Zerowork: the background

From zerowork.org

NB: Our archive of Zerowork journal (without the background, commentary etc below) can be found here.

ZEROWORK

The journal, with background and supplementary materials

This webpage makes available the content of the two published issues of Zerowork, a journal published in the 1970s, the content of the unpublished third issue and a variety of background essays and materials designed to facilitate the situating of the journal, its theoretical and political tendencies, within the times. The creation and publication of Zerowork, a political intervention into contemporary discussions of the crisis of capitalism and its relationship to working class struggle, consisted of a synthesis of several lines of Marxist theory and strategic thinking. Supplementary materials have been chosen either because they were influential in the formation of the perspectives contained in the journal or because they were produced by the editors as part of their political work in the same period. This webpage undergoes periodic modification. Materials are added as they are prepared. The background essays are modified as research proceeds and in light of feedback from readers. (Date of the most recent changes: September 10, 2014)

"Yet do not miss the moral, my good readers.
For Saint Marx says that all that's written well,
Is written down some truth to tell.
Then take the wheat and let the chaff lie still."

Apologies to Chaucer

General Introduction

Very brief introduction to these web pages about Zerowork - the idea, the collective and the journal - including a few words about the people involved, the historical context of their work and the motivations for the creation of these pages.

Background: Genesis of Zerowork #1

Historical Sketch: The results of research into the background of the formation of the original Zerowork Collective and the work that led to the crafting and publication of the first issue of the journal. That background includes 1) earlier political and theoretical work on both sides of the Atlantic — both known and unknown to the various editors — that informed, directly and indirectly, their approach to analyzing the crisis in class relations of the early 1970s, and 2) brief biographies of the individuals involved that trace their lives and how they came to know each other and work together.

Supplemental (Historical) Materials

Editor's Note:

Material from the American tradition of the Johnson-Forest Tendency and Facing Reality

• Paul Romano & Ria Stone, The American Worker, The Johnson-Forest Tendency, 1947. Third Printing by Bewick Editions, 1972. [pdf of original at foot of page].
• Martin Glaberman, Punching Out, 1952, Reprinted in 1973 by Bewick Editions, Detroit, Michigan. [pdf of original at foot of page].
• Grace C. Lee, Pierre Chaulieu and J. R. Johnson, Facing Reality: The New Society...Where to look for it, How to bring it closer, A statement for our time, a Correspondence book, Detroit: Correspondence Publishing Company, 1958. Reprinted by Bewick Editions in 1974 and by Charles H. Kerr (Sixties Series) in 2006. [pdf at foot of page].
• Martin Glaberman, "Be His Payment High or Low": The American Working Class of the Sixties", International Socialism, Number 21, Summer 1965, reprinted by Facing Reality in pamphlet form in 1966 with a second edition in 1975 by New England Free Press and Bewick Editions. [pdf at foot of page].
• George Rawick, From Sundown to Sunup: The Making of the Black Community, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Company, 1972. [pdf of original at foot of page].

Material from the European tradition, especially the Italian area of autonomia

• Sergio Bologna, "Class Composition and the Theory of the Party at the Origin of the Workers Councils Movement" translated by Bruno Ramirez; first published in Telos No. 13, Fall 1972, pp. 140-147, later published in Conference of Socialist Economists (CSE), The Labour Process & Class Strategies, CSE Pamphlet no.1, stage 1, 1976. Originally in Sergio Bologna et al, Operai e stato, Materiali Marxisti, Milano: Feltrinelli Editore, 1972, plp. 13-46.
• Mario Tronti, "Social Capital", Telos, #17, Fall 1973, pp. 98-121. Originally "Il piano del capitale" in Quaderni Rossi, No. 3, 1963, pp. 44-73. Reprinted in Mario Tronti, Operai e capitale, Torino: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1966.
• Mario Tronti, Struggle Against Labor (1966), translated and published in Radical America, Vol. 6, Number 1, May-June 1972, pp. 22-25. Original: "14. Lotta contro il lavoro", in Mario Tronti, Operai e capitale, Torino: Giulio Einaudi editore, 1966, pp. 60-85.
• George Rawick, "Working Class Self-Activity", Radical America, Vol. III, No. 2, March-April 1969.
• "Italy: New Tactics and Organization", Radical America, Vol. V, No. 5, September-October 1971.
• Guido Baldi, "Theses on Mass Worker and Social Capital", Radical America, Vol. 6, Number 1, May-June 1972, pp. 3-21.

Material associated with the Wages for Housework Movement.

• Women and the Subversion of the Community, (1972) [pdf of original at foot of page].
  [Peter Taylor], Working — and Not-Working — at the Post Office, Toronto, 1974. [pdf of original at foot of page].
• "Wages for Students", POWER OF WOMEN, Journal of the Power of Women Collective, Vol. I, No. 2, July/August 1974, pp. 6, 13.
• Selma James, Sex, Race and Class, Bristol: Falling Wall Press, 1975. [PDF at foot of page]
• Silvia Federici, Wages Against Housework, Bristol: Falling Wall Press, 1975. [pdf of original at foot of page].
• The Wages for Students Students, Wages for Students, (1975). [pdf of original at foot of page]. This pamphlet has recently (2014) been translated into Spanish and published in Chile by vaticanochico. [Spanish version]

Zerowork: Political Materials #1, December 1975

Editor's Note: Each of the following articles, from the first issue of Zerowork is preceded by a short synopsis taken from a flyer that was produced at the time to advertize the new journal. [Additional sentences on content omitted from this version on Libcom].

