I was hoping some of y'all could recommend some marxist theory. I've read a lot of the well-known stuff (Marx, Engels, Lenin) and I plan on reading some Mao in the coming weeks. But I'm sure there's a whole lot more theory that I'm not aware of, perhaps some contemporary stuff.

Anyway, I'm open to all recommendations. Thanks in advance!

Edit: Thanks everyone. Lots of great new stuff to add to my reading list.

  • Dyno [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    From a funky ancom perspective, I like to put people in touch with the autonomist movement, because it's kinda like what if Marx and Bakunin actually got along.
    I'm not Italian though so it might all just be a buncha pizza pasta 🤷‍♂️ 🍝

      • Dyno [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        There might be - I haven't honestly read enough on either to be an authority.
        From my limited perspective I would say syndicalism is focused more on the political organisation and representation of the proletariat via institutions such as unions or syndicates in the workplace, whereas autonomism is more spontaneous, holistic, and movement-based; and is concerned with society as a whole - both in and out of the workplace.

        • elguwopismo [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Would it be fair to call autonomism like post-fordist syndicalism?

          • Dyno [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            That might be a good way to put it. As far as I understood it, syndicalism was a product of an era prior to the assembly line, with things like workers' self-management being a reasonable goal for enthusiastic workers employed in workshop-type roles, but less applicable to workers on an assembly line that couldn't care less about the mundane, tedious labour they were performing.
            Autonomism plays a lot on the alienation and division of labour, as well as including other members of the underclass that are still acknowledged in Marxism such as the reserve army of labour or precariat.

    • gammison [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Mario Tronti's workers and capital is the definitive work on this movement (at least in an Italian context) btw for anyone looking for material.

    • AStonedApe [they/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      From the wiki:

      Unlike other forms of Marxism, Autonomist Marxism emphasises the ability of the working class to force changes to the organization of the capitalist system independent of the state, trade unions or political parties. Autonomists are less concerned with party political organization than other Marxists, focusing instead on self-organized action outside of traditional organizational structures. Autonomist Marxism is thus a "bottom-up" theory: it draws attention to activities that autonomists see as everyday working-class resistance to capitalism, such as absenteeism, slow working, socialization in the workplace, sabotage, and other subversive activities.

      Like other Marxists, autonomists see class struggle as being of central importance. However, autonomists have a broader definition of the working class than do other Marxists: as well as wage-earning workers (both white collar and blue collar), autonomists also include in this category the unwaged (students, the unemployed, homemakers, etc.), who are traditionally deprived of any form of union representation.

      Early theorists (such as Mario Tronti, Antonio Negri, Sergio Bologna, and Paolo Virno) developed notions of "immaterial" and "social labour" that extended the Marxist concept of labour to all society. They suggested that modern society's wealth was produced by unaccountable collective work, and that only a little of this was redistributed to the workers in the form of wages. Other Italian autonomists—particularly feminists, such as Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Silvia Federici—emphasised the importance of feminism and the value of unpaid female labour to capitalist society.

      Yeah, this is right up my alley. Thanks for the recommendation, I'm gonna try to find Tronti's Workers and Capital as recommended by @gammison.