bingo->note, council communists, from cleaver
*Bologna, Sergio "Class Composition and the Theory of the Party at the Origin of the Workers' Council Movement," Telos, #13, Fall 1972, pp. 4-27. Translated by Bruno Ramirez from Operai e Stato, Milano: Feltrinelli, 1972, pp. 13-46. (12pp)
Bologna is an historian and major figure in the post-WWII "autonomist" tradition in Italy. Relevant here mainly for 1) the way he situates the Workers' Councils as one moment of a series of international cycles of struggles that also included the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 and the American Wobblies in the period 1905-1920, and 2) his analysis of the way in which the councils (including the soviets) were the organizational expression of a particular class composition: skilled manufacturing worker/engineers who, to an unusual degree, designed, created, controlled and identified with their tools. It was that class composition he argued that led to the particular politics of the councils. With the passing of that composition, the working class, he goes on to show, evolved other organizational solutions more appropriate to other class compositions.
*A key methodological principle which James enunciated in this resolution, was the importance of seeing past "form" to "essence." "That the laws inherent in capitalist production in Russia," he wrote, "manifest themselves in unusual forms is obvious." But if, behind the unusual forms, capitalist relationships could be identified then Marx's analysis would apply. It was this perspective which led to the Johnson-Forest replacement of the Trotskyist preoccupation with "property" with a focus on relations of production. Henceforth, just as "democracy" and "fascism" could be understood as two different political forms of the capitalist state, so too could "competitive" capitalism and "state" capitalism be seen as two different organizational forms of capital accumulation. In fact, James went on to argue that there was an historical tendency for the centralization of capital which Marx had identified as an inherent tendency to lead to the displacement of free markets (and with them the "private character" of capital) by state controlled allocation. "What was formerly private and uncontrolled . . . becomes more and more state-controlled." The intermediate step in this process, James argued, was the rise of the "joint-stock" company (limited liability, stock issuing corporation) which Marx had already recognized as involving the "abolition of capital as private property within the boundaries of capitalist production." The "climax" of this process he argued was "the ownership of all capital in the hands of the State." Thus, he concluded "the development of Russia is a sign-post as to the future of capitalist society." Thus, he also concluded, Russia could be expected to behave internationally in ways similar to that of other capitalist states, i.e., imperialistically. Presciently, he predicted that "Should [Russia] emerge victorious in the coming war [WWII] it will share in all the grabbings of its partners, and for the same reason." The Johnson-Forest Tendency would not be at all surprised by the Russian takeover of Eastern Europe.
*Mario Tronti, "Workers and Capital," TELOS 14 (Winter 1972):25- 62.(from OPERAI E CAPITALE, Einaudi,Turin 1966, 1971.)
This key book, OPERAI E CAPITALE is also available in French and Portuguese, but not in English. A few pieces have been translated and published. "Workers and Capital" was the 1971 postface "Poscritto di Problemi," written after Tronti had returned to the CPI. It is of interest here less for the interpretation of labor history, which is open to criticism at several points, than for the methodology it contains. Despite his return to the CPI, Tronti held on to much of his previous work and this article must have been, in part, one step in trying to gain acceptance of that work, and many of its insights, within the CPI.
The article opens with a dichotomy between two possible approaches to history: 1) a chronology of cycles of labor struggle; this is capital's history, and 2)the examination of great historical events, privileged periods which present models; this is labor's viewpoint and politics. Basic here is the juxtaposition of the capitalist and working class viewpoints.
Bologna is an historian and major figure in the post-WWII "autonomist" tradition in Italy. Relevant here mainly for 1) the way he situates the Workers' Councils as one moment of a series of international cycles of struggles that also included the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 and the American Wobblies in the period 1905-1920, and 2) his analysis of the way in which the councils (including the soviets) were the organizational expression of a particular class composition: skilled manufacturing worker/engineers who, to an unusual degree, designed, created, controlled and identified with their tools. It was that class composition he argued that led to the particular politics of the councils. With the passing of that composition, the working class, he goes on to show, evolved other organizational solutions more appropriate to other class compositions.
*A key methodological principle which James enunciated in this resolution, was the importance of seeing past "form" to "essence." "That the laws inherent in capitalist production in Russia," he wrote, "manifest themselves in unusual forms is obvious." But if, behind the unusual forms, capitalist relationships could be identified then Marx's analysis would apply. It was this perspective which led to the Johnson-Forest replacement of the Trotskyist preoccupation with "property" with a focus on relations of production. Henceforth, just as "democracy" and "fascism" could be understood as two different political forms of the capitalist state, so too could "competitive" capitalism and "state" capitalism be seen as two different organizational forms of capital accumulation. In fact, James went on to argue that there was an historical tendency for the centralization of capital which Marx had identified as an inherent tendency to lead to the displacement of free markets (and with them the "private character" of capital) by state controlled allocation. "What was formerly private and uncontrolled . . . becomes more and more state-controlled." The intermediate step in this process, James argued, was the rise of the "joint-stock" company (limited liability, stock issuing corporation) which Marx had already recognized as involving the "abolition of capital as private property within the boundaries of capitalist production." The "climax" of this process he argued was "the ownership of all capital in the hands of the State." Thus, he concluded "the development of Russia is a sign-post as to the future of capitalist society." Thus, he also concluded, Russia could be expected to behave internationally in ways similar to that of other capitalist states, i.e., imperialistically. Presciently, he predicted that "Should [Russia] emerge victorious in the coming war [WWII] it will share in all the grabbings of its partners, and for the same reason." The Johnson-Forest Tendency would not be at all surprised by the Russian takeover of Eastern Europe.
*Mario Tronti, "Workers and Capital," TELOS 14 (Winter 1972):25- 62.(from OPERAI E CAPITALE, Einaudi,Turin 1966, 1971.)
This key book, OPERAI E CAPITALE is also available in French and Portuguese, but not in English. A few pieces have been translated and published. "Workers and Capital" was the 1971 postface "Poscritto di Problemi," written after Tronti had returned to the CPI. It is of interest here less for the interpretation of labor history, which is open to criticism at several points, than for the methodology it contains. Despite his return to the CPI, Tronti held on to much of his previous work and this article must have been, in part, one step in trying to gain acceptance of that work, and many of its insights, within the CPI.
The article opens with a dichotomy between two possible approaches to history: 1) a chronology of cycles of labor struggle; this is capital's history, and 2)the examination of great historical events, privileged periods which present models; this is labor's viewpoint and politics. Basic here is the juxtaposition of the capitalist and working class viewpoints.