This paper argues for the pertinence of autonomist Marxism to an era of
computerised capital and postmodern culture. Broadly speaking,
’autonomist Marxism’ designates that tradition of Marxism which places
at its centre the self-activity of the working class - a tradition with
deep historical roots and wide international diffusion. However,
perhaps its most developed contemporary expression, and the one I shall
focus on here, is that arising out of the struggles of Italian workers,
students and feminists during the 1960s and 70s and formulated in the
work of such revolutionary intellectuals as Raniero Panzieri, Mario
Tronti, Sergio Bologna, Mariorosa Dalla Costa, Francois Beradi, and
Antonio Negri. When in 1979 the ferment of the Italian New Left was
violently repressed under the pretext of counter-insurgency against the
Red Brigades the development of this innovative body of theory was
abruptly interrupted, and subsequently the heretical tenor of its
positions - anathema to neoliberals, Soviet-style nomenklatura and
social democrats alike - has ensured it a subterranean existence, even
on the left. Yet despite the destruction of the movement in which it
was originally based, this strand of autonomist Marxism has continued to
develop, undergoing new mutations and making fresh connections.
