Communism

History of communism This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... Image File history File links Hammer_and_sickle. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Schools of communism Marxism · Leninism Trotskyism · Maoism Left communism Council communism Anarchist communism Christian communism To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is therefore a branch of Marxism. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... Maoism or Mao Zedong Thought (Chinese: 毛泽东思想, pinyin: Máo Zédōng SÄ«xiÇŽng), is a variant of Marxism-Leninism derived from the teachings of Mao Zedong (1893–1976). ... Left Communism is a term describing a whole range of communist viewpoints which oppose the political ideas of the Bolsheviks from a position which is asserted to be more authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views held by the Communist International after its first two Congresses. ... Council communism is a Radical Left movement originating in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1920s. ... Anarchist communism, also known as Communist anarchism, Anarcho-communism, or Libertarian communism, is a political ideology related to Libertarian socialism. ... Christian communism is a form of religious communism centered around Christianity. ... Communist parties Communist International World Communist Movement International Communist Current Communist Workers International Fourth International In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, the sociopolitical philosophy based on Marxism. ... The first edition of Communist International, journal of the Comintern published in Moscow and Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) in May 1919. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The International Communist Current is a centralised international left communist organisation with sections throughout the world. ... The Communist Workers International (German: Kommunistische Arbeiter-Internationale, KAI), also known as the Fourth International, was a council communist international. ... Emblem of the Fourth International The Fourth International has been the international organisation of Trotskyist communists. ... Communist states The Soviet Union People's Republic of China Cuba · Vietnam Laos · North Korea A Communist state is a state governed by a single political party which declares its allegiance to the principles of Marxism-Leninism. ... Related subjects Socialism Titoism Marxism-Leninism Eurocommunism Religious communism New Left Planned economy Historical materialism Anti-communism Socialism is a social and economic system (or the political philosophy advocating such a system) in which the economic means of production are owned and controlled collectively by the people. ... Titoism is a term describing political ideology named after Yugoslav leader, Josip Broz Tito, primarily used to describe the schism between the Soviet Union and Socialist Yugoslavia after the Second World War (see Cominform) when the Communist Party of Yugoslavia refused to take further dictates from Moscow. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ... Eurocommunism was an attempt in the 1970s by various European communist parties to widen their appeal by embracing public sector middle-class workers, new social movements such as feminism and gay liberation, rejecting support of the Soviet Union, and expressing more clearly their fidelity to democratic institutions. ... Religious communism is a term used by some Communists that claim that before communism became associated with atheism, the word communism was mainly used by religious groups. ... The New Left is a term used in political discourse to refer to radical left-wing movements from the 1960s onwards. ... A planned economy is an economic system in which decisions about the production, allocation and consumption of goods and services is planned ahead of time, in either a centralized or decentralized fashion. ... Historical materialism (or what Marx himself called the materialist conception of history - materialistische Geschichtsauffassung) is a social theory and an approach to the study of history and sociology, normally considered the intellectual basis of Marxism. ... Anti-communism is the opposition to communist ideology, organization, or government, on either an ideological or pragmatic basis. ...

Autonomism, or Autonomist Marxism is a left-wing political movement and theory. Autonomism (autonomia) emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerist (operaismo) communism. Later, post-Marxist and anarchist tendencies became significant after influence from the Situationists, the failure of the Italian revolutionary era in the 1970s and the emergence of a number of important theorists including Antonio Negri. It influenced the German and Dutch Autonomen, the worldwide Social Center movement, and today is influential in Italy, the United States and some other English-speaking countries. Those who describe themselves as autonomists now vary from workerist Marxists to post-structuralists and (some) anarchists. In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... Autonomism can refer to: Autonomism may refer to a bundle of left-wing movements historically bound-up with Italian Autonomist marxism. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ... Workerism describes political positions which regard the experience and politics of labourers and the working class as central. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... The neutrality of this introduction is disputed. ... The Situationist International (SI), an international political and artistic movement, originated in the Italian village of Cosio dArroscia on 28 July 1957 with the fusion of several extremely small artistic tendencies: the Lettrist International , the International movement for an imaginist Bauhaus, and the London Psychogeographical Association. ... Antonio Negri (1933- ) is a moral and political philosopher from Italy. ... Social Centers are squatted buildings, mostly in Europe, which have been made into organizing centers for community support networks and structures such as free kitchens, free shops, public computer labs, graffiti murals, free housing for activists and travelers, recreation, public meetings, legal collectives, and spaces for dances, performances and art... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... Post-structuralism is a term coined in the United States in the mid- to late 1960s to describe mostly French language scholarship that challenged the primacy of structuralism in the humanities. ...

