Leggiamo Tronti

Alex:

Back at it….I read this article mainly with a focus on Tronti’s views on organization.

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Alex:

I really enjoyed this article particularly Tronti’s critique of representation. Very busy so some of these notes are sloppy and I mostly paraphrase rather than quote. This admittedly is not ideal so please, without fear for hurt feelings, do not hesitate to point out if something I’ve written is out of wack or needs clarification. I will try to go back an add some direct quotes if I get a chance.

Beginning with the end: Tronti is calling for an Italian 1905, meaning like the Russian 1905 when workers’ struggles at production prevented a political stabilization and led to innovation of organization (the soviets) thus, according to Tronti, paving the way for October 1917, which as Nate wrote, is Tronti’s symbol for revolution.

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Alex:

A brief summary of the argument:

The new strategy: a total refusal of capitalist society

The old tactics - the union struggle: in the factory, against the boss, blocking of production, the general strike. Block any attempts at stabilizing the contemporary crisis of Italian capitalism (itself brought about by the wage demands of workers, breaking the wages-productivity deal, one of the foundations of Fordism) since currently the working class is too weak at the political level.

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Alex:

In the interests of getting back to the readings I have decided for now to put aside “Social Capital” which I have read several times but need to go over it again since I’m finding it a very tough read. I am paying for not having read more Marx. This chapter was a nice way to get back at it though. (more…)

ERIC:

Before reading these Tronti chapters, I’d assumed that he was a curio, a once-important figure who had been left behind by history and his successors. I imagined his relationship to autonomism/poststructuralism as similar to Lukacs’s relationship to the Frankfurters: interesting for the directions he hinted at, but completely surpassed by his heirs. I was wrong. (more…)

Notes: Factory and Society

I think Tronti’s main argument in this article is that the revolution begins in the factory given by the formula: factory => society => State.

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Nate:
Ch7. “Class and party”
This chapter was originally published as an article in Classe Operaia vol1, December 1964. What was Tronti doing, what was he involved in during the time he was writing and publishing these articles? (more…)

Notes
Nate
Ch6. “1905 in Italy”
This chapter was originally published as an article in Classe Operaia vol1, September 1964. (more…)

Nate:
Ch5. “Old tactics for a new strategy”
This chapter was originally published as an article in Classe Operaia #1, May 1964. I’d like to know more about how the articles that make up the first part of this book were received at the time. In any case… (more…)

Alex:

“If it is true that it is on the social base of the most developed capitalism where the decisive confrontation must take place…”

Not quite sure why this is indeed true. It seems that a lot of the Italian autonomist literature I have read to date make the argument, mainly implicitly, that it is capitalism’s most advanced stages that are the appropriate terrain of struggle. An explanation for this tendency would be helpful. I am wondering/concerned about the consequences of this thinking for groups such as peasants and industrial workers today that, it can be argued, are not the workers of capitalism “most advanced” form (i.e. high-technology capitalism)
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