Autonomist Marxism

[The Grey Blur]

Anyone willing to break it down for a brother?

[Nachie]

It's really cool to see people take an interest in this and finding out what it's all about.

Check out this thread in Theory, somebody asked the same question a few days ago: Autonomist Marxism (http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=49344)

[More Fire for the People]

It's Marxism mixed with fascism. It fuses the rejection of capitalism with the theories of Heidegger (member of the Nazi party) and support the petty-bourgeois, often over the working class. It's Marxism for whiney middle class teenagers.

[Nachie]

...or you could just listen to that guy :lol:

[The Grey Blur]

Originally posted by Hopscotch [email protected] 30 2006, 05:15 PM
It's Marxism mixed with fascism. It fuses the rejection of capitalism with the theories of Heidegger (member of the Nazi party) and support the petty-bourgeois, often over the working class. It's Marxism for whiney middle class teenagers.
I'm convinced

No but seriously, could someone just define it quickly for me?

[Vendetta]

I don't know what it is either, so I guess it would be good to hear/read this.


Originally posted by Cleaver from Nachie
By "autonomy" I mean the ability of workers to define their own interests and to struggle for them--to go beyond mere reaction to exploitation, or to self-defined "leadership" and to take the offensive in ways that shape the class struggle and define the future.

I guess it's a more "controlling" way of Marxism? Or did I misinterpret that entirely? :( It's kinda hard for me to understand completely.

[Edelweiss]

Originally posted by Hopscotch [email protected] 30 2006, 06:15 PM
It's Marxism mixed with fascism. It fuses the rejection of capitalism with the theories of Heidegger (member of the Nazi party) and support the petty-bourgeois, often over the working class.
Wow, this was one of most absurd comments I ever read here. What a nonsense! I guess you have pulled the name Heidegger directly out of your ass!

Do you think you are original, smart ass? :lol:

[Nachie]

Carolina Communist that is indeed a misinterpretation, and one I can't imagine how you arrived at given that the focus is the conception of the proletariat as a class capable of acting independently in its own interests, which are opposed to those of the bosses, unions, Leninists, politicians, etc.

Read that whole interview, Cleaver is refreshingly articulate.

[anomaly]

I think autonomist Marxism is essentially the thought of letting the proletariat do things themselves. No rulers. So there's a quick, concise definition for you.

Also, autonomism means decentralized, so think the very opposite of the old Leninist parties. It's more similar to a network style of organization, similar to RAAN. Nachie can give you some info on that if you're interested.

I find it very compatible with anarchism, so I'm a pretty big fan of the theory.

Hopscotch Anthill is 100% wrong. That was one of the silliest comments I've ever read.

Also, the interview alluded to by Nachie is very, very good and informative.

[More Fire for the People]

If you couldn't tell I was refering to autonimist Marxism the same way nachie referes to Leninism.

[anomaly]

Yea, but your's was a lot dumber than Nachie...his are usually hilarious.

[Zingu]

The Antifa in Europe are a good example of Autonomism, I suppose?

[Nachie]

Well really all over the world the antifa struggle is usually done with some level of autonomy between groups. Anti Racist Action is an excellent example of this in the US and Canada.

However in Europe and especially Germany the antifas are sometimes all that's left from larger autonomist communist movements of the past, and often retain the same methods and internal structures (or anti-structures, whatever). Check out this Wiki on the Autonomen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomen#The_German_Autonomen_movement_in_the_197 0-80s)

And as anomaly mentioned, the Red & Anarchist Action Network (http://www.redanarchist.org) is a good example of a modern autonomist group.

[GoaRedStar]

People just fucking read the interview.

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3843/cleaver.html

[LoneRed]

The Marxist-Leninists, as is well known, have privileged the political party of professional revolutionary intellectuals capable of grasping the general class interest and teaching it to workers who are seen as locked in merely "economic" demands

I find this especially funny, as this impicity states that the working class can spontaneaously rise up, and overthrow the system, ahha, soo Naive.

Have you not heard of hegemony, in reference to Gramsci, who recognized that the capitalists must use force- and subtle ways of controlling the people. I.e. Controlling them throught the dissemination of ruling class ideas. the effectiveness of the propaganda machine literally controls the thoughts of the people. It is becoming harder and harder for people just to rise up on their own. If people do rise up, there is a reason or influence somewhere. and just because people are out in the street doesnt mean they want a whole new society. The workers as a mass-will not, as the system is right now, spontaneously rise up. It is our duty as communists, to open them to ideas counter to the ruling class, to truly working class ideas, and how they dont need the capitalists.

I am no leninist, but saying that they are not locked in economic demands is quite ridiculous, just look around, most, I say MOST of the workers are fighting for basic reforms. there are no ifs, ands, or buts, around that.

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by LoneRed
I say MOST of the workers are fighting for basic reforms. there are no ifs, ands, or buts, around that.

Perhaps it depends on what country one lives in. My impression is that in the U.S., workers have largely lost interest in the reformist paradigm...significant reforms seem to be a thing of the past.

There are professional reformists here, of course...but they function as "lobbying groups" funded by voluntary financial contributions from the guilt-ridden upper classes.

And they don't actually accomplish anything.

Being a working-class reformist is an exercise in futility in the U.S.


Have you not heard of hegemony, in reference to Gramsci...?

The autonomist response is that capital does not dominate nearly to the extent that Gramsci thought; the class struggles against that hegemony in countless "unspectacular" ways...every hour "stolen" from capital is a "victory".

Employers in Louisiana complained vehemently that workers were not showing up for work after the hurricanes because they were using their FEMA checks (around $2,000) as "paid vacation time". :lol:

Moreover, it turned out that about 90,000 of those FEMA checks were mailed out to people with invalid social security numbers...meaning a lot of ordinary people got some money out of the system who didn't work for it.

It seems to me, on admittedly brief inspection, that the core of the autonomist Marxist approach has to do with an understanding of work.

Work does not cease to be alienating simply because the means of production are no longer in the hands of the capitalist class.

The word "work" should be understood as labor at the direction of another; regardless of that "superior's" title.

It's only when we produce according to our own priorities that we are no longer "working".

What a person does who has enough money to live comfortably without working at all is not work...even if it happens to produce useful things. Such an individual sets his own terms...how long he will "work", under what conditions he will "work", and what "work" he will actually perform. If his "minimum standards" go unmet, he walks away and suffers no hardship at all in doing so.

Most of us never attain this happy condition, but we struggle to do so! The idea that our human capacities should forever be at the service of another seems to be deeply repugnant to our "nature".

When Marx spoke so often about the "shortening of the working day", this is what he was really talking about. More "free time" is the converse of less "slave time".

And that's what we really want!

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/123.gif