Autonomism

{{short description|Anti-authoritarian left-wing political and social movement and theory}}

{{redirect|Autonomist movement|the Chilean movement|Autonomist Movement}}

Autonomism or autonomismo, also known as autonomist Marxism or autonomous Marxism, is an anti-capitalist social movement and Marxist-based theoretical current that first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerism ({{lang|it|operaismo}}).{{cite journal |last=Cuninghame |first=Patrick |date=December 2010 |title=Autonomism as a global social movement |url=https://www.academia.edu/1342334 |journal=WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor and Society |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=451–464 |doi=10.1111/j.1743-4580.2010.00305.x |issn=1089-7011}}{{sfn|Katsiaficas|2006}} Later, post-Marxist and anarchist tendencies became significant,{{Cite journal |last1=Gray |first1=Neil |last2=Clare |first2=Nick |date=October 2022 |title=From autonomous to autonomist geographies |journal=Progress in Human Geography |language=en |volume=46 |issue=5 |pages=1185–1206 |doi=10.1177/03091325221114347 |issn=0309-1325|doi-access=free }} after influence from the Situationists, the failure of Italian far-left movements in the 1970s, and the emergence of a number of important theorists including Antonio Negri, who had contributed to the 1969 founding of Potere Operaio, as well as Mario Tronti, Paolo Virno, and Franco Berardi.{{cite book |title=Autonomia: post-political politics |url=http://libcom.org/files/autonomia1_rotated_merged_0.pdf |date=2007 |publisher=Semiotext(e) |last1=El Kholti |first1=Hedi |author1-link=Hedi El Kholti |last2=Lotringer |first2=Sylvère |author2-link=Sylvère Lotringer |last3=Marazzi |first3=Christian |isbn=978-1-58435-053-8 |edition=2nd |location=Los Angeles |oclc=159669900}}

George Katsiaficas summarizes the forms of autonomous movements by saying that "[i]n contrast to the centralized decisions and hierarchical authority structures of modern institutions, autonomous social movements involve people directly in decisions affecting their everyday lives, seeking to expand democracy and help individuals break free of political structures and behavior patterns imposed from the outside."{{sfn|Katsiaficas|2006|p=6}} This has involved a call for the independence of social movements from political parties,{{sfn|Katsiaficas|2006|p=7}} in an anti-authoritarian revolutionary perspective that seeks to create a practical political alternative to authoritarian socialism, state socialism, and contemporary representative democracy.{{sfn|Katsiaficas|2006|p=8}}

Autonomism influenced the German {{lang|de|Autonomen}} and remains influential in Italy, France, and to a lesser extent the English-speaking countries. In the 21st century, those who describe themselves as autonomists now vary from Marxists to anarchists.{{cite web |date=3 September 2017|title=Autonomism: cutting the ground from under Marxism |url=http://libcom.org/blog/autonomism-cutting-ground-under-marxism-03092017 |access-date=6 July 2020 |website=Libcom.org }}

Theory

Early theorists like Mario Tronti, Antonio Negri, Sergio Bologna, and Paolo Virno developed notions of "immaterial" and "social labour" that extended the Marxist concept of labour to all society. They suggested that modern society's wealth was produced by unaccountable collective work, and that only a little of this was redistributed to the workers in the form of wages. Other Italian autonomists—particularly Marxist feminists, such as Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Silvia Federici—emphasised the importance of feminism and the value of unpaid female labour to capitalist society.{{cite web |url=http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=05/10/06/1324235&mode=nested&tid=9 |title=Silvia Frederici biography |website=Interactivist |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928000811/http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=05%2F10%2F06%2F1324235&mode=nested&tid=9 |archive-date=28 September 2007}}{{cite book |last=Wright |first=Steve |title=Storming Heaven: Class composition and struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism |date=2002 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=0-7453-1607-7 |location=London |oclc=654106755 |pages=134}} Michael Ryan, a scholar of the movement, writes:

{{quote|Autonomy, as a movement and as a theory, opposes the notion that capitalism is an irrational system which can be made rational through planning. Instead, it assumes the workers' viewpoint, privileging their activity as the lever of revolutionary passage as that which alone can construct a communist society. Economics is seen as being entirely political; economic relations are direct political relations of force between class subjects. And it is in the economic category of the social worker, not in an alienated political form like the party, that the initiative for political change resides.{{cite book |translator-first=Michael |translator-last=Ryan |chapter=Translators' Introductions Part II |first=Antonio |last=Negri |author-link=Antonio Negri |title=Marx beyond Marx: Lessons on the Grundrisse |location=New York |publisher=Autonomedia |date=1991 |pages=xxx}}}}

In Empire, Negri and Michael Hardt argue that network power constructs are the most effective methods of organization against the neoliberal regime of capital accumulation and predict a massive shift in the dynamics of capital into a 21st century empire.{{cite book |first1=Michael |last1=Hardt |author1-link=Michael Hardt |first2=Antonio |last2=Negri |author2-link=Antonio Negri |title=Empire |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England |publisher=Harvard University Press |date=2000}}

