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Workers and Capital
The classic text of Italian workerism available in English for the first time
Workers and Capital is universally recognised as the most important work produced by operaismo, a current of political thought emerging in the 1960s that revolutionized the institutional and extra-parliamentary Left in Italy and beyond. In the decade after its first publication in 1966, the debates over Workers and Capital produced new methods of analysis and a new vocabulary for thousands of militants, helping to inform the new forms of workplace, youth, and community struggle. Concepts such as "neocapitalism," "class composition," "mass-worker," "the plan of capital," "workers' inquiry" and "co-research" became established as part of the Italian Left's political lexicon. Five decades since it was first published, Workers and Capital remains a key text in the history of the international workers' movement, yet only now appears in English translation for the first time. Far from being simply an artifact of the intense political conflicts of the 1960s, Tronti's work offers extraordinary tools for understanding the powerful shifts in the nature of work and class composition in recent decades.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
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About the author
Mario Tronti
46 books23 followersMario Tronti was an Italian philosopher and politician, considered as one of the founders of the theory of operaismo in the 1960s.
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May 28, 2020
Between 1962 to 1964, Tronti established himself as the principal ideologue and politician of a renewed movement through Leninism to escape the double-bind of cynical realpolitik and ossification of communist dogma (by this time, more reformist than "Stalinist") within the Communist Party of Italy. These developments in Tronti's party corresponded with a moment in which, on the one hand, the Soviets had failed as a model of communist leadership on an international scale, touting "peaceful coexistence" with the imperialist powers as well as rolling back - theoretically and practically - their dedication to socialist construction; on the other, the growing entrenchment of the communist parties of Europe within the trade unions and bourgeois government provided a choice opportunity for their leaders' slow abdication of the revolutionary program.
The failure of the European parties largely preceded Soviet decline in the collaboration of the communists and bourgeois parties during and, especially, directly following the war. Among other compromises, the parties' post-war policy accomplished the suppression of the revolutionary armed struggle in Europe and the mass disarmament of what remained of the wartime proletarian movement. With the death of Stalin, the Soviets lost their chief statesman, political arbitrator, and leading proprietor of at least *some* iteration of Leninism to a pack of wavering bureaucrats reared on a lifeless party culture and removed by decades from the revolutionary experience in Russia. These mediocrities, both as historical phenomena and political forces, complemented and reinforced one another. Subsequent ideological crises in these parties gave way to political ones.
The remainder of the communists still devoted to the practical principles of Leninism typically failed to find potent, anti-revisionist alternatives to the "modern revisionist" parties until the Sino-Soviet split reached its height in the mid-60's, when Maoism was slowly organized as a discipline outside of China. (Not to mention, there were countless *impotent* anti-revisionist alternatives that arose in this interim period, who felt they had to defend Stalin's honor and legacy at all costs. They find their contemporary counterparts in cliques of narcissists and pathological authoritarians who concern themselves exclusively with rehabilitating Stalin in the presence of confused liberals.) The Chinese Communist Party's anti-revisionist critiques laid the basis for the ideological shift away from Russia and, by the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, a passage through "modern revisionism" by way of Mao Zedong Thought as a comprehensive anti-revisionism.
At the same time, Tronti attempted to pass through "modern revisionism" not by way of anti-revisionism but Leninism constituted as "the working-class point of view." That is, Tronti's holistic "working-class" worldview attributed to the working class, as a whole, Lenin's political thought and inverted the analytical relationship between party and class, class and capital, etc., in order to push practical developments in the Italian workers' movement towards a more expedient and uncompromising focus on seizing control of factories in his time. With the explosion of "Operaismo" shortly after the publication of "Workers and Capital," this comprised a successful ideological and political revolution in the Italian communist movement that closely mirrored the development, and effects, of the first Maoist organizations in Europe.
This historical context is significant because the conditions that gave Tronti's theories their political weight is what makes them effectively useless today. The purported "Copernican revolution in Marxism" relies on the existence and interdependence of party, class, and class-movement that no longer exist in contemporary Euro-Amerika - if they ever existed.
