Lectures on/about Gramsci

[SacRedMan]

Dear Revleft,

I have been reading a (very) good book (almost a tutorial) about Eurocommunism. In this book I read this name a lot: Gramsci.

Who is he?
What did he do?

I also want some titles of books about and from him. Only English and/or Dutch ones.

Thanks and regards,
SacRedMan

[citizen of industry]

Italian communist, secretary general of the communist party after Bordiga was imprisoned. He himself was imprisoned by Mussolini and died shortly after being released. I think in his early life he was a syndicalist.

His most well-known writings are Prison Notebooks, published after his death. They are a collection of writings on various topics. Volume III of prison notebooks contains his theories of "Cultural Hegemony," "The organic intellectual," "State and Civil Society". I only read the third volume, and there were some good passages. e.g;

"Likewise, against 'vanguards' without an army behind them, against commandos without infantry and artillery, but not against vanguards and commandos if they are functions of a complex and regular organism. Similarly, against intellectuals removed from the masses, but not against the intellectuals of a mass."

It was worth the read. He makes a lot of world war I analogies. Here's a link to another thread about him: http://www.revleft.com/vb/could-someone-explain-t158493/index.html?t=158493

[Grenzer]

Dear Revleft,

I have been reading a (very) good book (almost a tutorial) about Eurocommunism. In this book I read this name a lot: Gramsci.

Who is he?
What did he do?

I also want some titles of books about and from him. Only English and/or Dutch ones.

Thanks and regards,
SacRedMan

He was a founding member of the Italian Communist Party and it's leader 1924-26 I think. He is deplored by many Left Communists for his alleged "reformism", but this is mainly due to his opposition to Bordiga. Gramsci was a prolific writer and wrote on matters of linguistics, and culture. He is most well known for his theory of Hegemony. The theory of Hegemony is, in short, the idea that the bourgeoisie exercise its power through control of society's superstructure, as opposed to their control over the means of production. Of course, Gramsci acknowledged that its control over Society is a result of its control over the means of production, but it is not through the means of production that it directly controls society. At least, that's what I think the theory is. I haven't read much Gramsci myself, so my understanding is pretty flawed and superficial at the moment.

As for why Eurocommunists like him so much, it's a bit of a mystery to me. Much like how even Marx can be used to justify reformism, I don't think it's reflective of his politics. As he was in prison from 1926-1937, he missed out on the Stalin-Trotsky split and never took a concrete position, but it seems that he was mostly hostile to Trotsky. Marxist-Leninists, Trotskyists, and even Eurocommunists like him.. as Red Commissar once told me, it seems like Gramsci is kind of like a Rorschach Test. As I mentioned, it's primarily the left communists that are opposed to him, but that doesn't mean much. Personally, I think he's one of the more underrated Marxists of the 20th Century.

I recommend checking out this user group if you want to learn more:

http://www.revleft.com/vb/group.php?groupid=547

His most well known works are his Prison Notebooks.

[LeftAtheist]

On this subject, does anybody know where I'd be able to read the Prison Notebooks? I checked on Marxists, but there are only bits available there. Is it available anywhere else online, or will I have to buy it?

[ComradeOm]

You'll probably have to buy it. I've offered to transcribe it for MIA before but apparently there are copyright issues with the standard translation. Which is a pity because, as incoherent and fragmentary as the Notebooks are, Gramsci is almost certainly the most important post-1917 Marxist theoretician. Everyone should read him; particularly his thoughts on legitimacy/hegemony and the political party

[Red Commissar]

On this subject, does anybody know where I'd be able to read the Prison Notebooks? I checked on Marxists, but there are only bits available there. Is it available anywhere else online, or will I have to buy it?

