short excerpt from Strategy of the Refusal
In light of the upcoming discussion of the Strategy of the Refusal - which I hope will provoke more reading and discussion of Tronti generally - I translated this little bit. It’s right at the end of the Strategy of the Refusal. This is a draft, from the Spanish. I’m not done unpacking yet and so am not sure where my copy of the Italian is, and I haven’t checked the French. Alex, your French is much better than mine, can you please check this against the French and see if the translation makes sense, if there’s anything you’d do differently? I’ll check this against the Italian when I can, if someone else with a copy of that could do the same I’d really appreciate it.
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The English translation ends “(…) destruction of the present society.” The line continues. “(…) the present society, which includes within it all the revolutionary needs of the working class.”
There are a few more lines that follow. “This is the moment of the strategic inversion where the worker articulation of capital is reinvigorated by the capitalists and refused by the workers: the most concrete moment that it is possible to foresee for the worker revolution. It is not by accident that it remains linked to the Leninist initiative of the Bolshvik October. The party takes charge here, in relation with the class, of the moment of tactics: in this way the class overcomes. The worker State, born on this basis, should not go beyond the functions of the party in a society of capital. But Lenin’s tactics became a Stalinist strategy, thus the Soviet experiment, from the worker point of view, failed. For us the lesson remains of holding organically united in our mind, but rigorously separated in pratice, those two moments of revolutionary activity: class strategy and party tactics.”
That’s pretty interesting, Nate. And, I think the distinction between class strategy and party tactics is one he came to emphasise in the other essays. Although I’m not sure whether the same formulation appears, it’s apparent in his discussion of, say, intellectuals in (if I recall right?) “Lenin in England”.
Definitely worth noting, and thanks for doing the translation.
Comment by s0metim3s — March 12, 2006 @ 3:24 am
Will do.
Alex
Comment by Alex — March 12, 2006 @ 7:20 pm
yes, i noticed that they had left that bit out of the translation….. these things are always strange. it was probably omitted for the lenin reference or the critique of stalin, but it’s hard to tell which.
Comment by geo — March 13, 2006 @ 7:21 pm
Hi Nate,
Just one minor thing I wondered about though not completely sure myself.
“It is not in vain that it remains united, as a discovery, with the Leninist initiative of the Bolshevik October.”
The French uses “hasard” which I’ve translated as “by accident” and “lie” which I translate as “linked” or “tied to” as in “It is not by accident/chance that it remains linked to the Leninist initiative of the Bolshvik October.”
The meaning remains pretty much the same in any case.
Alex
Comment by Alex — March 14, 2006 @ 6:20 pm
Thanks Alex. That makes more sense. I had a really hard time with the first half of that sentence. If I was being more careful I should have checked the Italian and/or French against the Spanish. There’s frequently words used with different sense than what I’m used to and so I find them really puzzling, nearly gibberish in some cases. It’s like I get stuck in one meaning of the word. Reference to other languages, even ones I don’t really know can help me to break out of that and see a different meaning that makes sense in context. (Or just looking in a decent dictionary!)
best,
Nate
Comment by Nate — March 16, 2006 @ 7:27 am
hi Alex,
I made the change you suggested. Thanks for that. I hope your move and all that works/worked out as best as possible.
take it easy,
Nate
Comment by Nate — March 20, 2006 @ 7:11 am
Ecco the complete translation:
http://www.geocities.com/cordobakaf/tronti_refusal.html
Comment by proletinkult — April 6, 2008 @ 1:01 pm