When Tronti talks about the "party," he means it very literally in the sense of the Communist Party of Italy; when he talks about "class," he's referring to a clearly-identifiable segment of the Italian population, a relatively numerous industrial working class with a history and culture apart from its bourgeoisie; and when he identifies the "working-class movement" in history, he's talking about a sequence of institutions and organizations with a dual political and economic character. Beyond his own ideological reductions, the Italian proletarian movement had a level of consistency in its organization and composition without parallel in the Euro-Amerikan experience.
This generally tends to be one of the chief problems trying to read European Marxists through the Amerikan perspective. Any reader attempting to rip out as many analytical insights as possible will have about as difficult a time accomplishing this as trying to reverse-engineer an Amerikan proletariat out of the European one. Even apart from the massive time-rift between now and 1964, the Amerikan working-class was transfigured and brought into being by fundamentally different processes and relations guided by the settler-colonial project. Its own institutions and organizations are stamped with that specific genealogy; more as contemporary offspring of a joint-stock rule by "labor and capital" of subject nations and internal colonies than combinations of workers driven together by a concrete need for class solidarity and collective political action.
Tronti attempts to turn this historical fact on its head using his "workerist" perspective by - provocatively and idiotically - claiming that the Amerikan working-class stands at the head of the international working-class movement. He argues that since they extracted the best wages and benefits from "the bosses" that this somehow corresponds with their overall political power within Amerikan society. Since Tronti's reductions can't account for the existence of multiple working classes, discreet sections of the working-class, or - maybe more charitably - the division of the working-class against itself, the contractual bargaining-power of trade unionists directly wedded to reactionary political parties will unfortunately appear to him as political power.
This is just one of the core issues with Tronti's perspective, one which is fossilized, reductive, and ultimately basic. More than basic, it eludes its own clarity and simplicity in the dozens of convoluted doctrinal justifications for its existence. The bulk of the book, his "Initial Theses," comprise a thorough slog through Marxist theory in what feels like an over-correction for Tronti's immediate political object. He's neither a good philosophical nor economic writer but the run-on paragraphs serve as a decent enough nexus for Marx and Engels' fun prose and ideas.
If you take seriously the idea of reading Capital as a political document, then I fail to see how the contents of these hundreds of pages would matter. From an analytical standpoint, Tronti's "Copernican revolution" isn't a significant shift within Marxism but rather from Marxist intellectuals. In that sense, the dense theoretical gymnastics were probably necessary at one point but now exist as a testament to a level of discourse that will never (thankfully?) exist again.
The good in Tronti rests in the brevity, political tact, and clarity of his earlier writings, which are only a small part of "Workers and Capital" itself. The ideological reductions and contradictions within his theories are present but don't necessarily draw attention to themselves. They don't have to: an essay like "Lenin in England" is enough to establish a thought, encourage practical action, then promptly move onto the next issue as the situation presents. Like Lenin himself, his prose is forceful and agitational at its best; he imparts a sense of momentum and practicality in his ideas that establishes them as promises and threats. That's because Tronti is an excellent political writer and shit in every other regard.
In the passage from the "First Hypotheses" to the "Initial Theses," and to the postscript and appendix, it's easy to see some of the strengths that brought the Italian movement up and the weaknesses that were later accounted for with the Years of Lead. You can also see how Tronti himself disowned his radical premises for a career as an apologist for the Italian Communist Party, and later a parliamentarian. His concluding retrospective will make you wonder whether cynicism is nobler than selling out.
The failure of the European parties largely preceded Soviet decline in the collaboration of the communists and bourgeois parties during and, especially, directly following the war. Among other compromises, the parties' post-war policy accomplished the suppression of the revolutionary armed struggle in Europe and the mass disarmament of what remained of the wartime proletarian movement. With the death of Stalin, the Soviets lost their chief statesman, political arbitrator, and leading proprietor of at least *some* iteration of Leninism to a pack of wavering bureaucrats reared on a lifeless party culture and removed by decades from the revolutionary experience in Russia. These mediocrities, both as historical phenomena and political forces, complemented and reinforced one another. Subsequent ideological crises in these parties gave way to political ones.
