value nor on that of planning, they are inherently unstable and contain no dynamic towards transition. From Radical Chains no.1.
radical chains
THE DECAY OF CAPITALISM, THE PREVENTION OF COMMUNISM AND THE NEED FOR PLANNING
