Classe Operaia

Last updated

Classe Operaia
Editor
CategoriesPolitical magazine
FrequencyMonthly
First issueJanuary 1964
Final issueMarch 1967
Country Italy
Language Italian

Classe Operaia (Italian : Working Class) was a Marxist monthly magazine which was published in Italy for three years between 1964 and 1967. Its subtitle was "political monthly of the workers in struggle."

History and profile

Classe Operaia was founded by a group of Marxist intellectuals who left another Marxist magazine entitled Quaderni Rossi . [1] [2] They planned to be involved in more direct political activity through Classe Operaia. [3] The first issue of Classe Operaia came out in January 1964. [1] [4] Asor Rosa and Mario Tronti co-edited the magazine from its start in 1964 to 1966. [5] One of the contributors was philosopher Antonio Negri. [6]

Target audience of Classe Operaia was the workers, [6] and it was not only a theoretical publication, but also a practice-oriented publication. [7] The magazine's debut editorial, "Lenin in Inghilterra" (Italian : Lenin in England), by Mario Tronti emphasized the need to change the Marxist tradition which included the modification the dominant perspective of the period. [6] [8] Such a change was reported to be related to first the working class and its struggles and to the capital and its development. [1] In the same issue an analysis of the technicians of production was presented which has been still used in the workerist theory and practice. [9] Its contributors claimed that the workers' strike at Fiat in Turin was so significant that it created a totally new revolutionary path in the Italian politics. [7] The magazine praised the efforts of Raniero Panzieri to support the workers' movement. [4]

The last issue of Classe Operaia appeared in March 1967. [1] It was succeeded by another magazine Contropiano which was started in 1968. [7]

In 1979 a Milan-based publishing house, Machina Libri, reproduced all issues of Classe Operaia. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Council communism</span> Form of Left-wing communism developed in the Netherlands and Germany

Council communism is a current of communist thought that emerged in the 1920s. Inspired by the November Revolution, council communism was opposed to state socialism and advocated workers' councils and council democracy. It is regarded as being strongest in Germany and the Netherlands during the 1920s.

Workerism is a political theory that emphasizes the importance of or glorifies the working class. Workerism, or operaismo, was of particular significance in Italian left-wing politics.

Working-class culture is a range of cultures created by or popular among working-class people. The cultures can be contrasted with high culture and folk culture, and are often equated with popular culture and low culture. Working-class culture developed during the Industrial Revolution. Because most of the newly created working-class were former peasants, the cultures took on much of the localised folk culture. This was soon altered by the changed conditions of social relationships and the increased mobility of the workforce and later by the marketing of mass-produced cultural artefacts such as prints and ornaments and commercial entertainment such as music hall and cinema.

Autonomism, also known as Autonomist Marxism, is an anti-capitalist social movement and Marxist-based theoretical current that first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerism. Later, post-Marxist and anarchist tendencies became significant after influence from the Situationists, the failure of Italian far-left movements in the 1970s, and the emergence of a number of important theorists including Antonio Negri, who had contributed to the 1969 founding of Potere Operaio as well as Mario Tronti, Paolo Virno and Franco "Bifo" Berardi.

Marxian class theory asserts that an individual's position within a class hierarchy is determined by their role in the production process, and argues that political and ideological consciousness is determined by class position. A class is those who share common economic interests, are conscious of those interests, and engage in collective action which advances those interests. Within Marxian class theory, the structure of the production process forms the basis of class construction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open Marxism</span> Marxist school of thought

Open Marxism is a critical Marxist school of thought which critiques state socialism and party politics, stressing the need for openness to praxis and history through an anti-positivist method grounded in the "practical reflexivity" of Karl Marx's own concepts. The "openness" in open Marxism also refers to a non-deterministic view of history in which the unpredictability of class struggle is foregrounded.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raniero Panzieri</span> Italian politician (1921–1964)

Raniero Panzieri was an Italian politician, writer and Marxist theoretician, considered as the founder of operaismo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mario Tronti</span> Italian philosopher and politician (1931–2023)

Mario Tronti was an Italian philosopher and politician, considered one of the founders of the theory of operaismo in the 1960s.

<i>What Is to Be Done?</i> 1902 book by Vladimir Lenin

What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement is a political pamphlet written by Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in 1901 and published in 1902, a development of a "skeleton plan" laid out in an article first published in early 1901. Its title is taken from the 1863 novel of the same name by the Russian revolutionary Nikolai Chernyshevsky.

Neo-Marxism is a collection of Marxist schools of thought originating from 20th-century approaches to amend or extend Marxism and Marxist theory, typically by incorporating elements from other intellectual traditions such as critical theory, psychoanalysis, or existentialism. Neo-Marxism comes under the broader framework of the New Left. In a sociological sense, neo-Marxism adds Max Weber's broader understanding of social inequality, such as status and power, to Marxist philosophy.