The remainder of the communists still devoted to the practical principles of Leninism typically failed to find potent, anti-revisionist alternatives to the "modern revisionist" parties until the Sino-Soviet split reached its height in the mid-60's, when Maoism was slowly organized as a discipline outside of China. (Not to mention, there were countless *impotent* anti-revisionist alternatives that arose in this interim period, who felt they had to defend Stalin's honor and legacy at all costs. They find their contemporary counterparts in cliques of narcissists and pathological authoritarians who concern themselves exclusively with rehabilitating Stalin in the presence of confused liberals.) The Chinese Communist Party's anti-revisionist critiques laid the basis for the ideological shift away from Russia and, by the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, a passage through "modern revisionism" by way of Mao Zedong Thought as a comprehensive anti-revisionism.
At the same time, Tronti attempted to pass through "modern revisionism" not by way of anti-revisionism but Leninism constituted as "the working-class point of view." That is, Tronti's holistic "working-class" worldview attributed to the working class, as a whole, Lenin's political thought and inverted the analytical relationship between party and class, class and capital, etc., in order to push practical developments in the Italian workers' movement towards a more expedient and uncompromising focus on seizing control of factories in his time. With the explosion of "Operaismo" shortly after the publication of "Workers and Capital," this comprised a successful ideological and political revolution in the Italian communist movement that closely mirrored the development, and effects, of the first Maoist organizations in Europe.
This historical context is significant because the conditions that gave Tronti's theories their political weight is what makes them effectively useless today. The purported "Copernican revolution in Marxism" relies on the existence and interdependence of party, class, and class-movement that no longer exist in contemporary Euro-Amerika - if they ever existed.
When Tronti talks about the "party," he means it very literally in the sense of the Communist Party of Italy; when he talks about "class," he's referring to a clearly-identifiable segment of the Italian population, a relatively numerous industrial working class with a history and culture apart from its bourgeoisie; and when he identifies the "working-class movement" in history, he's talking about a sequence of institutions and organizations with a dual political and economic character. Beyond his own ideological reductions, the Italian proletarian movement had a level of consistency in its organization and composition without parallel in the Euro-Amerikan experience.
This generally tends to be one of the chief problems trying to read European Marxists through the Amerikan perspective. Any reader attempting to rip out as many analytical insights as possible will have about as difficult a time accomplishing this as trying to reverse-engineer an Amerikan proletariat out of the European one. Even apart from the massive time-rift between now and 1964, the Amerikan working-class was transfigured and brought into being by fundamentally different processes and relations guided by the settler-colonial project. Its own institutions and organizations are stamped with that specific genealogy; more as contemporary offspring of a joint-stock rule by "labor and capital" of subject nations and internal colonies than combinations of workers driven together by a concrete need for class solidarity and collective political action.
Tronti attempts to turn this historical fact on its head using his "workerist" perspective by - provocatively and idiotically - claiming that the Amerikan working-class stands at the head of the international working-class movement. He argues that since they extracted the best wages and benefits from "the bosses" that this somehow corresponds with their overall political power within Amerikan society. Since Tronti's reductions can't account for the existence of multiple working classes, discreet sections of the working-class, or - maybe more charitably - the division of the working-class against itself, the contractual bargaining-power of trade unionists directly wedded to reactionary political parties will unfortunately appear to him as political power.
This is just one of the core issues with Tronti's perspective, one which is fossilized, reductive, and ultimately basic. More than basic, it eludes its own clarity and simplicity in the dozens of convoluted doctrinal justifications for its existence. The bulk of the book, his "Initial Theses," comprise a thorough slog through Marxist theory in what feels like an over-correction for Tronti's immediate political object. He's neither a good philosophical nor economic writer but the run-on paragraphs serve as a decent enough nexus for Marx and Engels' fun prose and ideas.
If you take seriously the idea of reading Capital as a political document, then I fail to see how the contents of these hundreds of pages would matter. From an analytical standpoint, Tronti's "Copernican revolution" isn't a significant shift within Marxism but rather from Marxist intellectuals. In that sense, the dense theoretical gymnastics were probably necessary at one point but now exist as a testament to a level of discourse that will never (thankfully?) exist again.
The good in Tronti rests in the brevity, political tact, and clarity of his earlier writings, which are only a small part of "Workers and Capital" itself. The ideological reductions and contradictions within his theories are present but don't necessarily draw attention to themselves. They don't have to: an essay like "Lenin in England" is enough to establish a thought, encourage practical action, then promptly move onto the next issue as the situation presents. Like Lenin himself, his prose is forceful and agitational at its best; he imparts a sense of momentum and practicality in his ideas that establishes them as promises and threats. That's because Tronti is an excellent political writer and shit in every other regard.
