Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 11:11:24 +0930
From: David McInerney <borderlands-AT-optusnet.com.au>
Subject: Re: AUT: Fwd: [VT_THEORY] on empire and negri


Nate Holdren wrote:

>Virno talks about the multitude as an ambivalent form, just like the
>proletariat, and talks about 'postmodern fascism' as being a form the
>multitude can take in addition to the radical forms Negri identifies.
>I know Virno and Agamben and others worked on a journal called Luogo
>Comune (sp?) dedicated, among other things, to exploring postmodern
>fascism. Bits of the journal are around the net in Spanish, probably
>in Italian as well. I think points about fascism can be overstated but
>I think the idea might be helpful for understanding the religious
>right and fascists in our country, and maybe the Lega Nord in Italy
>etc.
>
>On thing that's often not clear to me is how the term multitude
>applies (and whether Negri and Virno have different uses of the term)
>- whether it means 'class in itself' or 'class for itself'. Sometimes
>one, sometimes the other I think. The new Negri/Hardt is clearer on
>some of this, but not conclusively to my mind.
>
>best,
>Nate
>

This rendering of 'the multitude' seems closer to that of Balibar, who 
in _Masses, Classes, Ideas_, _Spinoza and Politics_ and a couple of 
other places tries to rethink Marx's use of 'the proletariat' as a 
'class for itself' along the lines of Spinoza's concept of the multitude 
as he understands it.  In Balibar there doesn't seem to be a multitude 
in itself, only a potentiality existing in forms of subjectivity 
inherent to the diverse practices of domination in class societies.  
Maybe the real issue is a shift in Negri's work on the multitude post 
_The Savage Anomaly_ or even _Insurgencies_?  Certainly Balibar, Montag, 
Macherey et al seem to have been much more sympathetic to the 1980s and 
1990s material than to  _Empire_.  See, for example, Montag's very 
appreciative comments on Negri in _Bodies, Masses, Power_ and his review 
article on _Insurgencies_ in HM a few years ago.  There are also 
discussions of what seems similar to 'postmodern fascism' as you 
describe it in the books of Balibar and Mike Hill that appeared this 
year (i.e., _We, the People of Europe?_ and _After Whiteness_ 
respectively).  Thanks for posting the link to the Virno book, I will 
certainly read it when I find time, as what you have said here of it 
sounds very promising.

I hope to publish an interview with  Warren Montag (which has already 
appeared in Greek) in the next few months (in the next issue of 
borderlands) that has some critical comments on _Empire_.  We will 
certainly publish an interview with Mike Hill in that issue on 
whiteness.  Hopefully at some point in the future we will have some 
papers discussing _The Multitude_ if that text generates sufficient 
interest; certainly comparative discussions of that text with that of 
Virno could be interesting.

David



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