Factory of Strategy
Thirty-Three Lessons on Lenin
Published on 4. February 2014
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-0-231-14682-1 (ISBN)
Description
Factory of Strategy is the last of Antonio Negri's major political works to be translated into English. Rigorous and accessible, it is both a systematic inquiry into the development of Lenin's thought and an encapsulation of a critical shift in Negri's theoretical trajectory. Lenin is the only prominent politician of the modern era to seriously question the "withering away" and "extinction" of the state, and like Marx, he recognized the link between capitalism and modern sovereignty and the need to destroy capitalism and reconfigure the state. Negri refrains from portraying Lenin as a ferocious dictator enforcing the proletariat's reappropriation of wealth, nor does he depict him as a mere military tool of a vanguard opposed to the Ancien Regime. Negri instead champions Leninism's ability to adapt to different working-class configurations in Russia, China, Latin America, and elsewhere. He argues that Lenin developed a new political figuration in and beyond modernity and an effective organization capable of absorbing different historical conditions.
He ultimately urges readers to recognize the universal application of Leninism today and its potential to institutionally-not anarchically-dismantle centralized power.
He ultimately urges readers to recognize the universal application of Leninism today and its potential to institutionally-not anarchically-dismantle centralized power.
Reviews / Votes
This book on Lenin turns into a revolutionary text, into a true manual of resistance. -- Slavoj Zizek, author of Living in the End Times There are many Lenins: in this exciting synthesis, with its emphasis on philosophy as well as praxis and on spontaneity versus organization, Antonio Negri discloses the dialectical logic of Lenin's historical situation. At the same time, by insisting on situational logic as such, he demonstrates its differences from our own today, where keeping faith with Lenin's lessons might lead to different forms. This important text from Negri's activist period is therefore a crucial document for understanding Negri's own work and positions and those of Lenin. -- Fredric Jameson, Duke University Factory of Strategy is a bracingly original and systematic inquiry into the development of the Russian revolutionary's political thought, bearing comparison with Lukacs's earlier Lenin. It doubles as a unique record of a crucial moment in Negri's trajectory as a political philosopher and activist, when questions of strategy and insurrection were foremost in his mind. Among the most accessible, accomplished, and vibrant pieces of Negri's writing, it stands out for its effort to combine political pedagogy and ideological intervention. -- Alberto Toscano, Goldsmiths, University of London, author of Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea I recommend Factory of Strategy to scholars of Lenin, of Marx, and of Negri as well as to leftist activists, though with some reservation. In this book, Negri does provide an excellent reinterpretation of the essence of Leninism -- Sean Winkler Marx and Philosophy Review of BooksMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
624 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-231-14682-1 (9780231146821)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
09/2015
Columbia University Press
€37.20
Shipment within 10-20 days
E-Book
07/2015
1st Edition
De Gruyter
from
€25.95
Available for download
Persons
Antonio Negri has taught political philosophy at the University of Padua, the University of Vincennes, and the College Internationale de Philosophie. His books include The Politics of Subversion: A Manifesto for the Twenty-First Century and Negri on Negri. Arianna Bove has translated many texts from Italian and French into English. Her work can be found at www.generation-online.org.
Content
Preface to the English Translation Preface to the Second Edition Translator's Note Part I. Lenin and Our Generation 1. Toward a Marxist Reading of Lenin's Marxism 2. From the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization (1): Economic Struggle and Political Struggle: Class Struggle 3. From the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization (2): The Working-Class Character of Organization: The Party as Factory 4. In Lenin's Footsteps from the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization: Annotations 5. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (1): Proletarian Independence 6. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (2): The Factory of Strategy 7. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (3): Organization Toward Communism 8. In Lenin's Footsteps from the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution: Annotations 9. Insurrection as Art and Practice of the Masses Part II. Lenin and the Soviets in the Russian Revolution and Some Remarks on Sovietism 10. The Soviets Between Spontaneity and Theory 11. Lenin and the Soviets Between 1905 and 1917 12. The Soviets and the Leninist Inversion of Praxis 13. The Reformist Change of Praxis: Soviets Today? 14. Verifying the Question of Whether the Soviet Is an Organ of Power 15. The Soviet Form of Masses and the Urgency of Workers' Struggle Part III. Interregnum on the Dialectic: The Notebooks of 1914-1916 16. Dialectics as the Recovered Form of Lenin's Thought 17. Lenin Reads Hegel 18. Between Philosophy and Politics: The Weapon of Dialectics Part IV. The Economic Foundations of the Withering-Away of the State: Introduction to the Reading of The State and Revolution 19. "Where to begin?" 20. The Concept of the State in General Can and Must Be Destroyed 21. Opportunist and Revolutionary Conceptions of the Withering-Away of the State 22. The Question of the "Withering-Away" of the State: Against Equality 23. First Approach to a Definition of the Material Bases of the "Withering-Away": Against Work, Against Socialism 24. Marx's Anticipation of the Problem of "Withering-Away": Against the Law of Value 25. Toward a Problematic View of Transition: Impossible Socialism and the Coming Communism 26. On the Problem of Transition Again: The Word to the Masses 27. Transition and Proletarian Dictatorship: The Particular Interests of the Working Class 28. Transition, Material Basis, and Expansiveness of the Working-Class Government 29. A Provisional Conclusion: Lenin and Us Part V. Appendix on "Left-Wing" Communism: A Conclusion and a Beginning 30. A Difficult Balance 31. A Definition of "Left-Wing" Communism, and Some (Adequate?) Examples 32. Toward a New Cycle of Struggles 33. From "Left-Wing" Communism to What Is to Be Done?