Re: AUT: History of autonomist Marxism

["Harry M. Cleaver" <hmcleave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 16 Nov 2000, Peter van Heusden wrote:

> One last message for today. Is there a history of the main strands which
> flow into autonomist Marxism available anywhere? I'm currently engaged in
<snip>
> I've already read Harry Cleaver's synopsis on his home page, but I'm
> looking for something a bit more in depth than that - any suggestions?

Peter,
I'm not sure what "synopsis" you are refering to. There is the intro to my
book READING CAPITAL POLITICALLY
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/facstaff/Cleaver/rcp1.html
and then there is the heavily annotated bibliography that goes with a
course I teach on this subject:
gopher://mundo.eco.utexas.edu:70/00/fac/hmcleave/Class%20Materials/Eco%20387L%20Autonomist%20Marxism/Syllabus

Beyond those, you might look at Yann Moulier's intro to Negri's Revolution
Retrieved (in English) or his intro to Tronti's Workers and Capital (in
Portuguese). Yann's intros are better than some intros to Negri, e.g. the
postface to Marx Beyond Marx, because Yann situates Toni's work vis a vis
others in the Italian new left whereas the latter credits Negri with many
ideas that came from others, e.g., Tronti, Panzieri, Alquati, etc. The
unfortunate reality is that in this period we are getting a LOT of Toni's
stuff translated and very little else. This together with the fact that
Toni is not always explicit in his debts means he is both given more
credit than he is due, and sometimes not enough.

Also, most importantly is Steve Wright's dissertation on the
Italian moment of this tradition--not yet in print, but maybe available
through some dissertation agency? (steve?) And also the collections put
together by Ed and John for Red Notes that often include enough material
to situate the theoretical developments within the struggles.

Then there are whole literatures on groups like Johnson-Forest in the US,
or Socialisme ou Barbarie in France, or the Situationists, and bodies of
literature that haven't been tracked like the lineage of Zerowork to
Midnight Notes that spans three decades now.

What you want  all depends on how you define "autonomist Marxism."
Personally I'm interested in the "autonomist" part even when the
principals wouldn't define themselves as Marxists, eg., anarchists like
Korpotkin. Also in looking for the "red threat" of appreciation for the
power of workers to take the initiative autonomously of capital and even
of their official organizations it can be found in some authors only in
part of their work, e.g., the Council Communists have it in their
political treatises but it disappears in their crisis theory, etc. Today I
would include a broader array of people and ideas and movements within
this category, at least partially, than I did back in the 1970s.

I was writing a book on all this history and the interweaving of the
various strands and traditions, similarities and differences, when the
Zapatista rebellion broke out. Since then the book has been on the back
burner. As always involvement in actual struggle limits the time available
to mull over and reflect on past struggles.

Harry
............................................................................
Snail-mail:
Harry Cleaver
Department of Economics
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas 78712-1173  USA

Phone Numbers:
(hm)  (512) 442-5036
(off) (512) 475-8535
Fax:(512) 471-3510

E-mail:
hmcleave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PGP Public Key: http://certserver.pgp.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=hmcleave

Cleaver homepage:
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/index2.html

Chiapas95 homepage:
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html

Accion Zapatista homepage:
http://www.utexas.edu/students/nave/
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