Thinkers

Franco Berardi
George Caffentzis
Harry Cleaver{{cite book |last=Cleaver |first=Harry |title=Reading Capital Politically |date=2 June 2000 |publisher=AK Press |isbn=978-1902593296 |author-link=Harry Cleaver}}
Silvia Federici
Michael Hardt
John Holloway
Maurizio Lazzarato
Antonio Negri
Gáspár Miklós Tamás
Mario Tronti
Paolo Virno
Nick Dyer-Witheford

West Germany

In West Germany, {{lang|de|Autonome}} was used during the late 1970s to depict the most radical part of the political left.{{cite book |title=Fire and Flames: A History of the German Autonomist Movement |author=Geronimo |publisher=PM Press |date=2012 |isbn=9781604860979}}

Italy

Within the context of the movement of 1977, riots took place in Bologna on 11 March 1977 following the killing of student Francesco Lorusso by police. Beginning in 1979, the state effectively prosecuted the autonomist movement, accusing it of protecting the Red Brigades, which had kidnapped and assassinated Aldo Moro. 12,000 far-left activists were detained; 600 fled the country, including 300 to France and 200 to South America.{{cite web |url=http://sebastien.schifres.free.fr/italie.htm |title=L'Autonomie Italienne |language=fr |trans-title=Italian Autonomism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308070142/http://sebastien.schifres.free.fr/italie.htm |archive-date=8 March 2021}}

Influence

The autonomist Marxist and {{lang|de|Autonomen}} movements provided inspiration to some on the revolutionary left in English-speaking countries, particularly among anarchists, many of whom have adopted autonomist tactics.{{cite web |first=Wayne |last=Price |title=Libertarian Marxism's Relation to Anarchism |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/wayne-price-libertarian-marxism-s-relation-to-anarchism |access-date=21 June 2020 |website=The Anarchist Library }} The Italian {{lang|it|operaismo}} movement also influenced Marxist academics, including Harry Cleaver, John Holloway, Steve Wright,{{cite book |author-last=Wright |author-first=Steve |title=Storming Heaven: Class composition and struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism |date=2002 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=0-7453-1607-7 |location=London |oclc=654106755}} and Nick Dyer-Witheford.{{cite magazine |title=Autonomist Marxism and the Information Society |first=Nick |last=Dyer-Witheford |magazine=Treason pamphlet |url=http://libcom.org/library/nick-dyer-witheford-autonomist-marxism-and-the-information-society-treason-pamphlet |access-date=21 June 2020 }} In Denmark and Sweden, the word is used as a catch-all phrase for anarchists and the extra-parliamentary left in general, as was seen in the media coverage of the eviction of the squatting of {{lang|da|Ungdomshuset}} in Copenhagen in March 2007.{{cite web |author=CrimethInc Ex-Workers Collective |title=CrimethInc.: The Battle for Ungdomshuset: The Defense of a Squatted Social Center and the Strategy of Autonomy |url=https://crimethinc.com/2019/03/01/the-battle-for-ungdomshuset-the-defense-of-a-squatted-social-center-and-the-strategy-of-autonomy |access-date=21 June 2020 |website=CrimethInc. |date=March 2019 }}{{cite news |last=Illeborg |first=Jakob |date=5 March 2007 |title=Anarchy in the DK |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/mar/05/copenhagenisburningforfour |access-date=21 June 2020 |issn=0261-3077}} Other Marxists have criticised autonomist Marxism or post-operaismo of having a theoretically weak understanding of value in capitalist economies.{{cite web |title=Critiquing Capitalism Today: New Ways to Read Marx |url=https://www.frederickharrypitts.com/critiquing-capitalism-today-new-ways-to-read-marx |access-date=2023-12-10 |website=Frederick Harry Pitts }} It has also been criticised by other Marxists for being anti-humanist and anti-Hegelian.{{cite web |title=Going in the Wrong Direction – John Holloway |url=https://johnholloway.com.mx/2011/07/30/going-in-the-wrong-direction/ |access-date=2023-12-10 |language=es}}

= Movements and organizations =

Abahlali baseMjondolo, Shack dweller's movement in South Africa
Blitz (Norway)
Disobbedienti (ex Tute Bianche)
Homeless Workers' Movement (MTST)
Kämpa tillsammans!, a communist group in Malmö and Gothenburg
London Autonomists
Plan C, a British anti-authoritarian communist group inspired by autonomism
Swedish Anarcho-syndicalist Youth Federation
Ungdomshuset, Danish autonomist squat
Zapatista Army of National Liberation

= Publications =

Aufheben
Collegamenti Wobbly
Multitudes magazine
ROAR Magazine

References

Bibliography

{{cite book |last=Katsiaficas |first=Georgy |author-link=George Katsiaficas |url=http://www.eroseffect.com/books/subversion_download.htm |title=The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday Life |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180930054115/http://www.eroseffect.com/books/subversion_download.htm |archive-date=30 September 2018 |publisher=AK Press |date=2006}}