Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 21:34:46 -0500
From: Nate Holdren <nateholdren-AT-gmail.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: Marazzi's La Place des Chaussettes


Hi Steve, Lowe, Angela, ervyone-
Having some computer and time management issues, doesn't leave a lot
of time for hunting up citations and providing worthwhile answers to
questions.

Steve, what's this what is to be done article you're talking about? 

I don't recall if the new book specifically uses the term class
composition or not, but it seems more open to that type of analysis. I
do have some concerns and such though, along the same lines as yours
Steve. There's a lot about democratic representational structures,
along the same lines as the piece that caused waves onlist a while
back, the one HN wrote that seemed to be addressing global elites,
arguing why Empire is a better idea for them than imperialism. There's
also some short laudatory remarks on the Justice For Janitors campaign
of SEIU (celebrated in Ken Loach's film Bread and Roses). Maybe I'm
just a bitter ultralefty, but the treatment seemed a little simplistic
and one-sided, given the folks I know who've been or still are members
and staff of that union.

Angela, I think the citizenship stuff falls away. I don't remember if
it's present or not - certainly if it is it's a small enough part of
the book that it didn't stick with me. (Sorry to be so vague, I've
been reading a lot of Negri lately in english and spanish and it gets
hard to keep straight in my head where he says what, exactly.)

One thing I like in the book is that they identify two ways to
understand multitude - as a critical or deconstructive maneuver (my
terms), where unity and identity (state, people, etc) is shown to be
actually multiplicity and an operation of force; and as a political
project. The second sense is the sense that refers to living labor
today as political subject, the proletariat tends to produce itself
politically as multitude. There are still moments that sound like the
Clash of Titans - multitude is already present on earth and is duking
it out with capital - but this is definitely qualified by the talk of
tendency. In this way I think class composition and such can enter
back into the analysis (not sure if HN see it that way or not) - in
that the becoming-multitude of the proletariat is made possible by the
technical composition, and require political action and struggle to
bring about (recomposition). It is unclear, though, if this means
struggling and organizing, or if it means organization (ie, one
organization, the concern Steve expressed).
gotta run.
be well,
Nate



On Mon, 16 Aug 2004 21:19:47 +1000, Steve Wright
<pmargin-AT-optusnet.com.au> wrote:
> But even if *the form* of traditional leninism is said to be longer
> applicable, isn't there still a sense of a specialised organisation that
> must *force* a break with capital? That's how I understood Negri's
> recent essay 'What is to be done with "What is to be done"?'
> 
> Steve
> 
> 
> 
> ".: s0metim3s :." wrote:
> 
> > Nate:
> >
> > ...
> > : something to the effect that 'perhaps
> > : the hierarchical nature of the
> > : Bolshevik organization is why the
> > : Bolshevik's ended up recreating the
> > : state', which from what I've been told
> > : is a fairly critical thing for
> > : Negri to say about Lenin etc. (Of
> > : course nowhere near critical enough
> > : for my own sectarian tastes...)
> >
> > Nor mine.  Negri's 'crit' of Lenin doesn't seem to
> > much further than 'Leninism was an adequate form
> > of organisation then, but not now.'  I'd be
> > interested if anyone knows of anything more
> > substantial (ie., actually critical) than this.
> >
> > I do have a specific question Nate.  Do they still
> > talk about global citizenship and the basic
> > income?  If so, is it a repeat of the way they
> > talk about them in _Empire_?
> >
> > Angela
> > _______________
> >
> > <end message>
> >
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> 
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>


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