----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Pugliese" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2001 9:29 AM
Subject: Re: [PEN-L:11027] Antonio Negri
> Semiotext(e) published a collection of original pieces by the autonomia
> crowd.
> These URL's from a google search should find some of that issue.
> http://www.google.com/search?q=Autonomia++Semiotext%28e%29
> (That issue as well as a subsequent issue on Germany are great. Someone
> should ask Autonomedia to republish them.)
> And, also Diana Johnstone in In These Times, in the late 70's, had a
> series of pieces on Negri et. al. Including a wild picture of the
"Manhattan
> Indians" in Italy.
> Also see an o.p. book from Verso on Italian social movements by Robert
> Lumley(?).
> Michael Pugliese, not Abbie Hoffman or Albert Hoffman...
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Louis Proyect" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2001 8:53 AM
> Subject: [PEN-L:11027] Antonio Negri
>
>
> > I finally got around to reading the Lingua Franca piece on Antonio
Negri,
> > which--in my opinion--helps to shed light on problems facing the
> > "anti-globalization" movement today. I learned that Negri was a guru of
> the
> > "autonomist" movement in Italy in the mid-1970s that seemed to have as
> much
> > of a fetish over street-fighting as many of the "black bloc" types today
> do.
> >
> > "Autonomia" referred to a belief that workers and students should take
> > direction action against the capitalist system 'autonomously', like not
> > paying for a ride on a bus, etc. This was a fancy term for the sort of
> > thing that Abby Hoffman used to be involved with but without the
> > pretentious jargon. It was Negri's contribution to garnish these direct
> > actions with "post-Marxist" profundities from Guattari-Deleuze. By
> > establishing "autonomist" groups all across Italy in "rhizomic" fashion,
> > some kind of proletarian revolution would take place. Of course, what
> these
> > "roots" based grouplets lacked was any kind of accountability to the
mass
> > movement. The notion of putting direction actions to a vote would be
> > considered some kind of antiquated Leninism.
> >
> > When Italy failed to respond to the autonomist movement, the activists
> > became frustrated and turned to the terrorism of the Red Brigades, their
> > version of the Weathermen. Negri was charged with aiding the Red
Brigades
> > and sentenced to a long prison term. Although Negri denied any direct
> > involvement, he refused to disassociate himself politically from the
aims
> > of the Red Brigades. The judge in the case, who interestingly enough was
> > sympathetic to the Communist Party, decided that even though no direct
> > links between the "autonomists" and the brigades could be proven, there
> was
> > heavily circumstantial evidence that they had overlapping memberships
and
> > that Negri was a link between the two movements.
> >
> > As is well understood in Marxist circles, populists of the Narodnik type
> > often turn to the right when the system can not be overthrown through
> > kidnappings, assassination, etc. Many a Russian middle-class radical who
> > could not overthrow Czarism through the "propaganda of the deed" became
> > transformed into Social Revolutionaries, who were revolutionary in name
> > only. Kerensky was their leader.
> >
> > In Italy, a similar phenomenon took place. And Negri apparently was
swept
> > up by the rightward boomerang, as indicated by his decision to run for
> > office on the Radical Party ticket. A brief review of Lexis-Nexis gives
> you
> > a flavor of the sort of people who joined this party and what it stands
> > for. This is from a July 6, 1996 FT article on the candidacy of Emma
> Bonino.
> >
> > ---
> > No doubt Emma Bonino was headstrong from the start. She was born in the
> > small town of Bra, south of Turin, the kind of place where going to
church
> > was the social highlight of the week. Her father ('a very strange kind
of
> > person but I loved him very much') saw no reason for girls to be
bothering
> > with high school or university but was persuaded to let her go.
> >
> > While in New York to research a thesis on Malcolm X, the Black Power
> > leader, she found a job selling shoes in Carrano's elegant boutique on
> > Fifth Avenue. It was un-demanding: the shoes came in little Italian
> sizes -
> > 'So unless we could find some Chinese customers we had nothing to do.'
> >
> > In 1975 she was asked to become a candidate for the Radicals, a small
> > centrist party seeking to promote an individualist society against what
> she
> > calls the authoritarianism of the Christian Democrats on the right and
the
> > Communists on the left. She was five times elected to the Chamber of
> > Deputies and twice to the European Parliament.
> > ---
> >
> > Louis Proyect
> > Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
> >
>