In the passage from the "First Hypotheses" to the "Initial Theses," and to the postscript and appendix, it's easy to see some of the strengths that brought the Italian movement up and the weaknesses that were later accounted for with the Years of Lead. You can also see how Tronti himself disowned his radical premises for a career as an apologist for the Italian Communist Party, and later a parliamentarian. His concluding retrospective will make you wonder whether cynicism is nobler than selling out.
September 9, 2019
This is a book I’ve been wanting to read for almost two decades, since I first encountered Italian operaismo
(Through Negri) as an undergraduate. Only a few bits and pieces have been widely available to English-language readers (such as the pivotal “strategy of refusal” chapter, which was translated and reprinted is the 1980 semiotexte volume Autonomia: a potential politics (itself reissued about a decade ago.) a difficult and fascinating work of Marxist theory, workers and capital was perhaps the most important text of the early years of operaismo, and maps out some of that movement’s innovative and heterodox Marxism through careful analysis of political economy. I particularly enjoyed rereading the Strategy of Refusal chapter in the context of the larger work, but the long postscript on the US is fascinating to this American Studies scholar. Also the attack on sociology is legitimately hilarious. The English translation includes a reprint of the 2012 New Left Review essay Our Operaismo, Tronti’s reflection, five decades on, on Operaismo as a movement and his break with what came later. For anglophone readers interested in the history of Marxism and radical thought in the twentieth century, having an English translation of this book at long last is a great gift.
(Through Negri) as an undergraduate. Only a few bits and pieces have been widely available to English-language readers (such as the pivotal “strategy of refusal” chapter, which was translated and reprinted is the 1980 semiotexte volume Autonomia: a potential politics (itself reissued about a decade ago.) a difficult and fascinating work of Marxist theory, workers and capital was perhaps the most important text of the early years of operaismo, and maps out some of that movement’s innovative and heterodox Marxism through careful analysis of political economy. I particularly enjoyed rereading the Strategy of Refusal chapter in the context of the larger work, but the long postscript on the US is fascinating to this American Studies scholar. Also the attack on sociology is legitimately hilarious. The English translation includes a reprint of the 2012 New Left Review essay Our Operaismo, Tronti’s reflection, five decades on, on Operaismo as a movement and his break with what came later. For anglophone readers interested in the history of Marxism and radical thought in the twentieth century, having an English translation of this book at long last is a great gift.
March 6, 2020
Det är naturligtvis svårt att "recensera" en så här viktig bok. Mario Trontis Workers and Capital med texter från 60-talet var en viktig politisk grund för den italienska marxistiska strömning som kommit att kallas Operaismo, eller arbetarism.
Boken är fascinerande att läsa eftersom den förebådar, ganska tidigt, de teoretiska genombrott som kommer göras inom den italienska operaistiska, post-operaistiska och autonoma vänstern. Redan här ser vi idéerna om arbetarklassens kamp som den mest dynamiska kraften för utvecklingen av kapitalets produktionsprocess och samhället som en social fabrik.
Därmed sagt är det också en otroligt frustrerande bok att läsa. Jag vet inte om det är översättningen till engelska men den är ofta omständligt skriven och jag måste flera gånger sitta och försöka ta ut vad som egentligen är subjekt och objekt i meningen för att förstå vad den betyder. Långa stycken består av citat från Marx, Hegel och Ricardo vars relevans eller betydelse Tronti aldrig verkar ge sig på att förklara.
Vissa av de mer djärva idéerna är också rent trams, jag tänker inte minst på påståendet att arbetarklassen är den första klass i egentlig mening som någonsin existerat. Och att det aldrig, i egentlig mening, inträffat några tidigare revolutioner.
Tronti fastnar också ofta i den mest vulgära formen av arbetarism. Det enda som har någon politisk betydelse är den direkta arbetarkampen i produktionssfären, allt annat är betydelselöst. Trontis teorier skulle bli betydligt mycket mer användbara i senare italienska marxisters händer, inte minst de marxistiska feminister som tog upp frågan om det reproduktiva arbetet i den sociala fabriken.
