Factory of strategy : thirty-three lessons on Lenin

367 Pages·2014·0.901 MB·English, Italian

by  Bove, Arianna, Negri, Antonio

FACTORY OF STRATEGY
INSURRECTIONS
Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture
INSURRECTIONS
Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture
Slavoj Žižek, Clayton Crockett, Creston Davis, Jeffrey W. Robbins, Editors
The intersection of religion, politics, and culture is one of the most discussed areas
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series will address a range of religious traditions and political viewpoints in the United
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After the Death of God, John D. Caputo and Gianni Vattimo, edited byJeffrey W. Robbins
The Politics of Postsecular Religion: Mourning Secular Futures, Ananda Abeysekara
Nietzsche and Levinas: “After the Death of a Certain God,” edited by Jill Stauffer and
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Strange Wonder: The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe, Mary-Jane Rubenstein
Religion and the Specter of the West: Sikhism, India, Postcoloniality, and the Politics of
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Plasticity at the Dusk of Writing: Dialectic, Destruction, Deconstruction, Catherine Malabou
Anatheism: Returning to God After God, Richard Kearney
Rage and Time: A Psychopolitical Investigation, Peter Sloterdijk
Radical Political Theology: Religion and Politics After Liberalism, Clayton Crockett
Radical Democracy and Political Theology, Jeffrey W. Robbins
Hegel and the Infinite: Religion, Politics, and Dialectic, edited by Slavoj Žižek, Clayton
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What Does a Jew Want? On Binationalism and Other Specters, Udi Aloni
A Radical Philosophy of Saint Paul, Stanislas Breton, edited by Ward Blanton, translated by
Joseph N. Ballan
Hermeneutic Communism: From Heidegger to Marx, Gianni Vattimo and Santiago Zabala
Deleuze Beyond Badiou: Ontology, Multiplicity, and Event, Clayton Crockett
Self and Emotional Life: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and Neuroscience, Adrian Johnston and
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The Incident at Antioch: A Tragedy in Three Acts / L’Incident d’Antioche: Tragédie en trois actes,
Alain Badiou, translated by Susan Spitzer
Philosophical Temperaments: From Plato to Foucault, Peter Sloterdijk
To Carl Schmitt: Letters and Reflections, Jacob Taubes, translated by Keith Tribe
Encountering Religion: Responsibility and Criticism After Secularism, Tyler Roberts
Spinoza for Our Time: Politics and Postmodernity, Antonio Negri, translated by
William McCuaig
ANTONIO NEGRI
FACTORY
of
STRATEGY
Thirty-Three Lessons on Lenin
Translated by Arianna Bove
Columbia University Press / New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2004 manifestolibri
English translation copyright © 2014 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Negri, Antonio, 1933–
[Fabbrica della strategia. English]
Factory of strategy : thirty-three lessons on Lenin / Antonio Negri ;
translated by Arianna Bove.
pages cm — (Insurrections: critical studies in religion, politics,
and culture)
Translation of the author’s Fabbrica della strategia.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-231-14682-1 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-51942-7
(e-book)
1. Communism—Soviet Union—History. I. Bove, Arianna, translator.
II. Title.
HX312.N3513 2014
335.43—dc23
2013021200
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable
acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
jacket design and art: Martin Hinze
References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs
that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
CONTENTS
Preface to the English Translation xi
Preface to the Second Edition xvii
Translator’s Note xxv
PART ONE
Lenin and Our Generation
1
1. TOWARD A MARXIST READING OF LENIN’S MARXISM
3
2. FROM THE THEORY OF CAPITAL
TO THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATION (1)
Economic Struggle and Political Struggle:
Class Struggle
15
CONTENTS
3. FROM THE THEORY OF CAPITAL
TO THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATION (2)
The Working-Class Character of Organization:
The Party as Factory
29
4. IN LENIN’S FOOTSTEPS FROM THE THEORY OF CAPITAL
TO THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATION
Annotations
40
5. FROM THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATION
TO THE STRATEGY OF REVOLUTION (1)
Proletarian Independence
50
6. FROM THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATION
TO THE STRATEGY OF REVOLUTION (2)
The Factory of Strategy
58
7. FROM THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATION
TO THE STRATEGY OF REVOLUTION (3)
Organization Toward Communism
70
8. IN LENIN’S FOOTSTEPS FROM THE THEORY OF
ORGANIZATION TO THE STRATEGY OF REVOLUTION
Annotations
78
9. INSURRECTION AS ART AND PRACTICE
OF THE MASSES
88
vi
CONTENTS
PART TWO
Lenin and the Soviets in the Russian Revolution
and Some Remarks on Sovietism
99
10. THE SOVIETS BETWEEN SPONTANEITY AND THEORY
101
11. LENIN AND THE SOVIETS BETWEEN 1905 AND 1917
113
12. THE SOVIETS AND THE LENINIST INVERSION OF PRAXIS
123
13. THE REFORMIST CHANGE OF PRAXIS
Soviets Today?
137
14. VERIFYING THE QUESTION OF WHETHER
THE SOVIET IS AN ORGAN OF POWER
144
15. THE SOVIET FORM OF MASSES AND THE URGENCY
OF WORKERS’ STRUGGLE
151
PART THREE
Interregnum on the Dialectic: The Notebooks of 1914–1916
157
16. DIALECTICS AS THE RECOVERED FORM
OF LENIN’S THOUGHT
159
vii
CONTENTS
17. LENIN READS HEGEL
169
18. BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND POLITICS
The Weapons of Dialectics
179
PART FOUR
The Economic Foundations of the Withering-Away of the State:
Introduction to the Reading of The State and Revolution
189
19. “WHERE TO BEGIN?”
191
20. THE CONCEPT OF THE STATE IN GENERAL
CAN AND MUST BE DESTROYED
203
21. OPPORTUNIST AND REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPTIONS
OF THE WITHERING-AWAY OF THE STATE
216
22. THE PROBLEM OF THE “WITHERING-AWAY”
OF THE STATE
Against Equality
224
23. FIRST APPROACH TO A DEFINITION OF
THE MATERIAL BASES OF THE “WITHERING-AWAY”
Against Work, Against Socialism
234
viii
CONTENTS
24. MARX’S ANTICIPATION OF THE PROBLEM
OF “WITHERING-AWAY”
Against the Law of Value
246
25. TOWARD A PROBLEMATIC VIEW OF TRANSITION
Impossible Socialism and the Coming Communism
255
26. ON THE PROBLEM OF TRANSITION AGAIN
The Word to the Masses
265
27. TRANSITION AND PROLETARIAN DICTATORSHIP
The Particular Interests of the Working Class
274
28. TRANSITION, MATERIAL BASIS, AND EXPANSIVENESS
OF THE WORKING-CLASS GOVERNMENT
285
29. A PROVISIONAL CONCLUSION
Lenin and Us
294
PART FIVE
Appendix on “Left-Wing” Communism:
A Conclusion and a Beginning
301
30. A DIFFICULT BALANCE
303
ix