Antonio Gramsci: Towards an Intellectual Biography

337 Pages·2016·1.166 MB·English

by  Davidson, Alistair

AntonioGramsci
Historical Materialism
Book Series
EditorialBoard
SébastienBudgen(Paris)
DavidBroder(Rome)
SteveEdwards(London)
JuanGrigera(London)
MarcelvanderLinden(Amsterdam)
PeterThomas(London)
volume129
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/hm
Antonio Gramsci
TowardsanIntellectualBiography
By
AlastairDavidson
leiden | boston
ReprintoftheMerlin/HumanitiesPress(London/NewJersey)editionof1977.©MerlinPress,London.
WithanewintroductoryAuthor’sPreface.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Davidson,Alastair,1939-author.
Title:AntonioGramsci:towardsanintellectualbiography/byAlastairDavidson.
Description:Leiden;Boston:Brill,[2016]|Series:Historicalmaterialismbook
series,issn1570-1522;volume129|"Newedition"–Preface.|Includes
bibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:lccn2016032810(print)|lccn2016045153(ebook)|isbn
9789004326293(hardback:alk.paper)|isbn9789004326309(e-book)
Subjects:lcsh:Gramsci,Antonio,1891-1937.|Communists–Italy–Biography.
Classification:lcc hx288.g7 d322016(print)|lcc hx288.g7(ebook)|
ddc335.43092[b]–dc23
lcrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2016032810
TypefacefortheLatin,Greek,andCyrillicscripts:“Brill”.Seeanddownload:brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn1570-1522
isbn978-90-04-32629-3(hardback)
isbn978-90-04-32630-9(e-book)
Copyright2017byKoninklijkeBrillnv,Leiden,TheNetherlands.
KoninklijkeBrillnvincorporatestheimprintsBrill,BrillHes&DeGraaf,BrillNijhoff,BrillRodopiand
HoteiPublishing.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,translated,storedinaretrievalsystem,
ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise,
withoutpriorwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher.
AuthorizationtophotocopyitemsforinternalorpersonaluseisgrantedbyKoninklijkeBrillnvprovided
thattheappropriatefeesarepaiddirectlytoTheCopyrightClearanceCenter,222RosewoodDrive,
Suite910,Danvers,ma01923,usa.Feesaresubjecttochange.
Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaperandproducedinasustainablemanner.
ForMary,FrancescaandRjurik
∵

Contents
PrefacefortheNewEdition ix
Acknowledgements xxiv
Foreword xxv
NorbertoBobbio
Introduction 1
1 ACountryBoy 6
2 MakingtheCountryBoyanItalian 56
3 APhilosophyofPraxis 104
4 ‘…anInternationalFigure?’ 172
5 ARevolutionaryTheory 250
Bibliography 293
Index 306

