Marx Beyond Marx Lessons on the Grundrisse CS

7/31/2019 Marx Beyond Marx Lessons on the Grundrisse CS

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Atoo Ng

MARX BEYOND MARX

Lo o th Grundrisse

Tala by Hy Clav!Mcal Rya a Maz Va

E by]m Flm

AUTONOMEDIA / PLUTO.


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is edition cpyrght 1991 Autnmedia, IncAll rights resered.

Published in the Unted States byAutnmeda

55 Suth Eleventh SeetPOB 568 Williamsburgh Statin

Brkly New Yrk 11211056 USA

Published in the United Kingdm byPlut Press

345 Archway RadLndn N6 5AA ngland

Pinted in the United States f America

Library of Congre Cataloging in Publication Data

Negi ntni 1933-Mx Beynd Mx

Trnslatin f Mrx lte MarxBiblgrphy: pInludes index1 M Kal 11-13 Grundisse der Krtik der plitischen kne 2

Mrxin ecnmics I Fleming Jim II itleHB975 M3319 N4313 194 3354'12 4302ISBN 979013ISBN 93675625X pbk

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Negri AntniMx Beynd Mrx Lessns n the Gundisse 1. itle II Fleming im

335401ISBN 074530575XISBN 0453056 pbk

rginally published in French by Cistian Bugis Editeur Pis France andin Itan by Fltinelli Milan Italy Hadcer English editin published 194

by Bergin & Gvey Publishers nc Su Hadley Massachusetts

Contents

Editor's Prefaces .vi

Author's Prefaces .. xv

Translators Introductons

Part I Har Cleaver ... x

Part II Michael Ryan... XXVll

xxxiPartIII ...

Lesson One Te Grundrisse, an Open Work

Leson Two Money Value 2

Lesson Three The Method of the Antagonstc Tendency 4

Leson Four Sulus Value Explotaton . 59Lesson Five Prot Crss Catasophe .... 85

Lesson Sx Socal Capial Word Maret . 05Lesson Seven The Theory of the Wage Its Developments . 27

Lesson Eight Communsm Transiton . 5

Lesson Nne Captalist evelopment Revolutiony Class 7

Eplogue Michae Ryan ..... 9

Biblography Ha Cleaer, Jim Femng Conrad Herod 222

Index 243


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Editos Prefce

Ts s an Engls ranslaon o on o mos crucal ocumns nEuroan Masm s ll snc mab r T ork o AnonoNgr as ar o arga momn n Ialan l knon mosasl as Aooma brngs o ralaon an orlmng n s o ossbls n or a racc o class sruggl No olcal momnn orl n 170s on u mor roluona onal orlbraon an Ialan Atooma an no rssons o s so cdNgrs n ransorma or and concual brllanc Ts book asnarl all o Ngrs orks s nllcuall manng an on ls o

casual rar rmc rcous an obscur Parl s s u o as o counrms-rs an ac bu nola rnMas radr ll n ransgrss bu rlao Par oo dcul o book can b loca n Ngrs unrsanng o an rsc or olcal cac o languag sl an nsg an aud c mab mos common rag o osar as o sucuralsmsmocs an r ancns Bu arl s srugglora nucb Ngr s somng lk a rocss a mg b call-n a maoro smulanous saraon an corncconrson T cangorurnng rsal sussson nsonmaks al rnc Buaccorng gr as bond s sll or nall s Mar

Ts book s ouc o a srs o smnars gn b Ngr n srng o 178 a l Normal Surur a naon o ous

Alussr Mor abu s can b rad n auors on Prc o orgnal on c lls s Prac along Ngrs lar no(rn ro so) o Amrcan radr T ranslaon no Englsrom 1 rc and Ialan ons as accomls b HarrClar Mcal Ran an Maurzo ano Eac o m as rnsomng or rar o s olum Har Clar as am rmarla mlan an acs aunc an ls o on ou mmaand rc olcal consquncs o Ngr's ork or rsn currns n S momn Mcal Ran n a broa summa o Ngr's or orkors a orcal and sorcal con or Atooma arculal orrars rousl unos o s ndnc Maurzo ano rs a


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viii MARX BEYOND MAX

suggestve goss on poitis as eating, o imagining, o ting, withsome hnts about the edundany o monotony, o o-optive entraityof sienti texts, soiaist above al othes. Reades inlined to movetowad these piees st shoud do so at one, and ead in any dietion theyhse. I will ontinue hee with a bief gossay of some key tems, anowledgements and a note about texts ited in this book. But, owing tots absene sewhee in Engish, and its useness fo the events in the ifeof Negi subsequent to the omposition of x Bod Ma, a bief biogaphy may be in ode.

Antonio Ne?i ws bon in 1933 in Padua Italy At age 23 he gaduatedwth a degee phosophy and with a dissetation on Geman histoiismFo the two yeas foowing, 195758, he studied with Chabod at theBenedetto Co Institute fo Histoia Studies in Naples. In 1959-uiteyoung, by Italian standads at that timhe won a pofessoship in Phiosophy of Law. Unti 1967, he was an assistant teahing at Padua, and inthat yea he won the pofessoship in Dotine of the State Maied to PaoaMeo, Negi beame fathe in 1964 to a daughte and in 1967 to a son.

At P beginning in the late 1960s, a group of eputable sholas

began to fom, oming to inude Segio Bologna, Luiano Fea Bavo,Feruio Gambino, Guido Bianhini, Sando Seani Aisa de Re, andMaaRosa Daa Costa (whose witings on feminist theory spaked an intenation debate) Thei pesene made the Instiute fo Poitial Sienesa nationa and intenational ossoads fo adial thought.

In

additin

to his ademi ife, egi maintned an intense poitiaand ounast ommtment By 1956 he was aready the dieto of I Bothe oal of stuent epesentation at Padua Univesity In 1959, eetea mupal ounlman fo the Italian Soiaist Pary, he dieted the jounalof the Padua setion of the Paty, IPoeso Veeto He held this post until1963, the y of the rst enteleft oalition (the aliane of the ChistianDemoats and the Soialist Paty in the Itaian govenment), when he aso

e the Soiaists The summe of 1963 had been hot Veneto had undegone a apid tansfomation fom sleepy ual village into an uban industiaente. I n a peiod in Itay in whih the Communist Paty had tunedtowads extenal objetives (eg getting Italy out of NATO), the Italianwokng lass was baely unionized and hady oganized. But it was ongthese woes that Negi had begun to move In Augt 1963, a supplementto

Poesso eeto ws issued entitled Potee peaio Wokes Powe).

Also that month, Negi, Paoa Meo and Massimo Caiai a wel-knownphiosophe and late paliamentaian fo the Communist Paty) oganizeda ouse to

.ead Maxs Capial among the wokes of the Poto Maghea

peto-hemal ente In the same peiod, Quai Rosi(Red Notebooks)was stated in Tuin, but with editoia boads aso in Mian, Rome, andadua Quai Rosiwas the magazine that, unde the dietion of Rainieo

Edito's Peae

Panziei and Romano Aquati, st gave voie to the theoy of woking lassautonomy Negi, Segio Bologna, Maio Ton, Albeto Aso Rosa, andmany othe of the best Italian left intelletuas patiipated in its publiationand out of (usualy fiendy) splits in Quai Rosi thee late appeaed, ode, Clae Opeaia (Woking Clas) Cotopiao (Countelanning),and othe jounals addessing the same oneptual elds. By 1967, Potee

Opeaio had beome the jounal of the wokers at the lage Maghea petohemia plant. Negis ollaoation thee led to late ollaboations on aegula bis with many othe publiations, like AutAut the phiosophyjounal edited by Enzo Pai, and Ciica l Diitto the jouna of thedemoati magisttes whih publishes essays on the philosophy of aw .

he tumutuous yea 1968, whih bought neaevolution to Fane,began in Itay in 1967 and stayed fo neay a deade. Contay to theexpeiene esewhee in Euope, whee students and wokes ited butpated ways, in Italy the student nd woes stuggles meged By thehot autumn of 1969, Negi had foused his politia ativties aound themassied toy and aound issues seldom adequately addessed by theunions: safety, edution of speed on the assembly lines, woke dsiplineThe l season of 1969 bought the fomation of a numbe of goups to theleft of the Italian Communist Paty with names ike Lotta Contin (Stugge Continues), Avanguadia Operaia (Wokers Vaguad), MovimentoStudenteso (Student Movement, late okes and Students Movement), and Potee Opeaio This poitial fomation, afte its jounal,aimed Negi its most famous theoetiian This goup would suviveuntil 1973, whenunde the impetus of the Communist Patys HistoiCompomise stategy of aiane with the uing Chistian Demoatsitled a numbe of simila but less deveoped goups into autodissolution.

By 1973 many of Negis basi onepts had been fomed, and it is fomthis peiod that the bith of Autoomia an b xed, beginning with theautonomous ommitees inside the fatoies, whih wee now in lagemeasue led with a younge and moe militant geeation of wokes,

estless and hostile to al died ideologies and pties, left o ight. Theefusa of the oganizationa foms bon out of the sixties now widely heldto be steie and epetitive, and the denition of new needs and objetivesfo libeating eveyday fe fom labo time, wee the themes tha uniteddispaate autonomos gups, goups othewise vey dieent in thei aties Womens goups, students, wokes, adia youth, ultual gues,eologists d envionmentalists "autonomous olletives polifeated atthe magins whih emaied invisibe to taditional "woking lass anayses.Fee adio stations lie Radio Aie in Bologna played a lage ole in thesoaled Sping Rebelion, whih bought many of these autonomists intothe steets in potest of the politis of austeiy and saie that eveybodyinuding the unions and the Commuist Patyemanded of the

woing lass


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MARX BEYOND MARX

soa whoe Ths ey, through the resa o work was the overaorntaton towar the strategy o me omum n the absen o thsstrategy at ths ye o the strugge ons ou be nenteyeerre The oveent towar ouns wou be aa e-alzaoone ourring as a strugge or -appopao o the ass atera senterest Capita rsponse s through the anage rss to revaorze work

through ocal om, e. to eore the wagework neus an unpaisurpus work ovr soety by ans o the State This nvoves the soiaworker the tenson o the ass worker nto the spher o th soiareprouton o apta or nto epouo Batts here take pa ovrunpai abor housework shoong aptast ors o soaty anythngwhh bears the work reaton wthout th wage. n the proutve sphror n th atory th strugge s or the pota wage or away rohearha or vsive ors o qaton or renueraton The way nwhh apta anages th rss as a eans to oriby reimpose thewagework reation s reerre to as the Se Ths s a ursory ntroution to a nuber o ut an eatng onepts an whie t ayhep the rear through soe passages o the prsnt voue t an harysubsttute or sous rang in th arger terature o Auooma

A bibography o Antono Negr's major wok an o Engshanguagework on Auooma s oun at the bak o the book Most reaers ghtbe best serve by onsutng rst or rther rang or or assstan wthhs book the ne anthooges eite by the Conerene o Soast Eonomsts an R Notes n Britan an by Seotete) in New York.

Th tatons to the Guen ths transaton are to th Penguin Bookseton transate an wth a orewor by Martin Noaus pubishe nMese Engan an New York as w as Austa Canaa an NewZeaan Ctatons our n the or Gue, p 43;44 13) the seonpage itaton in eah ase s to the Geran eton o 193 pushe bythe Detz Verag Bern Ctations to apalare to Voue One ntroue

by Ernest Mane an transate by Ben owkes Vntage Books etonNw York. Whre it has been pubshe n Engsh the Mar/Enges orresponene ite n the tet s ro Sau K Paover The Lee of KMax Engwoo Cs NJ Prente Ha) 199 Where unavaabeesewhr we have prove our own transaton Ctatons to Rososkyare to Roan Rososky e Mak of Max apal transat by PeteBurgess Lonon: Puto Press) 19. Othr itatons ro the taan etonrean as ite by Negri hse Vtaj Vygoskj ouoe a "Ge Max L Nuova taia renze 194 Sergo Boogna Moa e Max copoee a N Yok aly Tbue in BoognaCarpgnanoNegr e oazzazoe opaa etrn Mano 194. Theirustans o the wrting o the orgna perhaps nsstat a asuaatttue towar som esser reerenes an we have not sought to ouent

Eo Pae Xl

urther what the author et no obgaton to o hise n ths ugentan n other atters genray about the ert o this eton bear theprary responsibity

wou ke to aknowege her a number o peope who were ruato the work on ths book The greatest ebt s owe the three transators

Harry Ceaver Mhae Ryan an Maurizo Vano Harry Caver aso prou the n an i ost o the pooraing. Syv Coyau hepewth nnuerabe atters reate to pubaton rights an ageeents JBergin o Bergn Garvy Pubshrs was a pre over in seeng the bookto ompeton as we as beng otte to th subjet itse erruioambno Siva eer eorge Caentzs an John Downing hp withtransatons probs nterpretatons gave ave or oserate PterBe proue a rat on whh uh o th Bbography ou b base.Pter Lnbaugh hpe onut reations wth R Nots an t he Conerno Sast Eonosts n Lonon an E Eory an Les Levow wrebetter orresponents onernng ths voume than was aso ow to Notes an CSE uh hep wth atera. The etion o emoexe) teby Syvere Lotringr an Chrstan Marazz was nstrue

rta n ge

:tng the

prot o the groun An Lewann Jons ma the prot pobe romthe outset

N f h Pabk

The bibioaphy of works in he AutonomistMarxist traditionhas

een revised, extendeddupdated or theAutonoediaI Plutopaper-

bac edition.

he auor reains in exie in Paris where he continues writing

teaching, and organizing.

Additiona hanks orassistingwi this newedition go to AnnBeach

Roger Van Zwenbrg Michael Hardt, Brian Massumi d Gayai

Spiak


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l MR BEYD MR

Pon I dn lk argumn ad hon alwas as r hs wh arn h usd In ral hr n jal I am cranl subjcd bh hlaw valu and h law surplus valu Cncrzd n an mmns ssm dmnan h wgh n m n an unbarabl waF Man Tha curs s jus whas sad n Max Beyond Max and Idn undrsand hw u al ralz ha Th capals suprsssn

h law valuwha Marx calls h prcss ral subsumpnslcas h rlans xplan as a whl I ransrms xplann a glbal scal rlan Jal quals acrPon I dn nd b prsuadd ha h wrld s a prsn bu hw g u F Man Th gra prblm ha s psd n Max Bond Max s ha h dnn anagnsm n hs ral subsumpn Wha ds man sruggl agans capal whn capal has subjugad all lvd m nnl ha h wrkng da u all all Rprducn s lk pr-ducn l s lk wrk hs lvl brak wh capal s a prsn brakPon I sems m ha hs scalld psmdrns hrs dsclsh scal pnc capal bu b rcgnzng ha capal ccups hwhl sc h dn h pssbl class sruggl a hs lvF Man Su h psmdrnss ms In ral h peran ral subsumpn ds n lmna h anagnsm bu rhr dsplacs h scal lv Class sruggl ds n dsappar s ransrmdn all h mmns vrda l Th dal l a prlaran s psdas a whl agns h dmnan capal Th ral subsumpn ar rmlmnang h anagnsm mmnsl nrchs Pone ka cqu h law valu s cvnss nl a hscal lvl h smulanus dsplacmn dmnan and class srug-gl Lk praccall hw ds all hs wrkF Man: I wrks n h al vrda l: M l agans ursu dg h scal Masr! M m agans urs ll h prblms

xplan ar b nw mmda plcal prblms nl whn w kpn mnd h crqu surplus valu whn h ramwrk h ralsubsumpn nl hn d w hav h capac r submng a cm-muns crqu h prsn undamnal plans r dmnan Pon Class anagnsm n h psmdrn wrld Ma ur rghThn mans a hs pn llng wh a maral cnn h srugglagans pwrF Man Prcsl In h cnvcn ha h sruggl agans h capalsrganzan prducn h jb mark h wrkng da hrsrucuran nrg aml l c all hs nvlvs h plh cmmun h chc lsl T b cmmun s da mans o a a mmuns

Auho P!a

Pon: Ths I hnk s pssl vn n prsn Bu n usd a lasunl u r us alF Man: 'r rgh Max Byond Ma sas hs Bu dn prnd al mpanc whn u knw v wll ha h allws u cp

End dalgu Ths wh l h rman aln naurall hp Hp havng sad h ruh and ha h ruh s rvlunar n mbracr u al

Rbbba Prsn


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Introduction

I

s and oemos Anono Negs Bnd a s a boo o evouona mans Foma he boo s a eadng o ax's Gndia sweepng enepeaon o he ena hus and paua deveopmenso axs 185 noeboos Bu s moe han ha Bynd sabove a a passonae poa wo desgned o pesen an aenave oohodox nepeaons o a b demonsang how he Gndi onans a axs sene o ass sugge and evouon n aon To aom

psh hs demonsaon Neg weaves ogehe a ee poem and adeaed examnaon and enepeaon o he ex se Bnd s a du boo and s du eaes he dange ha s sudw be med o aadem axss. Ths woud be ag We have ededand ansaed hs o no o onbue anohe voume o he sheveso Engshspeng axss bu o pu a new and exng weapon nohe hands o wongass mans Howeve du Bnd aa beand s du sems boh om he aw ompexes o heGnd se and om Negs own heoea anguags sud smoe han woh he eo o an man seeng new was o undesandand use axsm o ome o gps wh wong ass sugge n he pesenss

Fo Neg he Gndi epesens he summ o ax's evouonahougha summ ha an povde a poweu oundaon o evouona poa pae He onass he Gndi o Cpi whh heoe pons ou has oen been nepeed n an objes and deemns ashon o us eaona pos Neg agues ha s hadeo do hs wh he Gndi. In hese noeboos we dsove a ess poshedbu moe passonae ax wng evesh a no he nghs o he sso 1857 The Gndi s no peude o Capia no ough da o a aemoe maue wo

Rahe s he Gndiha s he boade moe sweepng wo and s hee ha we an nd he hes mos ompee wong hough o

xx


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Xl MARX BEYOND MARX

doinate living labor power,through its stage as industrial proletariatto its full developent as revolutionary class at the level of social reproduction Two subjects,locked together by the power of the one to doinatethe other,but never the less two historcal ubject, each with the power toact to seize the initiative in the class struggle.

What has happened to capitalist hegeony? To the objectivity of capitals

laws of otion? To the location of the sources of capitalist growth in thecopetitive interaction of capitalists Fro the point of view of the developing working-class subject,capitalist hegeony is at best a tenuous,oentary control that is broken again and again by workers' struggle Weshould not confuse the ct that capitalists have so far ben able to regaincontrol with the concept of an unchallengeable hegeony In a world of twoantagonistic subjects,the only objectivity is the outcoe of their conictsAs in physics,where two vector forces create a resultant force whose directionan agnitude is distinct fro either of the two so too in the class strugglethat constitutes the developent of capital the laws of otion are theunplanned outcoes of confrontation However in the developent of thisclash of subjectivites the continual developent of the working class fro

doinated labor power to revolutionary class (a growth in the relativestrength of the working class vector) increasingly underines capitalist control and iposes its own irections on social developent Because of this,copetition aong capitalists is less a driving force and ore what Negricalls "sordid faily quarrels over which anagers are at best iposingdiscipline on the working class

It is this analysis of workingclass subjectivity that infuses Negris workwith iediate relevance to those in struggle. In this period when capitalis trying to wield scal an onetary policy as weapons against the workingclass,Negris analysis helps us see that capitalist crisis is always a crisis inits ability to control the working class A global crisis such as the presentone Negri argues,can only be produced by the cobined and copleentar struggles of the worlds working classes operating siultaneously

in production an reproductiont the highest level of socialization InNegris reading we discover all of this at that abstract and general level Marxcould reach writing in the idst of crisis in 1857. But we can also exainethese abstractions within the concrete deterinations of our own situationand struggles within capitalis egris work is clearly conceived with sucha project in ind An isnt this always the ost exciting aspect ofMarxis its usefulness for exploring our own transforative power as livingsubjects

The reading begins with Marx's own rst notes: on oney oney in thecrisis and ultiately oney as power Within and behind oney Marxdiscovers value and the social relatons of production At the social level

Intrducton Xl1

oney is (above all) capitalist power over labor But capitalist power overlabor is the ability to force people into the labor arket,to force people towork for capital in production,and to coerce surplus labor in the laborprocess hat could be ore relevant toay when capital is using onetarypolicy at boh the national and international levels as a weapon againstworkingclass consuption? Moreover,that onetary attack on consuptionis aied directly at forcing people to work and at controlling the exchange

btween labor and capital so that prots (surplus labor are increasedEven at this stage Marxs arguentsnd egris analysis of Marx

surprise us with their topicality their ability to infor the present. Yet ifMarx had stopped here he would have been just one ore Marxist peeringdeeply into the nature of capitalist exploitation He doesn't

As egri points out,Marx is keenly aware that capitas power to extortsurplus labor is a power exerted over an other whose own active subjectivityust be harnessed to capitals esigns Ma explored this subjectivity andsaw that it fought the priitive accuulation of the classes the forcedcreation of the labor arket and the forced subission of people to the livesof workers He explored this subjectivity and saw that it trugges ganstbeing fred t rk.

Although he paints a true horror story of living labor being doinatedby capitalistcontrolled ead labor Marx also makes clear that living laborcannot be killd o totally or capital itself would die The irony of capitalistreproduction is that it ust assure the continued reprouction of the livingsubject The antagonis is recreated on higher and higher levels as capitaldevelops What begins as the horror of zobielike dead laor being suoned against living labor,becoes,over tie an increasingly desperateattept by capital to protect its own existence against an everorepowerl-and-hostile working class Capital can never win totally once and forever It ust tolerate the continued existence of an alien subjectivity whichconstantly threatens to destroy it. What a vision capital living in everlastingfear of losing control over the hostile class it has brought into existence!This is the peacefully placid capitalist hegeony of traitional Marxisturne inside out becoe a nightare for the ruling class

When surplus labor (value) takes on its onetary for of prot,it becoesa socialized surplus value at the level of social capital It ecoes both apole and a sure of the antagonistic developent of apital At this pointthe law of capitalist crisis eerges in the Grundrisseas the continuing contradiction between the working class as necessary labor and capital as surpluslabor The ost fundamental dynaic of that law produces the tendencyof the rate of prot to fall This tendency,which has been for so longystied by Maists becoes in Negris interpretation of Marx an easilyunderstood anifestation of the way working-class struggle blocks capitalistdevelopent Although we can critique part of Negris forulation (it isnot necessar to argue that workingclass struggle raises necessa labor as


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xxiv MARX BEYOND MARX

long that truggle force capital to raie the orgnic compoition of capitalthrough it reltive urpluvalue trategy) the baic thrut i keen andrevealing It i the continued workingcla preure on cpital that ccen-uate the contradiction n create crii Every time capitl repon toworker' demand by expnding xed cpitl and reorganizing the laborproce the working cla politically compoe itelf in a new cycle oftruggle The full implication of thi proce become cler in Negri reding

of Max fragment on mchine We ee how the frntic accumuation ofxed cpital leave le an le cope for cpital to impoe work nd toextract uplu work thu undermining the vey bai of capitalit commanThe more vlue capita et in motion the maller the proportion of urpluvalue it i able to extort Today a capital proceed to ubtitute ever morerobot machine for increingly thretened and threatening indutril worker it face the very problem Max foraw in the Grundrisse: growingifculty in nding new way of putting people to work in order to controlthem ocially

Thi nlyi of the workingcla ubject at the point of prouction ithen diplaced in Marx' analyi to the phere of circultion Here Negricarelly bring out Max' rgument that circultion i the inew which

organize and tie together not only all of the eprate mment of prouc-tion but alo all of the ocial conition of reprouction Circulation involvethe ocialization of capitalit emergence ocil capital But gain were not left with imply an ode to the comprehenivene of capitlit hegemony By exploring Marx analyi of the twoided character of the wageNegri i able to bring out how the wage nction for the working cla.Thi i the domain of mallcale circultion: of the exchange of lbor powerfor the wage and the ubequent exchnge of the wage for uevaluethoeproduct of neceay labor which ti workingcla need The wge hereppear a workingcla power to impoe it need and the extent of thatpower i only determined by the cla truggle itelf

Once more we can tuy tht unuual but inpiring viion of capitltriving deperately to contain an autonomouly eveloping workingclaubject hellbent on the continuou extenion nd diverication of it ownproject and need at the me time that it increasingly refue cpitalitcontrol via the impoition of urplu labor Are we not once gain at mot contemporay moment of the nalyi Wht were the 1960 and1970 if not a imultaneou exploion of both autonomou need nd of therefual of cpitalit work? Wht are the 1980 if not a renewed capitalitoffenive to contain the exploion of need to roll them back through aviciou attack on conumption on the wage?

Negri argue that the nalyi reache it highet development in Marxat the level of the world market where capitalit imperiali eeing theobtacle creted by cla truggle at home prea it cla antgonim

Intrductin x

acro the globe Thi i the moment of the world market but lo of theglobal ctoy and the international working cla From thi point oncapital can only rend to workingcl ttack by reorganizing it moderninutri appatu internationlly an by attempting to reorgnize theglobal reproduction of labor and the labor market I thi not the preentproject of cpial in the crii? I not what i called reindustrialization"ctully capitalit retructurtion eigne to decompoe tht workingclpoer which creted the crii and to create new codition for development?Certainly it i trying to do thi in many wy in many countrie.

But the crii continue beue o far capitl h iled to achieve thidecompoition An that failure i imultaneouly a meau of the powerof the working cla to protect the ground it ha gained and even in plceto puh foward it offenive. To liten to the drning litnie of traditionlxit hymn to cpitalit power i to be overwhelmed and exhuted bydoomaying To rea Negrind through him Marxi to b invigortedwith the ene of workigcla movement and ynamim It i to ee thetenuoune of capitalit control nd the real tngible poibilitie of itdetruction!

At the end of thi book Negri take up directly the cental iue riedby the emergence of workingclas ubjectivity: revlutin, the en of cpitlim and the cretion of a new ociety The bulk of hi dicuion of theeiu i reminicent of the Communist Manfst, he outline the implictionof hi reading of the Grundrisse for the emergence of the new ocietyCommunim (he retain Marx word for it)nd reject other contemporarypoition

In the language of traditionl Marxim, revolution an the emergence ofa new ociety ha alway been adreed the quetion of the trnitionof the psage through ocialim to communim Negri rgue forcibly thatthi i totaly inconitent with Ma nalyi in the Grundrisse The onlytranition" in that work i the reverl nd overthrow of all of capitl

deterination by the revolutionary ubject. Becaue capitl' centrl meanof ocial domination i the impoition of work an urplu work the ubordination of neceay labor to urpl labor Negri ee that one of thetwo mot ndamental apect of workingcla truggle i the truggle

agast wrk. Where prot i the meure of capitlit development andcontrol Negri rgue tht the real of work meaure the tansition outof capital The real of work appear as contituting pri tht producea new mode of production in which the capitalit reltion i revered andurplu labor i totally ubordinate to workingcls need

The econd poitive ide to revolutionary tuggle i the elabortion ofthe selfdetermined multiple project of the working clas in the tim etfree from work nd in the tranformation of work itelf Thi elfdeterminedproject Negri cllse-valrizatin Communim i thu contituted both by


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MARX BEYOND MARX

the refusal of work that destroys capitals impose uniy and by the self-valorization that builds diversity and rich indendet multilateraty

By this tie sould be clear that N rejects socialism s at b estan advance fr of capitalism His majr objtion is that while scialismis understod planned redistribution of income and poperty it invariably etains he lanned imposition of work and thus ils to escape thedynamic of capitalist extortion of surplus work and the sdation ofneeds to cumulation Any existing socialist regime or os\ rty pro-gram cld be taken as an example But the point is ore han a critiqueof the Italian Communist Partys participaton in the im sition of austerityor of the Soviet labor camps It is an afrmation tha t the concept of socia lismhas never grasped the real ssu: the abolition of work or he libeation ofsociety from narrow producti tishism Socialism ca only constitute arepressive alternat to the copse of market capitalis moe advancedlevel of capitalist plannin the levl of the state oday, when there isa growing socialist Vment in the United States caling for nationalplanning the nationaaon of industy, and more jobs, Negris argu-ments desee the closest attention.

Negri also rejects all utpn approaches to the coneptualization of the

en of capitalism ery much in the tradition of Max's own denunationof topianism Negri refuses to think of the sition in terms of theachievement of some preconceived goal, howevr ldable At this pointscientic Marxism not only demands that the pse movement be followedforward into the future, but Negri argues we ust also recognize that thismovement occurs without determinacy o telology In this intepretationof Marx we are simultanously freed from the blinding romanticism of utopiaand the paralysing wight of determinism The central present movementthat will consttut the future is that of the revolutionary subject as itreverses capitals detrinations and constitutes its own selfvalorizationThe antagonistic logic of workingclass separation reaches its conclusion asit explods and estroys capital dialectic It explodes all binary formulae

as Negri says busting the dialectical integument and liberating a multi-dienional and everchanging set of human needs and projects.As we discover the revolutionay subject to be both selfconstitutng and

rich in multi laterality we are also i mliitl y freed of the traditiona l orga-nizational formula of the party The is no place here for any narrowformulation of class interest to be interpted by a revolutionay lteThere is only the multiplicity of autonomouslydetermined needs and projects Although Negri does not take up the issue of revolutionary organiaiohereit is not his project at this pointhe does strongly eject one vaianton the party theme a voluntarist violence that only negates capitalist violence which by not being organized on the material basis of revolutionayselfvaorization lls into tsm This is one of the many points in hiswork that shows his distance from and antagonism toward those armed

Introduction XXVl

vanguards" with which the Italian state has sought to associate him as anexcuse for imprisoning him.

To sumupNegri's exposition ofMarxs li ne of argument in theGrundrisse:

capitalism is a social system wit t subjectivities, in whic h one subject

(capital) otrols the other subject (working class) through the imposition of

work and rplus work The logic of this control is the dialectic which

constrains huan development within the limits of capitalist valorization.Therefore, the central struggle of the working class as independent subject

is to bre capitalist control through th refusal of work The logic of this

refusal is the logic of antagonisticseparation and its realization undermines

and destroys capitals dialectic n the space ined by this destruction the

revolutionay class builds its own independent prjects-its own se-vlor

ization. Revolution then is the sim ultaneous overthrow of capital and the

constitution 0/ a new society: Communism The resal of work become the

planned abolition of work as the basis of the constitution of a new ode o f

producing a new multidimensional society

What are h ilications of learning to read the categories of Maxs

analysis politiall? For one thing we can now readdress the question of

Capital. Ne absolutely correct when he points out that Capitalhas oftenbeen ineted in an objectivist asion But it should now be clear that

there is an lternative Once we have learned to recognize and avoid the

traps of objectivism and to cary out a oitical or class analysis of Marxs

categories we can read Caital (or any of Maxs writings) in this manner

There are many aspects ofMarxs analysis in the Grundrisse which are more

carelly and lly explored in Capital Certainly we can gain fm the study

of this material When we do read Caital politically I ha tried to do

elsewhere we generate an interpretation that is not only largely consistent

with the main lines of Negris book but which sharpens and enriches the

analysisthe fruit of the te n years of Mas wo rk from 1857to 1867 , when

the rst volume of Capital appeared.

We follow Marx's path beyond Max" when we read Max politically,

from wit hin the class struggle, and when we c ritique Max from the vantage

point of our own need . It is precisely this kind of reading and critique that

Negri ha carried out It is this that makes his work va luable and exciting

Harry Cleaver


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II

Max Bond Max cnn ly undrsd pr rm is hsricl ndis hrcl cnx In h cnclusin which llws h rnslin Iw dscri hs hr wrings Ngrs h prvd hrcl cnxr h k Hr I wll gv vry r dscrpin h hsriclcnx s wll s shr dnin h nn unmy

Th xrprlimnry li in Ily s ppsd h cmmunis ndscilis prs whch ngg n prlimnry civiy) k n h rly6 wih h pulcin h urnl Quadni Roi nd h nwsppra oaia h hrcns wr Mr Trn Rnir Pnziri SrgiBlgn nd nni Ngr I n 96 7 Trni i nd h Cmmunis Pry) his m ls nw milincy gn mrg in h crs r lnghy prid lr pc n h 5s Th xrprlimnry r ls

crqu in h 6 ws drcd gins h SsPlnnr cus wihh cnrl clin gvrnmn 965, rs mp ws md inIly inrduc Kynsn plnnng Th lis crics ppsd h nnh cplism ws rm msplnning which culd crrcd yplnnng h cus hir nlyss ws h mss wrkr Th sudnmvmn h l 60s cmid wh n xplsin ndpndnwrkrs uprsngs n h cris (spcilly h umil plns) ld h rmin Po oaia wrkrs pwr) s wll s hr grups suchs Loa oninua cninuus sruggl) nd i Manifo Th slgns Pooaa wr h rusl wrk mprclly s snsm nd sgnd in prncpl s h dnl h lw vlu which slishs lsquivlnc wn hurs wrkd nd wgs pid whil pring rldisquivlnc wgs pd nd vlu prducd) nd h plicl rscil wg cll r grr wgs i ndpndn prduciviy I clldisl h pry insurrcin In 97, n cnmic wll s pliccrckdwn gins h mvmn gn By 973 hr ws gr dl

repression in the factores. In 1974 the ol criss began to be used againstthe workers, creating a large amount of unemployment for the rst time inpswr Ily In 1973, Po oaia disslvd nd h unmy Mv-ment as such came into beng (See the journal Potere operaia, anno v no5 Nvmr 97 3 r n ccun h rkup}

hs im hrcns lik Ngri gn spk h nd hlw vlu h rplcmn cpils xplin y cpils dm

viii

Inoduion x

nn Th suggl ws nw purly plcl Th cpllr nxus wsn lngr dnd y h dmcric mdl xchng u insd y drc rln rc his pin s wll Ngri gn rmul hcncp h scil wrkr md up n nly indusrl wrkrs uls yuh sudns undr nd unmplyd Wmn s huswrkrswr ls ncludd n his cgry u hy wr nvr sn in ny rdrsns hn simply s unmplyd r nnwgd Fr dscussin hs

issu s oa a aa, " iia auonoia finia, msriln 4 npr 97 7 Th pliicl r scil wg cm h hing rrnging ghr cry wrkrs nd unmplyd This rmuln drn rvluinry suc ws sn s ncssry cus h mphsisn indusril wrkrs wg sruggls durng h 6 ws md ncvy h cplss us nin h rsng h css rprducinglrpwr Hnc h sruggls hd rdnd includ h sl-rducn nrgy css plicl shpping h dirc pprpriin wlh) pulic spnding srvcs Th sphr rprducn cm rrin sruggl (This shi xplns h imprnc hi s im JimCnnrs Fia Cii of h Sa r h Iln mvmn ) In ddinh nw srgy ws mn cunr h CPI dlgy prdcivlr whch mn h h pry supprd cplis dvlpmn cusi vnully ld h rmn prduciv wrkrs Th scr undr nd unmplyd wr ignrd y h pry w hich ccpd usriyprgrms (cus n pulc spnding h ngivly cd h unmplyd)r h sk grr cncy r mr cpilis dvlpmn

Thr wr n mr dvlpmns unl 97 5 , wrshd yr whchmrkd h d unmys ld slgns Th cll r mr mny rlss wrk n lngr succdd cus h lvl pwr h wrkrs hddiminishd Inn nd sclng unmplymn wr king hir llIn ddn nw lvls rprssin wr rchd nd n mpd cupmd scsm sm rl lrniv nw scil suc mrgd p-mzd y h nhppi mrplin Indns This suc ws chrc-rizd y n mphss n drugs cmmuns nds nd lrn rms

suvl I rcd discipln ldrshp nd hry lng wh hwmns mvmn i mrkd mr dprur rm h rdiinl lismdl rgnzin Ths dvlpmns pvkd chng lin in hunmy Mvmn

Th cin ld y Ngri ws lss Lnnis h n ld y Frnc Piprnmr Lnnis Ngri rgud h i ws n lngr ssil rgin inh cry n culd nly rs rc cus h rln wih h sws nw pur rln rc H clld r h dirc kvr hs n shuld n rgin rund wrk h rgud u in sd kvr h cris xrcs cunrpwr y crng lrd zns hwuld r h prduciv rcs nd prgur cmmunism Th cll rus wrk ws mud cus h lw vlu h rgulr wrk n


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xxx ARX BEYOD ARX

onge hed apa no onge needed woe beae ehnoogy madewoe dpenabe he mpoane of he e wa neaed by heaby of mahne o epae woe eg new aeg foma waevaoaon ha wong fo onee a a a aeng one ownneed a pmay o apa' need fo vae n many way e vaoaongve heoea expeon o he pogam of he newy emegen oabe of he ae 7 he a gea wave of many on he pa o he

Aonomy ovemen oed n 1977; he de epeon of he movemen hogh he mponmen o eade ame n 1979he exapaamenay movemen o whh he Aonomy Movemen

a pa aed whn he age ommn adon b ao maa dena o ha adon The mpoan onep o ndeandng hadena he ea of wo whh deed n pa agan ennmwhh epeen he ayoaon and nonbeaon o wo and hdnenaona oam, whh meey epeen apa deveopmen na dfeen fom Aonomy a a movemen and a a heoy oppoe henoon ha apam an aona yem whh an be made aonahogh pannng nead ame he woe vewpon pvegnghe avy a he eve of evoonay paage and a ha whh aone

an on a ommn oey Eonom een a beng eneypoa eonom eaon ae de poa eaon o beweena be And n he eonom aegoy o he oa woe non an aenaed poa om e he pay, ha he nave fo poahange ede he wod aonomy" m be ndeood n gh o hhoa and heoea onex name a ombnaon o anandeadam wh pheeofepodon avm The wod aonomy" a named he ndependene and epaaon o he wong a omapa deveopmen By pvegng ef by vaong own needhe a od bve he vaoaon o apa whh dependen onhe bodnaon of woe The wod ha aqed he addona meanngof ha aea o poeaan onen gge and oganaon whh ndepende of he anoned non o he podve" wong

ahe non and he poa pae And nay aonomy namehe hef haae o he be n he ommn oey whh one om own maea podve poena

hae Ryan

III

Afe Hay eave ha hown he man wegh o hee n ne eon and afe hae Ryan ha oned he hoa and exa gowh ofeg wng boh n h nodon and Epoge fee ha myodoy a e ha o pepve nfomaon han of nfomapovoaon Ade an magnay bode beween he US and ay a foh (povoae he voe o bee m voe he a omng fomboh deon Theeoe h w be nehe he oe o he mo appopae poa eadn g no he ofe o he onneon beweenMarx BondMarx and ohe a obe n he aemp o maeae a onex nhe on o exhang he oay of he deemnaon of he ;xWha n fa he ppoe of a onex f no ha o enng a paewhee he pee w a a f he aaon ea he one ha

mae n aadem de{od a ome pon be a peen a heeo aow he oe eadng whh ee a ex agan any beveappopaon? o a onex hen b a peex no nfomaon bpovoaon he moon of my wod won be ha o a nea oneqenaexpoon b w be ha o an appaeny ea wandeng

To wande he avy o hoe who n away fom aeped beeand exend n an ega oe; o wande he avy of hoe who dono have a xed denaon, and ye depe mmoby eem haSpnoa wandeed agan he gan o onempoay non nhe envaged he egmae non of a negave hogh pa deen"

h a onng pax And an be ad ha even ax wa wandeng eah of an, " when he vaed he mdenay of omm

nm h a o ndeand ha eg ao wandeng beyondhe magn o an ohodox phoophng n an neay baane beweenhe ne o a aed onoogy and he eeoogy o hoe who move af hey poeed he oe oodnae

o wande hen bnd o he gamoo oo of he pay ne whh

e neon banne poae and deeve he eye y o eod he ondwhh an bee aompany a a onda, he mage ha my wodbead ogehe And my ea oed o ah he voe omng om bohone, ae mmedaey aaed by he eene hmmng o he nonaed meda n ay whhby ve o he monopoy o he

XXX


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XXXl MARX BEYOND MARX

channelscan conceive themselves as the vox populi" and really constitutethe totality of the information upon which the public opinion is formed.

A typical example of this media effect comes to us in these very days Imwriting this introduction: newspapers and V. stations emphasize the arrestof Franco Piperno in Canada and report impartially" the charges againsthim, hile dening him as the leader, or one of the leaders, of Autonomia.Again, then, terrorism and Autonomia are linked by the newsmakers; again

the collective imaginary of the nation is shaped in the direction of an as-sociation between Autonomia and Red Brigades; again the public opnion isbrought to problematize Autonomia to perceive it as a frontpage threat.he press from Right to Left insists in visualizing and talking about anattack on the institutions that terroriss have allegedly announced for thefall, after a summer break: he Red Brigades, what are they preparingWholl defend us?" says the frontpage cover of the widely read, progressive"magazine Esprso Aside from the ridiculous notion that even terrorists wouldtake a summer vacation a notion that reinforces the supposed naturalnessof the Italian rhythm of life), the practical result of all this is the preparationof the terrain for a series of preventative" police operations aimed at defending" the people against all the militants who arent in jail yet. Countlessexponents of Autonomia are in jail, to the general indifference of the socalleddemocratic forces," precisely as a consequence of terroristic operations likethis; where terrorismlet it be clearmeans the practice of throwing thepopulation into the irrational claws of terror; a terror which demonizesexclusively and loudly certain political fractions and ignores the wider socialdeterminants that call for a radical militancy and within such a militancythe existence of a violent, infantile" wing is rather unavoidable) in thiscountry. A country where people die daily of maa executions , where scandalsand corruption nd the people so used to them that they are no longer news,where indierent, meropolitan violence is slowly changing social life, where,as Bifo puts it, the law turns into a combination of emergency and massmedia, exists in the form of emergency as it becomes identied with themass media, is the one in virtue of being the other " And it does not make

any difference if the Autonomists and the later movements such as thepowerful Neapolitan C.DO (Committee of Organized Unemployed Workers) reject openly the strategy of the armed groups and dene them as armedreformists," thus indicating a connivance between the Red Brigades and theState, both a centralized power deciding from above what peoples needs areIt does not make any difference, because the target is not the armed strugglebut the social antagonism.