Check out the group that Ghost Bebel linked to; there's some online PDFs of some Gramsci compilations. I'm currently fixing the megaupload links that I forgot about, but it does have the "Selections from the Prison Notebooks" which contains most of Gramsci's important works- the intellectuals, the party (Modern Prince), hegemony and civil society, and others.

http://www.revleft.com/vb/group.php?do=discuss&group=&discussionid=3962

ComradeOm mentioned that MIA has had issues with uploading his works due to some weird copyright from International Publishers (the group that published Selections from Prison Notebooks), which is an obstacle in spreading his works more easily on the internet. As for what he did, I'll crib from another thread on what I wrote about him to give you an idea of his thought:


His "main" thoughts for starters would probably be the following:

-The Intellectuals: Gramsci makes a distinction between "traditional" and "organic" intellectuals. The former refers to more expected "intellectuals"- such as professors, philosophers, etc., while the latter refers to those with skills that grew out of a particular demand within their class. Gramsci seems to indicate the "organic" intellectual from the working class is to be the one that organizes and agitates.

-The Passive Revolution: an attempt to explain how the "bourgeoisie" are able to withstand tumults and pressures. He posits that they undergo a "passive" revolution, where they make concessions on certain reforms while retaining their power. This would in the end undercut revolutionary fervor. Gramsci describes various regimes at the time that could be described as the bourgeoisie undergoing such a process, such as social democracy, "grand" coalitions (like MacDonald's government in the UK), and to an extent, fascism.

-Hegemony: Gramsci borrows this term from formulations by previous theorists, which refers to the means by which the "ruling class" is able to rule in their respective states. He makes a distinction from previous Marxist analysis when he posits that this process by which the ruling class rules through "consent" by the other classes is by the power it exercises through the superstructure (civil society), rather than the base (or the means of production). The ruling class gets its rule by a sort of coerced consent, disseminating their values through various faucets in society. Only in moments of chaos does this deception go away and the force becomes apparent.

-The Modern Prince: Gramsci here basically describes the "revolutionary" party. It's probably one of his more overlooked contributions, and it's worth reading I think to put into context all his other writings.

He basically goes into the nature of the "civil society" and the nature of the state, their relation and impact on one another. This presents problems to those who overthrow the old order because it will "rebound" against it. Here he then makes the distinction between the "War of Position", forming a counter-hegemonic block around the workers in the Civil Society, and the "War of Maneuver" or the actual revolution against the state. The role of the Communist Party is to do this, acting as a force of the workers in forming their hegemony and reaching out to other downtrodden classes, namely the peasants. He also sees the "Communists" as the modern Jacobins, who were able to form the hegemony of their ideas over the rural segments to make an effective block against the forces of reaction (vendee armies, foreign intervention, etc.), and this is mainly something he takes from Lenin concerning the relationship between the workers and peasants.

-Americanism and Fordism: This is basically an attempt by Gramsci to explain why capitalism developed the way it did in the United States compared to Europe. Essentially he attributes it to the United States not having a parasitic feudal remnant (beyond the slave holding classes), which allowed it to progress as most liberals desired. Lenin's Tomb had a good explanation, much better than I can do, about this:

http://leninology.blogspot.com/2011/02/gramsci-on-americanism-and-fordism.html

And while I'm at Lenin's Tomb, he also wrote a good one on hegemony:

http://leninology.blogspot.com/2011/05/hegemony-war-of-position-and-organic.html

I suggest though you get a good knowledge of Marx and Engels, as well Lenin before you go onto Gramsci. He bases much of his thought on the analysis of those guys, and you need to know what they say before you understand what he is getting at. He tends to write not too clearly in his prison writings due to prison censors and expected those versed in Marxism to understand what he was getting at. You won't gain much out of him if you don't understand his predecessors.

I'm going to warn you though that the prison writings can be hard to read, but they are rewarding once you get past the language.

[LeftAtheist]

Thanks very much, Red Commissar. I downloaded a PDF from the literati group, but I think I might read a bit more Marx and Engels before I try Gramsci, if it's as difficult as you say it is.