Boken är fascinerande att läsa eftersom den förebådar, ganska tidigt, de teoretiska genombrott som kommer göras inom den italienska operaistiska, post-operaistiska och autonoma vänstern. Redan här ser vi idéerna om arbetarklassens kamp som den mest dynamiska kraften för utvecklingen av kapitalets produktionsprocess och samhället som en social fabrik.
Därmed sagt är det också en otroligt frustrerande bok att läsa. Jag vet inte om det är översättningen till engelska men den är ofta omständligt skriven och jag måste flera gånger sitta och försöka ta ut vad som egentligen är subjekt och objekt i meningen för att förstå vad den betyder. Långa stycken består av citat från Marx, Hegel och Ricardo vars relevans eller betydelse Tronti aldrig verkar ge sig på att förklara.
Vissa av de mer djärva idéerna är också rent trams, jag tänker inte minst på påståendet att arbetarklassen är den första klass i egentlig mening som någonsin existerat. Och att det aldrig, i egentlig mening, inträffat några tidigare revolutioner.
Tronti fastnar också ofta i den mest vulgära formen av arbetarism. Det enda som har någon politisk betydelse är den direkta arbetarkampen i produktionssfären, allt annat är betydelselöst. Trontis teorier skulle bli betydligt mycket mer användbara i senare italienska marxisters händer, inte minst de marxistiska feminister som tog upp frågan om det reproduktiva arbetet i den sociala fabriken.
June 8, 2021
"The bible of Operaismo" as it has been called truly lives up to its name. Admittedly though I would not dive into this text straight away; a basic knowledge of the ideas behind Operaismo and the context they were developing in are important, and the complicated nature of these ideas and Tronti's writing style requires one to go through this book slowly, one essay at a time. However, if you can take the time and care to do so, the ideas that Tronti is putting forward can truly blow you out of the water - particularly those of 'Marx Yesterday and Today' and 'Lenin in England'.
Unfortunately this English translation is let down slightly by its format, in which an introduction to the context of each text would be more than welcomed. There are also a few translation and grammatical errors that alter the nature of some of the essays.
Overall though an extremely important book that I am very glad was finally translated in full into English!
Unfortunately this English translation is let down slightly by its format, in which an introduction to the context of each text would be more than welcomed. There are also a few translation and grammatical errors that alter the nature of some of the essays.
Overall though an extremely important book that I am very glad was finally translated in full into English!
October 27, 2024
I set out to write a more serious in-depth review of Mario Tronti’s Workers and Capital, but the truth is that I am far too ready to rid myself of this book. Tronti’s writing is coarse and unpleasant to my tastes. Paragraphs ramble on for pages at a time without a clear focus. Chapters persist without an argument or a conclusion. Every statement is at the level of the generality and the abstract and never tied down to anything concrete. It is never clear who Tronti is polemicizing against nor where is he pulling his conclusions from. Tronti does not argue; he declares.
Politically, Tronti pulls upon the dubious notion of Marxism as a partisan working-class science to twist it into a new kind of syndicalism. One day I intend to write a more in-depth critique of this reading of Marx, but I will summarize my views here. On a sociological level, it is simply incorrect. The founding fathers of Marxism were all déclassé intellectuals outside of the immediate relations of capitalist production. Marx himself was a law student turned radical intellectual living off the meager income of journalism and the money of his lifelong friend Friedrich Engels (himself a capitalist).
On a theoretical level, Marx’s mature scientific critique of political economy does not give any social subject a privileged ability to demystify the topsy-turvy illusions of capitalist social relations. Rather, the spontaneous consciousness of all social actors are subject to the fetishisms of commodity, money, and capital, albeit in different ways. For however much Tronti talks about the one-sided class hatred of Marx’s science, Marx himself wrote [in relation to Malthus] “when a man seeks to accommodate science to a viewpoint which is derived not from science itself (however erroneous it may be) but from outside, from alien, external interests, then I call him ‘base.’” (https://marxists.architexturez.net/ar...)