Character

Autonomist theory, in contrast with other forms of Marxism, emphasises the ability of the working class to force changes to the organisation of the capitalist system independent of the state, trade unions or political parties. Autonomist Marxism is a "bottom up" theory: it draws attention to activities that autonomists see as everyday working class resistance to capitalism, for example absenteeism, slow working, and socialisation in the workplace. The Industrial Workers of the World are popularly taken as a prototypical "autonomist" labor union. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... In economics, a capitalist is someone who owns capital, presumably within the economic system of capitalism. ... A state is an organized political community, occupying a territory, and possessing internal and external sovereignty, which successfully claims the monopoly on the use of force. ... A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a legal entity consisting of employees or workers having a common interest, such as all the assembly workers for one employer, or all the workers... A political party is a political organization subscribing to a certain ideology or formed around very special issues. ... Capitalism is commonly understood to mean an economic or socioeconomic system in which the means of production are predominantly privately owned and operated for profit, often through the employment of labour. ... Absenteeism is a habitual pattern of absence from a duty or obligation. ... The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies) is a famous international union currently headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. It contends that all workers should be united within a single union as a class and the wage system abolished. ...

Like other Marxists, they see class struggle as of central importance, but unlike most Marxists, they have a broad definition of the working class that includes the waged (white collar and blue collar), and the unwaged (beneficiaries, homemakers and so on). Autonomists are less concerned with party political organisation than other types of Marxist thought; instead it focuses on self-organised working class action and the development of its theoretical tools in accord with actual working class struggles. Early theorists were Mario Tronti, Antonio Negri, Sergio Bologna and others in Italy in the 1970s. It has influenced Marxist academics including Harry Cleaver, John Holloway, Steve Wright, and Nick Dyer-Witheford. Class struggle is class conflict looked at from a Marxist, libertarian socialist, or anarchist perspective. ... White-collar workers perform tasks which are less physically laborious yet often more highly paid than blue-collar workers, who do manual work. ... A blue-collar worker is a working class employee who performs manual, unskilled or semiskilled labor, such as in a factory or maintenance trades, in contrast to a white-collar worker, who does non-manual work generally at a desk. ... Antonio Negri (1933- ) is a moral and political philosopher from Italy. ... Harry Cleaver is best known as the author of Reading Capital Politically, an autonomist reading of Karl Marxs Capital. ... John Holloway is a Marxist economist and philosopher, whose work is closely associated with the Zapatista movement in Mexico - his home since 1991. ... Nick Dyer-Witheford Nick Dyer-Witheford is a Professor in the Faculty of Information & Media Studies, University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario, Canada. ...

Influence

Autonomism may also refer to the Dutch anarchist Autonomen movement from the 1960s which concentrated on squatting, or to the German Autonomen squats of the 1980s. The Chien Rouge in Lausanne, a squat held in the old hospital. ...

Due to the inspiration provided by the Autonomist Marxist and Autonomen movements for some of the revolutionary left, some English-language leftist groups with a fundamentally anarchist bent describe themselves as Autonomists.

See also

• Autonomism
• Black bloc
• Os Cangaceiros
• Council Communist
• Disobbedienti
• Industrial Workers of the World
• Luxembourgism
• Multitudes magazine
• Antonio Negri
• Tute Bianche
• United Socialist Party (Italy)
• Paolo Virno
• Ya Basta
• Zapatista Army of National Liberation

Autonomism can refer to: Autonomism may refer to a bundle of left-wing movements historically bound-up with Italian Autonomist marxism. ... Black Bloc at April 12, 2003 anti-war demonstration in Washington DC. A black bloc is a group within a group of a left-wing oriented protesters, often dressed in black clothing and/or wearing masks or face-covering articles. ... This page concerns the French political movement, for the early 20th Century Brazilian insurgents of the same name, see cangaço. ... Council communism was a radical Left movement originating in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1920s. ... The Disobbedienti are those who practice Civil and social disobedience, a philosophy growing out of the militant Italian social movement Tute Bianche, which literally means, White Overalls. This philosophy includes the occupation and creation of squatted selfmanaged Social centers, anti-sexist organizing, activism for migration rights and political asylum rights... The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies) is a famous international union currently headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. It contends that all workers should be united within a single union as a class and the wage system abolished. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Antonio Negri (1933- ) is a moral and political philosopher from Italy. ... Tute Bianche was a militant Italian social movement based on the idea of covering ones body with padding so as to resist the blows of police, to push through police lines, and to march together in large blocks for mutual protection during demonstrations. ... The United Socialist Party (Italian: Partito Socialista Unitario, PSU) is the name of three successive socialist (Social democratic) political parties in Italy. ... Ya Basta! is a phrase in Spanish roughly approximate to enough already! in English. ... The flag of the EZLN. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) is an armed revolutionary group based in Chiapas, one of the poorest states of Mexico. ...

References

• Recycling Marx: Autonomism and The Rejection of Orthodoxy
• Libertarian Communist Library Mario Tronti Archive
• Libertarian Communist Library Sergio Bolognia Archive
• Libertarian Communist Library Nick Dyer-Witheford Archive
• Libertarian Communist Library Antonio Negri Archive
• Libertarian Communist Library Raniero Panzieri Archive
• Libertarian Communist Library Harry Cleaver Archive

External links

• Aut-op-sy - Autonomist forum and texts
• Texas Archives of Autonomist Marxism
• Libertarian Communist Library, which includes many Autonomist-Marxism texts
• The Anomalist E-Journal