Books for Burning: Between Civil War and Democracy in 1970s ItalyLong before Antonio Negri became famous around the world for his groundbreaking volume Empire, he was infamous across Europe for the incendiary writings contained in this book. 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. In the more than twenty-five years since their first publication, these texts have lost none of their originality, relevance or power to shock. In a new preface, Negri demonstrates how his controversial work on empire, biopolitics and immaterial labor developed out of concepts and strategies first outlined in this book, and an editorial introduction analyzes the role these texts played in Negri’s trial and in the criminalization of the Italian radical workers’ movement. |
Contents
Books for Burning | ix |
Editorial Acknowledgements and Translators Note | xxix |
and Prefatory Note to the English Translation | l |
The Subjectivists and | 11 |
Preliminary Interventions on Some Objections | 26 |
Workers Party Against Work 1973 | 51 |
WorkingClass Political Composition and Armed | 73 |
Toward a Discussion of | 118 |
The Crisis on the International Level | 164 |
More on This Issue The Subject of Workers Inquiry | 172 |
Toward a Critique of the Material Constitution 1977 | 180 |
The Formal Conditions of the Process of Antagonism | 189 |
Toward a Critique of the Antagonisms in | 207 |
The Process of Class SelfValorization and the | 215 |
On the Marxist Method | 231 |
And the Proletarians Storm Heaven | 280 |
Other editions - View all
Books for Burning: Between Civil War and Democracy in 1970s Italy Antonio Negri No preview available - 2005 |
Books for Burning: Between Civil War and Democracy in 1970s Italy Antonio Negri No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
analysis antagonism antagonistic Antonio Negri articulation autonomy basis becomes bosses Capital Volume capital's capitalist command capitalist development circulation class composition class struggle communist concept constant capital contradiction crisis critique determinate dialectic domination economic Eurocommunism exchange value exploitation fact factory function fundamental Grundrisse Historic Compromise internal Italian labor-power law of value Lenin Leninist living labor Marx Marx's Marxist mass vanguard mass worker massification material constitution means mediation Michael Hardt mode of production mystification needs Negri offensive organization organizational overall pamphlets party passage Planner-State point of view position possibility power potenza problem process of self-valorization productive forces productive labor proletarian self-valorization radical rate of profit reality recomposition refusal relationship repression reproduction restructuring revolutionary sabotage social capital social production socialist society specific subsumption surplus labour surplus-value tendency terrain theoretical theory tion Toni Negri totality transformation translation unity valorization violence wage wealth working-class