Date: Wed, 6 May 98 16:56:26 +0200
From: Fiocco-AT-ccuws4.unical.it (Fiocco Laura)
Subject: Re: AUT: why gramsci


Dear Bob, I did not studied those problems but as far as I can reconstruct
the 60's I agree with Steve. I think that there was no continuity but a
*dislocation* from past experiences. Also what was realised as "movimento
consiliare nei quartieri" became soon something quite new (prendiamoci la
vita, prendiamoci la citta').
 Of course we all were influenced by what Gramsci represented, but the ones
who used him as a theoretical-political tool (against leftist politics) was
mainly the intellectual left of PCI and PSI (comunist and socialist
parties).
Sorry for the italian, maybe Steve can explain better
ciao laura








>>Dear Bob,
>>
>>it seems to be stretching it to interpret the Hot Autumn of 1969 and its
>>aftermath as the return of the Ordine Nuovo experience.
>>
>>The central break between the two, as far as I can see, lies in the
>>practical questioning of the organisation and nature of work which emerged
>>with such vehemence in the Italy of the late 60s and 70s. This was summed
>>nicely by one worker who told Potere Operaio in 1973 that unlike in the
>>20s, this time FIAT was most definitely not being occupied for a "work-in".
>>
>>Now I wouldn't be surprised of the worker mentioned above was a member of
>>Potop and the question a bit of stage managing. But I also don't doubt that
>>such sentiments, consistent with the workerists' theorising of "the refusal
>>of work" during the sixties, were widespread within a whole range of layers
>>of the Italian working class at the time.
>>
>>I think we will search long and hard yet never find anything approaching
>>"the refusal of work" (a central tenet of autonomist thought/practice,
>>after all) in Gramsci. Quite the opposite, as Rutigliano once argued in
>>_Telos_ 31 (sorry, I don't have the exact reference details here). Then
>>again, as I'm sure Mauro will attest, there is little if any connection
>>between autonomist thought/practice and the tradition associated with
>>Bordiga. In any case, I'm interested to hear a more detailed argument on
>>this, from you and others.
>>
>>A section of my PhD looks at how the workerists of the early sixties
>>developed their critique of Ordine Nuovo - I will post it when I have
>>cleaned up the scanned version (perhaps before the next millenium).
>>
>>BTW, Dave Graham has scanned the Potere Operaio article in question, which
>>once appeared in a Red Notes pamphlet I have long since lost - maybe one
>>day it can go in the list archive.
>>
>>Steve
>>
>>P.S. Have you seen the special issue of _Revolutionary History_ (vol 5/no
>>4, Spring 1995) entitled "Through War, Fascism and Revolution: Trotskyism
>>and Left Communism in Italy"? That offers one of the few discussions in
>>English of which I am aware of some of the issues you raise about the
>>Resistance period as a point of connection (but also rupture) between the
>>20s and the 60s/70s. It also alludes to some of the issues touched on by
>>Jerry, e.g. Gramsci's less than admirable role in the "bolshevisation" of
>>the Italian party. I might finally mention my "Missed Opportunities-New
>>Left Readings of the Italian Resistance", which appears in A. Davidson & S.
>>Wright (eds.) (1998) _"Never Give In": The Italian Resistance and
>>Politics_, Peter Lang, New York.
>>
>
>Hi steve thanks for the info on historical sources, i'll have to try and
>get my hands on the RH article, and yours , they sound interesting.  i did
>not mean to imply that the Hot Autumn was a return to Orbine Nuovo politics
>whole cloth, rather a continuation and development  of an important
>historical moment of independent  working class political creativity, which
>Gransci learned from,  and tried to defend and encourage within the
>communist movement and working class movement as a whole.  its very late so
>i will send you and jerry a longer post on all this, i.e. gramsci's
>relationship to stalinism , the PCI leadership and the italian   working
>class, tommorrow. bob
>
>"A fool can ask more questions than a wise man can answer"  Long live the
>fool.
>
>
>
>
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