• Introduction
• Paolo Carpignano, "U.S. Class Composition in the Sixties"
• Mario Montano, "Notes on the International Crisis"
• Peter Linebaugh and Bruno Ramirez, "Crisis in the Auto Sector"
• Peter Taylor, "The Sons of Bitches Just Won't Work, Postal Workers Against the State"
• William Cleaver, "Wildcats in the Appalacian Coal Fields"
• George Caffentzis, "Throwing Away the Ladder: The Universities in Crisis"
• Bruno Ramirez, "The Working Class Struggle Against the Crisis: Self-Reduction of Prices in Italy"

Background: From Zerowork #1 to Zerowork #2

Historical Sketch: The results of research into the evolution of the Zerowork collective from the publication of Zerowork #1 to that of Zerowork #2. This background includes the interwoven intellectual and political history of the editors, their relations with others and their internal debates. During the period covered by this essay, some left the editorial collective and others joined. The internal debates eventually became serious enough to provoke a split. As a result, the second issue of the journal was produced by a recomposed group and benefited from new input. Included here are brief biographies of the new individuals who joined the collective.

Supplemental (Historical) Materials

• Struggle Against Work Collective (Toronto), "The Perspective of the Working Class Struggle in the 1970s: Suggested Readings", 1976(?). This list of readings includes some articles from Zerowork #1.
• Toronto Collective, Letter to Wages for Students on SAWC Split, June 1976.
• Tim Grant, "Wages for Homework", The Chevron, March 5, 1976 [pdf of original at foot of page].
• Harry Cleaver, "The Internationalization of Capital and the Mode of Production in Agriculture," Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 11, No. 13, March 27, 1976.
• We Want Everything: An Introduction to the Income Without Work Committee, Brooklyn, New York, 1976. [pdf of original at foot of page].
• New York Struggle Against Work, Developing and Underdeveloping New York: The "Fiscal Crisis" and a Strategy for Fighting Austerity by Philip Mattera and Donna Demac, June 1976. [pdf of original at foot of page].
• Larry Cox, If We're So Powerful, Why Aren't We Free? White Men, the Total Wage and the Struggle Against Work - a New York Struggle Against Work pamphlet, July 1976. [pdf of original at foot of page].
• Raniero Panzieri, "Surplus Value and Planning: notes on the reading of Capital", CSE, The Labour Process and Class Strategies, CSE Pamphlet no. 1, 1976, pp. 4-25. Originally in Quaderni Rossi, No. 4, 1964, pp. 257-288.

Zerowork: Political Materials #2, Fall 1977

• Front Material
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Harry Cleaver, "Food, Famine and the International Crisis"
• Philip Mattera, "National Liberation, Socialism and the Struggle Against Work: The Case of Vietnam"
• Christian Marazzi, "Money in the World Crisis: The New Basis of Capitalist Power"
• Donna Demac & Philip Mattera, "Developing and Underdeveloping New York: The 'Fiscal Crisis' and the Imposition of Austerity"
• Letters
• Back Cover.

Supplemental (Historical) Materials

• Marty Glaberman, A Letter to Zerowork, December 28, 1977.

Zerowork: Political Materials #3, Special Issue on Immigration, Never published

Introduction

• Peter Bell & Harry Cleaver, "1970's: Decade of Crisis"

Special Section on Immigration

• General Introduction
• Editors' Introduction to Flores
• Estevan T. Flores, A Call to Action: An Analysis of Our Struggles and Alternatives to Carter's Immigration Program, Pamphlet, 1977. Originally written and published for a 1977 conference of immigration activists. [pdf of original at foot of page].
• Beyond the Select Commission, 1982. Prepared for Zerowork #3.
• Box Insert: "Next Stop 1984: Computers, Identification Cards and Immigration Control", prepared for Zerowork #3.
• Editors' Introduction to Ramirez.. [include in article linked below]
• Bruno Ramirez, "Immigration, Class Composition, and the Crisis of the Labor Market in Canada", prepared for Zerowork #3.
• Editors' Introduction to Moulier & Ewenzyck. [included in article linked below]
• Yann Moulier and Pierre Ewenzyck, "Immigration: The Blockage of Mobility in the Mediterranean Basin," originally published in Critique de l'Economie Politique, Nouvelle Serie, No. 3, Septembre 1978. Translated for Zerowork #3.
• Mogniss, "The Meditations of Young Immigrant Workers", Patchwork, Paris: CINEL, 1980.
• Editors' Introduction to Dalla Costa. [included in article linked below]
• Mariarosa Dalla Costa, "Reproduction and Immigration", 1974. Originally written and published in A. Serafini, et al., "L'Operaio multinazionale in Europa, 1974. Translated, in part, for Zerowork #3. [pdf version at foot of page].
• Ferruccio Gambino, Class Composition and U.S. Direct Investment Abroad. Originally written and published in Luciano Ferrari Bravo (ed), Imperialismo e classe operaia multinazionale, Milano: Feltrinelli, 1975 — translated into English for Zerowork.

Editors' Introduction to articles on repression in Europe

• Karl-Heinz Roth, "The German Model against Mass Autonomy," Autonomie, No. 10, Winter 1978, pp. 116-120. [pdf of original German]
• Statement on the April 7th Arrests and Repression in Italy