Date: Fri, 24 Nov 1995 14:15:54 +0100
From: Thomas Atzert <atzert-AT-stud.uni-frankfurt.de>
Subject: Re: OPEN MARXISM V. 2


On 22 Nov 1995, Ralph Dumain <rdumain-AT-igc.apc.org> wrote in his review
of OPEN MARXISM vol. 2

>Negri, Antonio.  "Interpretation of the class situation today:
>methodological aspects", chapter 3, pp. 69-105.
>
>Negri has evidently spent too much time in France.  His writing is
>incomprehensible, so I dismiss him.  I will merely list the
>section headings of this article to give the flavor: 
(...)

Ralph, you're right in most of your critique on OPEN MARXISM. But I want to
object your opinion on Negri: I found his contribution quite comprehensible.
The question that arises for me: does the development and elaboration of
OPERAISMO lead necessarily to reformist politics? In Negri's final thesis,
"Today the Constitution of Communism is Mature" (T. 20), his argument is
based on an approach of simple theory of modernization (not accidentally he
quotes Max Weber) and points toward such reformism. Or how shall we read
this: "... all the conditions of the current mode of production push toward
the complete socialisation of political power and, conversely, toward the
complete politicisation of the social." (p103)
I guess Negri quite clear philosophically thinks to an end what Harry
Cleaver outlines in his article on "Self-Valorisation" in a more historical
manner.

Ralph (on Cleaver):
>If you are looking for any details concerning self-valorization,
>you won't find them here.  Hopefully, further information can be
>found in the writings of the Italian autonomists.  Here it is
>impossible to tell whether this concept has any substance or not,
>and one can only wonder whether anything can be taken on its own
>terms.

You may read Negri's contribution to see what today the concept of
AUTOVALORIZZAZIONE may look like.


Thomas Atzert, Frankfurt (F.R.G.)



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