AUT: Autonomia and autonomous social movements (reformatted) (part2)

[Patrick Gun_Cuninghame <P.Gun-Cuninghame@xxxxxxxxx>]

4. Main themes of research
The five main themes or conceptual frameworks identified as being key to an understanding of the political, social, cultural, theoretical and historical significance of Autonomia and the Italian autonomous social movements of the 1970s are: work and its 'refusal', models of political organisation, counter-cultures and the 'refusal of politics', the uses of illegality and political violence, and alternative visions of future societies.

 i) Work and its 'refusal':
The 'refusal of work' was a central practice and belief of the activists and intellectuals of Autonomia. Starting from its origins among the autonomous workers organisations in the large industrial plants of northern Italy in the late 1960s, this shifted during the course of the 1970s into a generalised refusal by youth to enter the factory or workplace as part of the search for an alternative society based on pleasure and the expropriation of 'secondary' cultural needs more than 'primary' physical ones.

ii) Models of political organisation:
The concept of 'autonomy' was key to the various models of political organisation within Autonomia. These included the more tightly organised workplace and university collectives associated with the Autonomia Operaia Organizata (organised workers' autonomy) tendency which attempted to form a national network with eventual aspirations to becoming a revolutionary political party on the Marxist-Leninist vanguard model, able to directly challenge the political and cultural hegemony of the PCI and the trade u
iii) Counter-Cultures and the Refusal of Politics:
Perhaps the most original and lasting contribution from Autonomia to Italian collective action came in this field. A large part of the movement, known as autonomia creativa (creative autonomy) centred around the 'free radio stations' such as Bologna's Radio Alice, the 'Metropolitan Indians' and a galaxy of artistic collectives and small independent publishers, placed experimentation in linguistic codes (What Umberto Eco has called 'italo-indiano') and the immediate satisfaction of cultural needs at the c
iv) Illegality and political violence:
Autonomia has been characterised in the Italian popular imagination as a violent, if not terroristic movement. Extreme forms of violence were regularly used in demonstrations and 'militant antifascism', including the use of firearms, although this was heavily criticised within the movement, particularly by women and those who wished to clearly demarcate their political philosophy and practice from the terrorist organisations. However, the violence used on demonstrations was more symbolic than paramilitar
v)  Alternative Visions of Future Societies:
Autonomia was accused by both the New Left and the Historic Left of being both 'anti-communist' and 'nihilist', facing the PCI as its 'absolute enemy' without a political programme or a vision of a future post-capitalist society towards which it was prepared to campaign politically in the long-term as well as revolt in the short. The historical Marxist-Leninist notion of revolution as putsch or 'seizure of power' was rejected for the same reason as the PCI's parliamentary road to socialism, in that 'powe

5. Conclusion
While similar urban social movements have existed throughout urban advanced capitalist societies, Autonomia, in its various spatial and discursive articulations, can be said to represent one of the most massified and radical ruptures both between the Historic Left of hierarchical political parties (both reformist and revolutionary) and trade unions, and the  New 'New Left' of extra-parliamentary, horizontally organised, new social movements and social movement organisations. It encapsulated the conflict

5. Selected bibliography

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A.Asor Rosa: Le Due Societa', Turin, 1977.

Balestrini, N. (1987) Gli Invisibili. Milan: Bompiani.

N.Balestrini & P.Moroni: L'Orda D'Oro: 1968-1977, Milan, 1988 & 1997.

Bocca, G. (1980) Il caso 7 aprile: Toni Negri e la grande inquisizione. Milan.

S.Bologna: La Tribu' delle Talpe, Milan, 1978.

Buechler, S.M. (1995) 'New Social Movement Theories', The Sociological Quarterly 36, 3: 441-464.

Castells, M. (1997) 'The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture' - The Power of Identity (Vol.II). Oxford:Blackwell.

Catanzaro, R. (ed.) (1990) Ideologie, movimenti, terrorismi. Bologna: Il Mulino.

Cleaver, H. (1979) Reading Capital Politically. Brighton: The Harvester Press.

della Porta, D. (1992) 'Life Histories in the Analysis of Social Movement Activists', pp. 168-193 in Diani, M. & R. Eyerman (eds.), Studying Collective Action. London: Sage.

___________ (1995) Social movements, political violence & the state: a comparative analysis of  Italy & Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

M.Foucault: Discipline and Punish, New York, 1979.

P.Ginsborg: A History of Contemporary Italy - Society and Politics 1943-1988, London, 1990.

A.Gorz: Farewell To The Working Class: An Essay On Post-Industrial Socialism, Paris, 1980.

Grispigni, M. (1997) Il Settantasette. Milan: Il Saggiatore.

Habermas, J. (1981) 'New Social Movements', Telos 49: 33-7.

Hunt, L. (1984) 'Charles Tilly's Collective Action', in Skocpol, T. (ed.) Vision and Method in Historical Sociology.

Lange, P. and Tarrow,  S. (eds.) (1980) Italy in Transition. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.

R.Lumley: States of Emergency - Cultures of Revolt in Italy 1968-1978, London, 1990.

May, T. (1997) Social Research: Issues, Methods and Process. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Melucci, A. (1977) Sistema Politico, Partiti e Movimenti Sociali. Milan: Feltrinelli.

_________ (1989) Nomads of the Present: Social Movements and Individual Needs in Contemporary Society. Edited by Keane, J. & Mier, P. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Montaldi, D. (1971) Militanti politici di base. Turin: Einaudi.

Negri, A. (1979) Dall=Operaio Massa all=Operaio Sociale: Intervista sull=Operaismo. Milan: Multhipla Edizioni.

_______ (1988) Revolution Retrieved: Selected Writings 1967-83. London: Red Notes.

Garzanti.Papadakis, E. (1989) 'Interventions in New Social Movements', in Gubrium, J.F. & Silverman, D. (eds.) The Politics of Field Research: Sociology Beyond Enlightenment. London: Sage.

Passerini, L. (ed.) (1978) Storia orale. Vita quotidiana e cultura materiale delle classi subalterni. Torino: Rosenburg and Sellier.

Silverman, D. (1993) Interpreting Qualitative Data. London: Sage.

Tarrow, S. (1989) Democracy and Disorder: Protest And Politics In Italy, 1965-75. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Tilly, C. (1978) From Mobilization to Revolution. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Touraine, A. (1981) The Voice and the Eye: An Analysis of Social Movements.New York:Cambridge University  Press.

_________  (1988) The Return of the Actor: Social Theory in Post-Industrial Society.Minneapolis: University of  Minnesota Press.

Various authors (1997) Una Sparatoria Tranquilla: Per Una Storia Orale del >77. Rome:                                                                                                                                           Odradek.

P.Virno & M.Hardt: Radical Thought in Italy - A Potential Politics, Minnesota, 1996.

London, 8 December 1998.

Comments to:
Patrick Cuninghame
School of Social Science,
Middlesex University,
Queensway,
Enfield,
Middlesex EN3 4SF.
patrick13@xxxxxxxxx
pcuninghame@xxxxxxxxxxx


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