Italian Marxism

The Years of Alienation in Italy

“…A discussion of alienation as a direct consequence of the dramatic changes that Italy underwent between the 1960s and 1970s did not explicitly feature in the coeval political debate; nor was it a notion with which Italian Marxism engaged explicitly (Piccone 1983). However, the collective need to discuss, represent, and denounce alienation as a contemporary phenomenon found in literature the privileged site of elaboration.…”

The post-Marxist Gramsci

“…By consequence, Gramsci's writings on hegemony and other topics have been open to various readings with different and frequently contradictory slants in their orientation. While it is illuminating to guide one's reading of the Notebooks by reference to contemporaneous developments in Marxism (see Femia, 1981;Piccone, 1983), to the wider traditions of Italian political thought (see Bellamy and Schecter, 1993;Jacobitti, 1981), or to immediate problems and issues that Gramsci faced as a political thinker and activist (see Martin, 1998a)all of which reveal different keys to unlock his insightsno contextual conditions can end speculation about what his work means nor how it might be 'applied' in new contexts. This is a bonus in many ways, but it also means that the elaboration of Gramsci's insights is powered by debates and concerns in an ever-changing present, leading to what Alistair Davidson once benignly characterised as the 'varying seasons' to studies of his work (Davidson, 1972).…”

‘Communism … is the affirmation of a new community’: Notes on Jacques Camatte

“…On 23 February in that same year, at the Sixth Enlarged Executive Meeting of the Communist International, Bordiga strongly voiced some of the same objections, here notably distinguishing himself as the last Western communist to confront Stalin in person, as the gravedigger of the revolution (Goldner 1991;Piccone 1983). 7 In his speech, Bordiga (1926b) emphasised the specificity of the Russian path to communism, and criticised the emerging 'regime of terror', stating that 'the spectacle of this session of the plenum has filled me with dark forebodings'.…”