°Refusal
Mario Tronti’s work formed something of a pivot in the development of communist politics in Italy, and informed many of the premises, or at least touchstones, that would become more familiar to English-language readers through the work of Toni Negri, Paolo Virno and others.
Tronti’s signature text is Operai e Capitale, a compilation of essays written in the mid-1960s, some of which have been translated into English (see below).
The concept most closely associated with Tronti is that of ‘refusal’. In his analyses of the character of class struggles in the 1960s, there was, he argued, a pattern of struggle which took the form of a refusal, of the struggle against work, of absenteeism, widespread non-cooperation and the desertion of traditional forms of working class representation. As a consequence of this, Tronti argued, among other things, that in order “to struggle against capital the working class must struggle against itself insofar as it is capital”.
There is much more that could be said here, but this is only a brief introduction for the purposes of floating a suggestion for reading “The Strategy of the Refusal”.
Some suggestion has already been made for this to occur over at Long Sunday, and there has already been some attention given to Tronti’s work at Leggiamo Tronti.
In part, the discussion turned to reading Tronti’s essay as an accompaniment to discussions that have been occuring around various blogs about what it means to refuse, of the convergences and differences between the Operaistas perspective on refusal (and perhaps also on the relation between identity and struggle), Zizek’s on going nowhere, post-hegemony, zerowork, Agamben and solidarity, Deleuzo-Guattarian lines of flight, Levinasian escape, and anything else that might be given a different or interesting twist by way of an encounter with Tronti’s essay - and, of course, vice versa.
So, to put the question: Who wants to have a go at reading the Tronti essay, have any suggestions to make along those lines, etc? So far, myself, Jodi and Nate have expressed an interest, but I’m supposing there are others. I’d envisage, similar to the symposium on Benjamin’s “Critique of Violence”, that we might schedule a week or so, and allocate days for people to post their contributions - either at LS or via their own blogs, I’m not so fussed since there will be compilations happening at the very least. Suggestions for a possible week would also be good too, as would suggestions for people to tap on the shoulder in case they might be interested.
Other parts of Operai e Capitale which have been translated into English:
Related (this was gleaned from a quick run down the Ggle search, and additions would be welcome):
- Jon Beasley-Murray, “Ethics as Post-Political Politics”
- Franco Berardi, “What is the Meaning of Autonomy Today?”
- Mark Coté, “The Italian Foucault: Subjectivity, Valorization, Autonomia”
- Stefano Franchi, “Passive Politics” [pdf]
- Nicholas Thoburn, “Refusal of Work”, chapter 5 from his book, Deleuze, Marx and Politics.
- Alberto Toscano, “Antagonism and Insurrection in Italian Operaismo” [pdf]
- Paolo Virno, Grammar of the Multitude (Foreword Sylvère Lotringer)
- Steve Wright, “Children of a Lesser Marxism”
I’ll append a couple of my own essays on Tronti, both of which are forthcoming, so all you get here are the intros: “Autonomy, Recognition, Movement” (in Constituent Imagination) and “Cutting Democracy’s Knot: Nancy and Tronti between the Present and the Not-Now” (co-authored with Brett Neilson, and scheduled for the upcoming edition of CultureMachine).
I’m up for this, natch.
Jon [February 28, 2006 @ 2:39 pm]
Great idea Angela. Jodi and I were talking about reading a bit of Lenin too, not sure what order we’d planned, but I’ve got an unapologetic embrace of mob mentality when it comes to how I order my reading lists, so I’ll go with whenever most folks want to do this. Almost everyone I can think of who I’d want to recruit reads some or all of the blogs involved, but I’ll email around to a few people and see if I can’t drum up some more interest. Any proposals on a timeline?
best,
Nate
Nate [February 28, 2006 @ 2:44 pm]
Excellent.
Re dates, my timeline would, comfortably, be a fortnight from now. But it might be better to ask what’s comfortable for someone who’s yet to read the essay.
s0metim3s [February 28, 2006 @ 3:05 pm]
I would certainly be up for this. I have a couple of things to finish and have not yet read the essay. The week of March 13th coincides with spring breaks in the US, which may work for students and professors. Or the week of the 20th, which is the first day of spring/autumn (what do you consider it in Australia?). I’m okay with either, though I don’t mind the extra time the second of these provides.
Eric [March 1, 2006 @ 4:11 am]
The 20th is fine by me. What do others think?
Also, any suggestions for changes, additions to the intro?
s0metim3s [March 1, 2006 @ 1:41 pm]
How groovy. That time frame should work.
I’ll try to read up, and at least do some lurking. I promise not to steal the silverware, rifle through the medicine cabinet, or break any furniture.
Brian [March 2, 2006 @ 5:51 am]
I could do the 20th. Any format ideas? Post at our own places? Do ‘em all at one spot? Both?
Nate [March 2, 2006 @ 8:49 am]
Works for me. I’m definitely interested in the discussions that might follow from this. Much of the material is fairly new to me (especially with regard to the Italian end of things) but I have spent a small amount of time on Negri, Virno, and just the other night, Tronti - who has both irritated and surprised me.
While I’m likely to just be a fly on the wall for this, possible posts might find their way onto my blog, although I might prefer not to. I’ve printed up Thoburn and Toscano’s papers, so I’ll give those a reading sometime in the next few days.
Keith [March 2, 2006 @ 8:54 am]
Moving along nicely. WIll sort the issue of posting location soon.
Also, Craig from Theoria has put his hand up.
s0metim3s [March 2, 2006 @ 10:55 am]
And, I posted a slightly reworked version to Long Sunday just now.
Seems we might end up posting to our respective blogs, as well as guest posts to Long Sunday - the process for which will be sorted in due course.
s0metim3s [March 2, 2006 @ 12:38 pm]