Finally, politically, Marxism as a working class standpoint theory implies tailism and substitutionism. For if the spontaneous consciousness of the working class is already critical-revolutionary, then one must assume that their activity is already revolutionary and socialists must tail them. Or, failing that, Marxists appoint themselves the “true” representatives of working class consciousness, leaving no room for conflict between them and the workers. In either case, this view erases the fragmentary and contradictory everyday existence of the proletariat and the necessary separation between class and party. Tronti himself ends up guilty of all this following the publication of Workers and Capital.
Politically, Tronti pulls upon the dubious notion of Marxism as a partisan working-class science to twist it into a new kind of syndicalism. One day I intend to write a more in-depth critique of this reading of Marx, but I will summarize my views here. On a sociological level, it is simply incorrect. The founding fathers of Marxism were all déclassé intellectuals outside of the immediate relations of capitalist production. Marx himself was a law student turned radical intellectual living off the meager income of journalism and the money of his lifelong friend Friedrich Engels (himself a capitalist).
On a theoretical level, Marx’s mature scientific critique of political economy does not give any social subject a privileged ability to demystify the topsy-turvy illusions of capitalist social relations. Rather, the spontaneous consciousness of all social actors are subject to the fetishisms of commodity, money, and capital, albeit in different ways. For however much Tronti talks about the one-sided class hatred of Marx’s science, Marx himself wrote [in relation to Malthus] “when a man seeks to accommodate science to a viewpoint which is derived not from science itself (however erroneous it may be) but from outside, from alien, external interests, then I call him ‘base.’” (https://marxists.architexturez.net/ar...)
Finally, politically, Marxism as a working class standpoint theory implies tailism and substitutionism. For if the spontaneous consciousness of the working class is already critical-revolutionary, then one must assume that their activity is already revolutionary and socialists must tail them. Or, failing that, Marxists appoint themselves the “true” representatives of working class consciousness, leaving no room for conflict between them and the workers. In either case, this view erases the fragmentary and contradictory everyday existence of the proletariat and the necessary separation between class and party. Tronti himself ends up guilty of all this following the publication of Workers and Capital.
February 13, 2017
"Questo è un testo fondamentale dell'operaismo italiano, un filone di pensiero politico che dall'inizio degli anni Sessanta a oggi ha prima rivoluzionato e poi continuamente condizionato il panorama del dibattito internazionale della sinistra istituzionale ed extra-istituzionale.
Nel corso degli anni Sessanta la lettura di "Operai e capitale" ha contribuito alla fondazione di una mentalità, un atteggiamento, un lessico innovativi, contribuendo alla formazione culturale di migliaia di nuovi militanti attivi nelle fabbriche, nelle scuole, nei territori.
Militanti che in seguito diedero vita al sindacato dei consigli e alla formazione di svariati gruppi extraparlamentari.
La linea di condotta. Introduzione (1966)
Avvertenza alla seconda edizione (1971)
PRIME IPOTESI
Marx ieri e oggi (1962)
La fabbrica e la società (1962)
Il piano del capitale (1963)
UN ESPERIMENTO POLITICO DI TIPO NUOVO
Lenin in Inghilterra (1964)
Vecchia tattica per una nuova strategia (1964)
1905 in Italia (1964)
Classe e partito (1964)
PRIME TESI (1965)
Marx, forza-lavoro, classe operaia
1. Hegel e Ricardo
2. Lo scambio denaro-lavoro
3. Critica dell'ideologia
4. Maledetto sia giugno !
5. La particolarità della merce forza-lavoro
6. Il lavoro produttivo
7. Che cosa il proletariato è
8. Le forme della lotta
9. Il lavoro come non-capitale
10. La parola d'ordine del valore-lavoro
11. La classe
12. La strategia del rifiuto
13. Tattica = organizzazione
14. Lotta contro il lavoro
POSCRITTO DI PROBLEMI (1970)
1. The Progressive Era
2. L'età marshalliana
3. La socialdemocrazia storica
4. Le lotte di classe in America
5. Marx a Detroit
6. Sichtbar machen"
Nel corso degli anni Sessanta la lettura di "Operai e capitale" ha contribuito alla fondazione di una mentalità, un atteggiamento, un lessico innovativi, contribuendo alla formazione culturale di migliaia di nuovi militanti attivi nelle fabbriche, nelle scuole, nei territori.
