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The Weapon of Organization: Mario Tronti’s Political Revolution in Marxism
Never before translated texts powerfully present Italian autonomist Marxist Mario Tronti’s resonance with contemporary questions of revolutionary organization.
Mario Tronti was the principal theorist of the radical political movement of the 1960s known in Italy as operaismo and in the Anglophone world as Italian workerism, a current which went on to inform the development of autonomist Marxism. His “Copernican revolution”—the proposal that working class struggles against exploitation propel capitalist development, which can only be understood as a reaction that seeks to harness this antagonism—has inspired dissident leftists around the world.
Tronti’s influence as a theorist thus already reaches far beyond Italy to activists and writers working in different sectors on different problems historically and geographically. While his imposing and acclaimed Workers and Capital has only recently appeared in English translation, Tronti has influenced many of the most creative social and political theorists of our time.
Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt have long acknowledged the influence of Tronti on their thinking, drawing especially on his inversion of strategy and tactics in their influential collaborations. Tronti’s work in the 1960s also furnished important building blocks for a Marxist feminist critique of unwaged labor—as developed by Mariarosa dalla Costa, Silvia Federici, and many others working on social reproduction theory—as Tronti showed how capitalist control extends beyond the factory to all of society. Fred Moten and Stefano Harney have echoed Tronti’s calls for a radical antagonism “within and against” institutions and the state.
The Weapon of Organization is a crucial introduction to Tronti, presenting a variety of never-before-translated texts—personal letters, public talks, published articles. With an incisive and provocative introduction that situates Tronti and highlights his relevance to contemporary political struggle, Anastasi translates and restores key writing from the birth of Italian operaismo—days of street fighting and theorizing for a renewed age of revolution. Tronti’s goal, Anastasi writes, was not to become a revered thinker but to participate in the destruction of capitalist society.
Mario Tronti was the principal theorist of the radical political movement of the 1960s known in Italy as operaismo and in the Anglophone world as Italian workerism, a current which went on to inform the development of autonomist Marxism. His “Copernican revolution”—the proposal that working class struggles against exploitation propel capitalist development, which can only be understood as a reaction that seeks to harness this antagonism—has inspired dissident leftists around the world.
Tronti’s influence as a theorist thus already reaches far beyond Italy to activists and writers working in different sectors on different problems historically and geographically. While his imposing and acclaimed Workers and Capital has only recently appeared in English translation, Tronti has influenced many of the most creative social and political theorists of our time.
Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt have long acknowledged the influence of Tronti on their thinking, drawing especially on his inversion of strategy and tactics in their influential collaborations. Tronti’s work in the 1960s also furnished important building blocks for a Marxist feminist critique of unwaged labor—as developed by Mariarosa dalla Costa, Silvia Federici, and many others working on social reproduction theory—as Tronti showed how capitalist control extends beyond the factory to all of society. Fred Moten and Stefano Harney have echoed Tronti’s calls for a radical antagonism “within and against” institutions and the state.
The Weapon of Organization is a crucial introduction to Tronti, presenting a variety of never-before-translated texts—personal letters, public talks, published articles. With an incisive and provocative introduction that situates Tronti and highlights his relevance to contemporary political struggle, Anastasi translates and restores key writing from the birth of Italian operaismo—days of street fighting and theorizing for a renewed age of revolution. Tronti’s goal, Anastasi writes, was not to become a revered thinker but to participate in the destruction of capitalist society.
240 pages, Paperback
Published September 15, 2020
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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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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
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July 16, 2022Dunno how to rate this, so am not going to. Admirable introductory essay does its best to situate you, but would still recommend reading Workers & Capital (which I think is a masterpiece) first, since I think it would be really quite hard to really sink into this otherwise.
June 10, 2021
An exceptional collection of essays, with fantastic translations and introductions by Andrew Anastasi. Being able to read through Tronti's earlier work, as well as speeches in meetings and assemblies, and letters to other key operaist thinkers such as Panzieri, was a pleasure. Each text in the collection is given a short contextual introduction that made it relatively easier to read and understand compared to if that had not been the case. For those who are looking for a first bit of Tronti to get into, I would particularly recommend the first text in this collection 'On Marxism and Sociology', which explains the unitary nature of Tronti's Marxist ideas.
An essential collection for us to critically assess in order to further our own struggles today!
An essential collection for us to critically assess in order to further our own struggles today!
January 5, 2021
Stronger on politics than Workers and Capital and largely absent of his opportunistic shift away from the strategy of refusal, Mario again teaches us it's okay to be hated as long as we're working-class.
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December 5, 2025I think I got more from the speeches and letters than the more fully developed texts. Fascinating seeing the thinking and practice develop. A spirit of experimentation runs throughout which we can learn much from. Avanti!
November 15, 2024
Collection of Tronti's writing on the working class within and against capital. Appreciated the contextual information, which helped situate the text against its broader historical context
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews