From: "Nate Holdren" <nateholdren-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: class composition links and conversation
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 23:36:44 -0400


Hi Harry and everyone-
This may sound flippant, but it actually doesn't matter all that much to me 
where we start, I just want to read and discuss more to get clearer on this 
stuff. If others are amenable to your suggested starting place, with uncle 
Karl, I'm more than happy to start there as well (it's in line with another 
project I'm currently working on, which is finally finishing Capital v1!), 
we'd be going to the root, to coin a phrase.

Capital v1 ch13-15 is 185 pages in the Moscow approved International(e) 
Publishers edition, and ch25 is 100 pages. That's no quick read, but I'm 
game if a few others are (I find I have a very hard time reading this stuff 
productively on my own). If other folks would rather - due to limits on 
available time and/or other preferences - start elsewhere I'm okay with that 
too. Opinions, preferences anyone?



On the resources front, for those who don't have a copy of Capital (please 
don't name yourselves, as I'd hate to have to add more people to my purge 
list), those chapters are online-

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch13.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch14.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch15.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch25.htm

also online are Harry's comments on these chapters -
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/357ksg13.html
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/357ksg14.html
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/357ksg15.htm

not to be a sycophant, but I've found his comments on the earlier chapters 
of Capital (as far as I've read) to be very helpful.



I put the list of links on class composition that has been compiled on the 
wiki thing at the generation-online site, it's available at this address:

http://hwi.ath.cx/twiki/bin/view/Political/ClassComposition


I don't fully understand how to use the wiki yet but it seems like it could 
be a pretty great resource. Others can add to the list as more 
recommendations churn up, or if folks post them to autopsy I can add them to 
the list there my own self.


By the way, also of interest to autopsy folk may be this other set of links 
on the refusal of work, compiled as part of a discussion on the G-O list

http://hwi.ath.cx/twiki/bin/view/Political/RefuseWork

the generation-online site itself is also quite good I think,
www.generation-online.org


best wishes,
Nate


No more weekdays, they hanged Monday, shot Thursday, sliced up Friday! Every 
day is Sunday.
-Franca Rame and Dario Fo, "Waking Up"





>From: "Harry M. Cleaver" <hmcleave-AT-eco.utexas.edu>
>Reply-To: aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>To: aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>Subject: Re: AUT: class composition links and conversation
>Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 16:30:05 -0500 (CDT)
>
>Nate,
>I too would welcome a discussion of class composition and would suggest
>that it might be well to discuss material more or less in the order of
>its writing so as to see the development and circulation of the
>concept. One issue: although the term "class composition" was first
>coined, as far as I know, by the Italians, analysis of the phenomenon that
>it refers to doesn't originate with them. An obvious point of departure
>might be consideration of Marx's discussion of the technical, value and
>organic compositions of capital in Volume I of CAPITAL, especially as
>dealt with in chapters 13-15 and 25. The concept of class composition is
>clearly an attempt to carry this discussion of Marx's further and
>reconfigure it from the point of view of working class power.
>
>If desired we might then consider various writings that have tried to
>actually analyze the "class composition" at various points in time even if
>they didn't call it that - ranging from those of Lenin to those who
>directly influenced the Italians, e.g., the Johnson Forest and Socialisme
>ou Barbarie folks. Steve's second chapter on QR & the Workers' Inquiry
>would help bridge the jump to Italy and identify some key documents to
>consider next - such as Tronti, Alquati and Bologna. (btw Bologna's key
>piece on class composition and the theory of the party is NOT available
>on Ed's website, but I have written him and asked him to send me a copy.
>When he does I will make it available..)
>
>I will also undertake to scan my article on "The Inversion of
>Class Perspective in Marxian Theory: from Valorization to
>Self-Valorization" which contains a discussion of the
>concept of class composition as a contribution to the availability of
>materials on this subject.
>H.
>
>On Wed, 18 Jun 2003, Nate Holdren wrote:
>
> > Hey all-
> > Here's the list of links I posted, updated with the other links folks
> > suggested. If people have other suggestions please continue to post 
>them. I
> > remember there being a really good article by Monty Neill in an issue of
> > Midnight Notes about the relevance of the Zapatistas to class 
>composition
> > approaches, about different ideas of what a vanguard is and moving 
>beyond
> > them. Does anyone know where an e-copy of that is (or Monty can you post
> > one?) The Midnight Notes site seems to be down (as does the german 
>Wildcat
> > site, anyone know what the deal is?)
> >
> > I'm very interested in reading some of this stuff to get clearer in my 
>own
> > head about class composition and to inform conversation and thought 
>about
> > current class compositions. Steve you're the only person so far who has 
>said
> > you'd like to read some stuff too, so, where would you like to start? 
>I'm
> > pretty open. It'd be easier to start w/ some of the shorter pieces, 
>essays
> > rather than whole books. Anyone else have an interest or opinion?
> >
> > Nate
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Bologna, Tribe of Moles
> > http://www.endpage.com/Archives/Mirrors/Class_Against_Class/moles.html
> >
> > Bologna, Class Composition and the theory of the party at the origing of 
>the
> > workers' council movement
> > 
>http://www.emery.archive.mcmail.com/public_html/sergio_bologna/classcom.html
> >
> > Kolinko's paper on class composition-
> > http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/kolinko/engl/e_klazu.htm
> >
> > Kolinko's call center inquiry-
> > http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/kolinko/engl/e_index.htm
> >
> > A statement in english from italian folk who publish(ed?) a paper called
> > Precari Nati
> > http://www.left-dis.nl/uk/precnat.htm
> >
> > Ed Emery's paper No Politics Without Inquiry!
> > http://www.emery.archive.mcmail.com/public_html/diary/inquiry.html
> >
> > Marx, Workers' Inquiry
> > http://www.ex.ac.uk/Projects/meia/Archive/1880-AWI/
> >
> > U.S. Class Composition in the Sixties - Capital's "New: Dimensions": The
> > Kennedy Initiative
> > by Paolo Carpignano
> > 
>http://www.endpage.com/Archives/Subversive_Texts/ZeroWork/ZW1/USCC60s.htm
> >
> > Notes on Merseyside dockers struggles
> > http://www.endpage.com/Archives/Mirrors/Mersey_Docks_Dispute/
> >
> > And a dockers related interview
> > http://www.labournet.net/docks2/9807/campseas.htm
> >
> > Toward the New Commons: Working Class Strategies and the Zapatistas
> > by Monty Neill, with George Caffentzis and Johnny Machete
> > http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3843/mngcjm.html
> >
> > Harry Cleaver, Reading Capital Politically
> > http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/357krcp.html
> >
> > excerpts from bolo'bolo
> > http://www.cosmotop.de/utopia/e_bolo.html
> >
> > Nick Dyer-Witheford, Autonomist Marxism and the Information Society
> > 
>http://www.endpage.com/Archives/Subversive_Texts/Dyer_Witheford/Autonomist_Marxism_and_Information_Soc.htm
> >
> > Nick Dyer-Witheford,CyberMarx
> > http://www.fims.uwo.ca/people/faculty/dyerwitheford/index.htm
> >
> > archive section of the autopsy site
> > http://lists.village.virginia.edu/~spoons/aut_html/archive.html
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
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> >
> >
> >      --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> >
>
>............................................................................
>Snail-mail:
>Harry Cleaver
>Department of Economics
>University of Texas at Austin
>Austin, Texas 78712-1173  USA
>
>Phone Numbers:
>(hm)  (512) 442-5036
>(off) (512) 475-8535
>Fax:(512) 471-3510
>
>E-mail:
>hmcleave-AT-eco.utexas.edu
>PGP Public Key: 
>http://certserver.pgp.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=hmcleave
>
>Cleaver homepage:
>http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/index2.html
>
>Chiapas95 homepage:
>http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Cleaver/chiapas95.html
>
>Accion Zapatista homepage:
>http://www.utexas.edu/students/nave/
>............................................................................
>
>
>
>
>      --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

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