Preface for the New Edition
i
Thestoryofhowthisbookcametobewrittenreflectsacommonexperiencein
thehistoryoftherevolutionaryLeftfrom1963–77.Asapoliticallycommitted
universitystudentintheAustraliaofthelate1950sandearly1960s,Ihadcome
torevolutionarytheoryviaareadingofLenin,Stalinandtheotherleadersof
worldCommunism.BehindmyknowledgeofLeninandStalin,Ihadapassing
knowledge of some canonical texts of Marx and Engels. Most revolutionary
socialistsofmygenerationdidnotreadtheworksoftheRussianopposition,
notablyTrotsky.Iftheywerethoughtaboutatallitwasaspasthistory.However,
encouragedbytheopennessoftheLeft-leaningProfessorManningClark,my
year at the Australian National University had read Trotsky’s History of the
RussianRevolution.
Yet,by1963,theLeninistandStalinist‘guidestoaction’weredeeplyunder
siege. The revelations about Stalin’s crimes in Khruschev’s ‘secret speech’ of
1956,alongsidetheinvasionofHungaryandmurderof‘dissident’communists
thereandthesplitbetweentheChineseandRussianCommunistmovementin
1963,meantthatLenin’sandStalin’sworkwasnolongergospelandwasopento
dispute.Moreover,theSino-SovietspliteithervalidatedorinvalidatedMao-Tse
Tung’stheoryabouthowtomakearevolution,dependingonwhichsideyou
took.Overall,thetheoreticalcontradictionsmeantthatWesternCommunists
wereseekingnew‘guidestoaction’.
The crisis of Marxism-Leninism and the search for guides to action that
weremoreefficaciousthanthoseof‘real’Communismalsoledtothere-reading
of Marx and, most importantly, the republication of his early ‘humanist’
writings,whichbecamebestsellers.AhumanistMarxism,wheretheempha-
sis was on a host of men and women ‘coming into the light’ and making
their own destinies, privileged a Marxist tradition that challenged the Com-
munist canon. Gramsci’s recently published notes appeared to contain an
essentially new view about how to make a revolution in advanced societies,
quitedifferentfromthepoliticsofLenin’sWhatIsToBeDone?(1902).Although
Palmiro Togliatti, undisputed leader of the pci since 1944, had flatly stated
in 1958 that Gramsci was a Leninist, by 1963 this view already looked like a
last ditch defence of a line in face of other interpretations; indeed, Togliatti
himselfseemedtochangehisviews.ButamongtheMarxisttheoristsofsuch
novel views, with their democratic overtones, only Gramsci had remained
a Communist and a hero of that movement. Rosa Luxemburg and Karl
x preface for the new edition
Korsch,alsotheoristsofamoredemocratic‘conciliar’communism,hadbeen
anathematised by the Communist International in the 1920s; Gyorgy Lukács
andhisfollowershadapparentlymadetheirpeacewithStalinismandlacked
credibility.
MyowndiscoveryofGramscicamein1963whileascholarshipstudentread-
ingintheBibliotecadistoriamodernainRome,notfarfromtheheadquarters
oftheItalianCommunistParty(pci)intheBottegheoscure.In1963,ayoung
socialistwhoreadGramsci’snotesinthenewishEinaudiedition(publishedin
thelate1940sandearly1950s)readhimasthefatherofItalianCommunism,
themostsuccessfulCommunistmovementinWesternEurope.TheAmerican
JohnCammett,whowasalsoinItalyatmuchthesametimeasme,readhim
inthisway.Inpracticallyallcases,wewereCommunistsor‘fellowtravellers’
intentonmakingarevolution.Inthosedays,otherLeftistswerenotinterested
inGramsci.
The‘re-discovery’ofGramscibymeandothersmightnothavetakenonthe
dimensionsitdidwithouttherepercussionsofthelatestattemptoftheUnited
StatestorollbackCommunism’sadvanceintheVietnamWar(effectivelyfrom
1962–75).Tofightthatwar,theUnitedStatesanditsallies,includingever-loyal
Australia,introducedconscription,givingrisetoamassyouthoppositionand
anti-warmovementthatbecamethepoliticalandsocialterrainofoppositional
politicalgroups.Theconservativeoppressionofsocialistrevolutionariesdur-
ingtheColdWaryearshadenjoyedpopularsupportandputallanti-system
politicsand,notably,WesternCommunism,intoaghetto.Suddenly,therewas
massoppositionagainstthestate.InAustralia,whereconscriptioncreatedan
anti-warmovementproportionatelygreaterthanthatintheUnitedStates,this
politicaloppositioncoincidedwiththebeginningofmassdemocraticeduca-
tionintheuniversities.Thenewanti-warmovementwasthusoftencotermin-
ouswiththe‘student’movement.Communistpartiesthatfortwodecadeshad
beenStalinistandworkeristhadtoconsiderandtowinthatmassofstudent
‘intellectuals’.Gramsci’stheoryappearedtoprovidethebridge.Washenotthe
theoreticianoftheroleofintellectualsincreatingbothbourgeoisandsocialist
hegemonies?
Within the Communist Party of Australia (cpa), younger leaders concen-
tratedmainlyinitsVictorianbranchhadchafedattheconstraintsplacedon
Party action by the blind adherence to Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism. In the
yearsbeforetheSino-Sovietsplit,somehadbeensenttoPartytrainingschools
in China and returned committed to the idea that Maoism was a softer and
moredemocraticversionofMarxisttheorythanthatfoundintheussr.Rex
Mortimer,BernieTaftandDaveDavieshadreadwithinterestthefamousarticle
in Nuoviargomentiin1956inwhichPalmiroTogliatticriticisedSoviettheory