autonomism
On General Intellect - Paulo Virno
Virno discusses Marx’s undeveloped concept of the ‘general intellect’, an idea that has become central to many autonomist readings of Marx seeking to understand ‘post-fordist’ (i.e. post industrial) capitalism (2,000 words).
Multitude or working class? - Antonio Negri
Negri explains his concept of ‘multitude’ in a response to the SWP’s Alex Callinicos at the European Social Forum in Paris, 2003.
Creating a new public sphere, without the state - Paolo Virno
[b]This interview illustrates the move amongst the post-Leninist Italian radical left towards an anarchist view of the state, as well as Virno’s insistence that the concept of ‘multitude’ does not replace the concept of ‘working class’ and his controversial assertion that fear and insecurity – which he calls ‘precarity’ – define the globalised world.
Negri on Foucault
[b]In this interview Negri discusses the influence of Michel Foucault on his work, stating how as the radical Italian left drifted towards vanguardist armed struggle after 1968 [i]“we understood that this military drift was something which the movements would not be concerned with; and that it was not only a humanly unbearable choice, but also
Marx’s mole is dead! - Globalisation and communication - Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri
This text is effectively a summary of the arguments in Empire, in particular Negri & Hardt’s contention that Marx’s conception of class struggle is obsolete and that globalisation can be understood as capitalism's response to class struggle (7,000 words).
Postscript on the Societies of Control - Gilles Deleuze
In this short essay Deleuze looks to move beyond Michel Foucault’s historical understanding of ‘disciplinary societies’, where power is exercised within discrete institutions, towards the concept of 'societies of control'. In many ways it parallels the ideas of the Italian radical left around the concept of the ‘social factory’, providing an intersection between post-structuralist philosophy and autonomist Marxism.
1. Historical
The return of politics
The impossible class
A libertarian Marxist tendency map
This tendency map was produced by Chris Wright for endpage.com, now part of the libcom.org library - it is designed to trace some of the important tendencies in libertarian Marxism. Contains a brief written history with links to key individuals, groups and publications, and a graphic map.
To help navigate the site, this is a rough, textual "family tree" of libertarian Marxism. Please refer to the Companion Map for a graphical guide to these currents
Empire
Empire, by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt.
The Strategy of Refusal
THE STRATEGY OF THE REFUSAL
Mario Tronti
This article develops a concept that has been fundamentals to autonomous politics in Italy - the concept of the working class refusal - The refusal of work, the refusal of capitalist development, the refusal to act as bargaining partner within the terms of the capital relation.
