Mario Tronti was the principal theorist of the radical political
movement of the 1960s known in Italy as operaismo and in the
Anglophone world as Italian workerism, a current which went on to
inform the development of autonomist Marxism. His "Copernican
revolution"--the proposal that working class struggles against
exploitation propel capitalist development, which can only be
understood as a reaction that seeks to harness this antagonism--has
inspired dissident leftists around the world.
Tronti's influence
as a theorist thus already reaches far beyond Italy to activists and
writers working in different sectors on different problems
historically and geographically. While his imposing and acclaimed
Workers and Capital has only recently appeared in English
translation, Tronti has influenced many of the most creative social
and political theorists of our time.
Antonio Negri and
Michael Hardt have long acknowledged the influence of Tronti on their
thinking, drawing especially on his inversion of strategy and tactics
in their influential collaborations. Tronti's work in the 1960s also
furnished important building blocks for a Marxist feminist critique
of unwaged labor--as developed by Mariarosa dalla Costa, Silvia
Federici, and many others working on social reproduction theory--as
Tronti showed how capitalist control extends beyond the factory to
all of society. Fred Moten and Stefano Harney have echoed Tronti's
calls for a radical antagonism "within and against"
institutions and the state.
The Weapon of
Organization is a crucial introduction to Tronti, presenting a
variety of never-before-translated texts--personal letters, public
talks, published articles. With an incisive and provocative
introduction that situates Tronti and highlights his relevance to
contemporary political struggle, Anastasi translates and restores key
writing from the birth of Italian operaismo--days of street fighting
and theorizing for a renewed age of revolution.Tronti's goal,
Anastasi writes, was not to become a revered thinker but to
participate in the destruction of capitalist society.