Il Politecnico was a Communist cultural and literary magazine published in Milan, Italy, between 1945 and 1947. In the debut editorial it was stated that the magazine was inspired by the homonymous journal which had been founded by Carlo Cattaneo in 1839 and published until 1845.

Novella 2000 is a weekly celebrity and women's magazine published in Milan, Italy. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest publications in the country. It is also one of the most read and well-known Italian gossip magazines.

Romano Alquati was an Italian sociologist, political theorist and activist. He was known for his work for Operaist journal Quaderni Rossi and his Marxist analysis of labour practices at Italian companies FIAT and Olivetti.

Quaderni Rossi was an Italian political journal founded in 1961 which became one of the primary sources of autonomist Marxism. The journal had a pro-Chinese stance. Its first issue appeared on 30 September 1961. Raniero Panzieri played a central role in founding the journal alongside Mario Tronti, Romano Alquati, Antonio (Toni) Negri, Alberto Asor Rosa, and Danilo Montaldi. In August 1963, Classe Operaia, led by Tronti, broke away, leaving a group around Panzieri and Vittorio Rieser running Quaderni Rossi. Following the death of Panzieri in 1964, the journal continued until 1966 but without the same impact as it had previously enjoyed.

Vie Nuove was a weekly popular magazine published in Rome, Italy, between 1946 and 1978. The magazine was one of the post-war publications of the Italian Communist Party which used it to attract larger sections of the population.

Giustizia e Libertà, also known as Quaderni di Giustizia e Libertà, was an Italian anti-Fascist publication that was founded by the members of an anti-Fascist movement with the same name established in Paris. The magazine existed between May 1934 and May 1940. Its subtitle was Movimento unitario per l’autonomia operaia, la repubblica socialista, un nuovo umanesimo.

Lavoro Politico was a Marxist–Leninist magazine published in Verona, Italy, in the period 1967–1969. It was one of the radical publications launched during the student movements in the late 1960s.

Der Kampf was a monthly political magazine published in the period between 1907 and 1938. It was first headquartered in Vienna and then in Prague and Brno. It was affiliated with the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SDAP), and its subtitle was Sozialdemokratische Monatsschrift.

Alberto Asor Rosa was an Italian literary critic, historian, and politician. He was an Italian Communist Party (PCI) member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1979 to 1980. Rosa was among the contributors of the leftist magazine Quaderni piacentini in the mid-1960s. He coedited another magazine entitled Classe Operaia with Mario Tronti from its start in 1964 to 1966. Rosa was the last editor of Rinascita, PCI's theoretical journal. He died on 21 December 2022, at the age of 89.

Quaderni piacentini was a leftist political and cultural magazine which was published in Piacenza, Italy, between 1962 and 1984 with some interruptions. The magazine was one of the theoretical-political media outlets of the New Left.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Classe Operaia" (in Italian). Conricerca. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  2. Fabio Guidali (2021). "Intellectuals at the factory gates: Early Italian operaismo from Raniero Panzieri to Mario Tronti". Labor History . 62 (4): 463. doi:10.1080/0023656X.2021.1955095. S2CID   237713870.
  3. Valdo Spini (January–April 1972). "The New Left in Italy". Journal of Contemporary History . 7 (1–2): 56. doi:10.1177/002200947200700103. JSTOR   259757.
  4. 1 2 Steve Wright (2002). Storming Heaven: Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism. London: Pluto Press. pp. 16, 63. ISBN   9781786801173.
  5. Fabio Guidali (2020). "Culture and political commitment in the nonorthodox Marxist Left: the case of Quaderni piacentini in pre-1968 Italy". History of European Ideas . 46 (6): 869. doi:10.1080/01916599.2020.1756892. S2CID   219036376.
  6. 1 2 3 Andrew Anastasi (2020). "Book review. New Uses for Old Thought: Mario Tronti's Copernican Revolution, 50 Years On". Critical Sociology . 46 (7–8): 1304. doi:10.1177/0896920520911995. S2CID   219079732.
  7. 1 2 3 Adelino Zanini (January 2010). "On the `Philosophical Foundations' of Italian Workerism: A Conceptual Approach". Historical Materialism . 18 (4): 41. doi:10.1163/156920610X550604.
  8. Gigi Roggero (June 2010). "Organized Spontaneity: Class Struggle, Workers' Autonomy, and Soviets in Italy". WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor and Society. 13 (2): 204. doi:10.1111/j.1743-4580.2010.00283.x.
  9. Sergio Bologna (15 December 2014). "Workerism Beyond Fordism: On the Lineage of Italian Workerism". Viewpoint Magazine. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  10. ""Classe Operaia"". Machina (in Italian). 30 October 2020. Retrieved 1 June 2023.