Militanti che in seguito diedero vita al sindacato dei consigli e alla formazione di svariati gruppi extraparlamentari.
La linea di condotta. Introduzione (1966)
Avvertenza alla seconda edizione (1971)
PRIME IPOTESI
Marx ieri e oggi (1962)
La fabbrica e la società (1962)
Il piano del capitale (1963)
UN ESPERIMENTO POLITICO DI TIPO NUOVO
Lenin in Inghilterra (1964)
Vecchia tattica per una nuova strategia (1964)
1905 in Italia (1964)
Classe e partito (1964)
PRIME TESI (1965)
Marx, forza-lavoro, classe operaia
1. Hegel e Ricardo
2. Lo scambio denaro-lavoro
3. Critica dell'ideologia
4. Maledetto sia giugno !
5. La particolarità della merce forza-lavoro
6. Il lavoro produttivo
7. Che cosa il proletariato è
8. Le forme della lotta
9. Il lavoro come non-capitale
10. La parola d'ordine del valore-lavoro
11. La classe
12. La strategia del rifiuto
13. Tattica = organizzazione
14. Lotta contro il lavoro
POSCRITTO DI PROBLEMI (1970)
1. The Progressive Era
2. L'età marshalliana
3. La socialdemocrazia storica
4. Le lotte di classe in America
5. Marx a Detroit
6. Sichtbar machen"
November 24, 2023
finally admitting defeat on this one - i have been variously picking up and putting down W&C for almost 3 years now and it's just not worth it anymore. the first 100 pages - political essays from the political journals Quaderni Rossi and Classe Operaia - are fantastic. some of the richest work, and amazing writing, that you'll find. this is the Tronti that is important, and why this was one of my most anticipated books to be translated. these essays are useful to this day.
the second half of the book is an immensely boring marxicological exercise, wherein Tronti goes back to MECW and reads, somewhat chronologically, how marx was grappling with different political problems of the working class in his writings and letters. it is difficult to understate how bad the experience of reading this is. it is written like a halfhearted second year undergrad essay. sometimes as much as 60-80% of a chapter will be massive direct block quotes from MECW. whether Tronti's or some editors decision, there are almost no paragraph breaks at all, with a single wall of text extending for as much as 8 or 9 pages. though there are insights in this part of the text, the juice just isn't worth the squeeze for me - i tapped out at page 210
the second half of the book is an immensely boring marxicological exercise, wherein Tronti goes back to MECW and reads, somewhat chronologically, how marx was grappling with different political problems of the working class in his writings and letters. it is difficult to understate how bad the experience of reading this is. it is written like a halfhearted second year undergrad essay. sometimes as much as 60-80% of a chapter will be massive direct block quotes from MECW. whether Tronti's or some editors decision, there are almost no paragraph breaks at all, with a single wall of text extending for as much as 8 or 9 pages. though there are insights in this part of the text, the juice just isn't worth the squeeze for me - i tapped out at page 210
December 12, 2025
Molto bello questo libro, è un viaggio nelle origini teoriche dell'Operaismo italiano. Tronti riesce a spiegare questa sua rilettura di Marx tramite il punto di vista della classe operaia molto bene, anche se in alcune parti mi sono ritrovato un po' confuso del ragionamento. Mi interessa molto la sua enfasi sulla forza-lavoro come il punto di riferimento, nonché anche la scoperta più grande che Marx abbia mai fatto. Spiega molto bene anche le tesi che spesso vengono fraintese del Marxismo, come la definizione di comunismo (che non è una ideologica, non implica il raggiungimento di una società utopica ma l'abolizione del presente. È prima di tutto strumento di lotta non ideale).
Direi che non è un testo semplicissimo, è forse rivolto a un pubblico che già sa qualcosa sul Marxismo accademico di Marx stesso e coloro che sono venuti dopo. Si presenta come una denuncia quasi del Marxismo accademico in favore di un Marxismo più materialista e più operaio nei suoi scopi, un modo per portare l'intellettuale dalla sua cattedra nelle fabbriche e nelle piazze, volta alla formazione di una classe operaia unita perché, come dice Tronti, si parte prima dalla lotta e poi si raggiunge la classe.
Il bello di questo libro e dell'operaismo in generale penso sia proprio questa nuova concezione di classe e scienza operaia che lascia la porta aperta alla modernità e al cambiamento che inevitabilmente subirà ed ha già subito la composizione della cosiddetta classe operaia. Oggi tesi iniziali di tronti saranno un po' datate forse, però penso che anche lui vedrebbe la eventuale sconfitta operaia degli anni 70 fino a oggi come un nuovo passo da percorrere per gli operai e come un punto di slancio da cui possiamo teorizzare la nuova composizione di classe dei nostri tempi.
Direi che non è un testo semplicissimo, è forse rivolto a un pubblico che già sa qualcosa sul Marxismo accademico di Marx stesso e coloro che sono venuti dopo. Si presenta come una denuncia quasi del Marxismo accademico in favore di un Marxismo più materialista e più operaio nei suoi scopi, un modo per portare l'intellettuale dalla sua cattedra nelle fabbriche e nelle piazze, volta alla formazione di una classe operaia unita perché, come dice Tronti, si parte prima dalla lotta e poi si raggiunge la classe.
Il bello di questo libro e dell'operaismo in generale penso sia proprio questa nuova concezione di classe e scienza operaia che lascia la porta aperta alla modernità e al cambiamento che inevitabilmente subirà ed ha già subito la composizione della cosiddetta classe operaia. Oggi tesi iniziali di tronti saranno un po' datate forse, però penso che anche lui vedrebbe la eventuale sconfitta operaia degli anni 70 fino a oggi come un nuovo passo da percorrere per gli operai e come un punto di slancio da cui possiamo teorizzare la nuova composizione di classe dei nostri tempi.
August 22, 2024
A very explosive book that combines an interesting critical political economy of what capital and the working class are and how they develop (the contradictory unity of capital's reproduction and accumulation is mediated by working class politics) even as it declaims critical political economy, and indeed, theory in toto, as implicated in capital's reproductions. Tronti's bold and basically correct argument is first, that capital requires labor; and second, insofar as capital requires labor, labor is itself a moment of capital. Radical working class politics thus have to refuse work. This abstention is the only way out. Everything else is reformism.
This sort of radicalism is, on the one hand basically right in my view -- the working class should not be seen as somehow apart from the whole totality of capital, and for Marx, the working class really is the vital moment of value creation and hence the essential feature of capital's reproduction -- and on the other hand, painfully anti-intellectual. I don't think the project of seeking to understand needs to tie itself into such knots about its relationship to totalizing regimes. Isn't it enough to seek to understand them and declaim them? Are we really only ever mediating capital's reproduction by understanding its movement -- might we be attempting to understand our (some our) own position and strengthen it with this understanding? Why do we have to be suspicious of our language and reason? There are retorts to all of this. In any case, the positive contributions made to theory by Tronti in this book are valuable, provocative, and largely accurate.
This sort of radicalism is, on the one hand basically right in my view -- the working class should not be seen as somehow apart from the whole totality of capital, and for Marx, the working class really is the vital moment of value creation and hence the essential feature of capital's reproduction -- and on the other hand, painfully anti-intellectual. I don't think the project of seeking to understand needs to tie itself into such knots about its relationship to totalizing regimes. Isn't it enough to seek to understand them and declaim them? Are we really only ever mediating capital's reproduction by understanding its movement -- might we be attempting to understand our (some our) own position and strengthen it with this understanding? Why do we have to be suspicious of our language and reason? There are retorts to all of this. In any case, the positive contributions made to theory by Tronti in this book are valuable, provocative, and largely accurate.
June 1, 2025
conosce veramente chi odia
October 26, 2025
I wish I understood it.
January 28, 2024
"Não está errado, está é chato"
to-keep-reference
October 18, 2016En oposición a las teorías del “eslabón más débil”, que no sólo fue el núcleo de las tácticas de la Tercera Internacional sino también extensamente adoptado por la tradición anti-imperialista en conjunto, el movimiento operaismo italiano de los ‟60 y los ‟70 propuso una teoría del “eslabón más fuerte”. Para la tesis teórica fundamental, ver: Mario Tronti, Operai e capitale (Turín: Einaudi, 1966), en especial pp. 89-95.
Imperio Pág.50
Imperio Pág.50
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