In the at, inquisitorial chorus with wh ich the media punctuate the Italiantragedy we discern dist inct, cyclical references to oni Negri. And they havebeen so insistent, so presumptuous in th reconstruction of events that echoes

Introduction XXXlll

have bounced beyond the Atlantic and a counterpoint can be heard in theU S. , even though the American ideology has shaped it according to theneeded strategy. Negri, too, is referred to as the leader of Autonomia andin thisas with the aforementioned Pipernothere is already a fundamentaldistortion; that is, an example of that incomprehension between the groupsbelonging to the area of Autonomia and the ofcial press/ideology It is, infact, difcult for the latters verticist" mentality to understand that Au-

tnmia hasyesprominent gures who might have left signicant traces,but in no way has a l, a central spokesman he pointillism of itsmilitancy , the refusal of party lines and of any hierarchical codication ofneeds, are the peculiar trait of this heterogeneous movement, and oniNegris writings are no exception to this, with all his allusions to themultilterality of a recomposed proletariat and the exaltation of the conceptof difference. he adoption of categories bespeaking the tendency towardsa radical separation from a traditional anthropology creates a barrier of understanding, but such an incommunicability will be better seen when wecome to report the voices from Autonomia' corner

The commentary imposed by the prevailing information industry onNegris work, on the academic departmen where he and his colleagues were

doing social research and on Autonomia itself, as the decentered point aroundwhich all sorts of alternative experiences gravitated, is also heavily markedby the reux" (russo) line For the last few years, in fact, the word reux"has been a pivotal term, coined to describe in defeatist terms the state ofthe political struggles of the social workers. " After the social workers"(new social subjects) have brought forth, throughout the seventies, politicaland cultural struggles, the password drummed in by the united media isthat the Movement as a whole is in a state of reux," a receding tide; whichis to say that once the mistakes" leading to terrorism and idealism havebeen discerned, there is no other way out for all the new social subjects butthat of an abjurin g retreat. Needless to say, this point of view can be imposedbecause of the more basic belief in life as the consistent repetition of thesame the traditional belief that somet hing is alive and well only if it develops

identical to itself, the traditional belief that the absence of repetition meansdeath, waning, and that only an immutable selfidentity qualies the lifeof a unitary organism. Perhaps such an immutability naturalizes one's lifeand constitutes a secure ontological space, but this interpretive grid appliedto the Movement deforms unequivocally its essence he Movement is nounitary organism its reality is also in the effort notto adhere to one particularpattern of struggle, of existence; its reality is above all in the attempt toraise its antennae wherever needs and openings are, where a separation fromcapital logic is possible. And the demonstrations against the socalled Euromissiles (Perugia, aples, Frankrt), for the constitution of social centersfor youth (Zurich), for a recognition of the occupation of buildings and


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XVi MARX BEYOND MARX

paper L'Ui. In the summer of 1981 the Autonomists o the neighborhoodoccupied Vlla Mercede (a raher rundown building, with a surrondinggarden that is owned b an adacent bank) and the are strggling to involvethe people in the constrcion of a social center A center in which theunited proletarians can better struggle against the present enemies o theclass that is against the culture of guilt/repentance and aginst heroin (twoparallel strategies to sfocate and disperse the potential o the "social work

ers while the price o everthing is rising sk high that o heroin hasbasicall remained the same as ten ears ago!) A center in which a fkindergarten for the kids of that area can be started, a rst step towrds thecreation o those eparate proletarian instittions o which Negri speaks sooften Well, the Autonomists have to ght also against the envious didenceand the open provocaions of the part communists who have traditionlldominated the area and made it into a vote reseroir The Unit hs repeatedonce more the farce o calling the Atonomists fascists, and hs accusedthem o immoralit s is cstomary whenever one is short o rationalpolitical argments.

Besides these neglected examples of active local resistance however thereis a sign which reassres us statisticall that the voices so r heard are nt

ater all the vox populi do not represent the totalt of the populationand this sign comes to us precisel fm Rome. Rome a traditional votereseroir or the part Rome a vt metropolitan territor where allthe social events are turned into instruments or the reprodction o theexisting political geogph. D ring June 1981 elections the percentage ofnonvoters (DO NOT OT hs been the "electoral campaign o theMovement carel not to pla the game not to be instrumental or adiscorse whose logic cannot be accepted) has risen to the exceptional gureo 15 %nd i we keep in mind that in Ital nlike the U.S , voter turnothas alwas been arond we come to realize how a new part thatis not a part has been recentl ormed even though its tacit constitutionhas been carell silenced b the partoriented press.

With this we have come to lend or ears o the dissonant voices evokedfrom the area that we loosel dene as Autoomia The are dissonant, andtheir dissonance is an anthropological declaration in praise of dierence andmultilateralit a declaration bespeaking the dissociation rom the sstemo needs as codied b the logic which, s we have seen, is common to mosto the voices which mold and express, express while molding the collectiveimaginar. It's time here to better dene the incommnicabilit we talkedabout beore What is striking in act whenever we listen to some o theseatonomous voices i s the language gap that separates them rom the majorito the other representational sources "1 linguaggio duro degli atonomi("the tough language o the Atonomists) this is how the discrsive ormcommon to the various wings of the Movement has been described b the

Itroducion ii

most attentive observers of Itian social life. And "togh stands for notso "harsh, occasionall violen, but also for "dicult. Is it realldicult? It seems to s that the diclt lies ultimatel in the dierentconceptual categories mobilized b the autonomous discourse, a discoursewhich observant of its own etmolog, denes its rules separately from anapriori, transcendent principle. It is, or instance a carel considerationof the new class composition and o the emerging needs in this particular

historical conjunctre (the passage rom the PlanningState to the CrisisState) that induces Negri to read the Grundrisse in that particular lightagainst an etishism of a theor o reading a text In the atonomousdiscourse then , the potenc o subjectivit is invoked against the power ofobectied relations so that attention is devoted not onl to the quantiablelabor time but to the qualitativel important time o global lie The resultis the "savage anomalous exploration of the potential o a subject thatcan be so potent as to fecundate with the richness of its dierences anotherwise indierent realit Fecundation sbjective appropriation: a sevaloriztio whose practice stems rom the recognition that nder the realsubsumptio o societ b capital everything that is producedcirclated-consumed is a mere cog in the wheel o the reproduction o the alreadexisten. A se-aloiztio that announces the resal o separting se valeand desire vale rom the equivalence o exchange vales A sefvaloriatiowhich attempts to wrench the libidinl econom awa from an omnivorosState. Furthermore, the atonomous discorse proclaims itself to be afliatedwith Marxsm and sas that its ultimate goal is communism. Bt it is nosrprise that a real curtain o incomprehension arises between the Autono-mists and the occpants o traditional positions, who cannot translate theanalses and the behaviors o the Movement into their own sstem. Com-munism, in act here does not mean a direct assault on the instittions butthe scientic organization of new social subjects engaged in the eort tosurrond a power that had srrounded them. And Marxism too is givenin an anomalous wa , beond Marx r from the Ma that has been frozeninto the arteriosclerotic prophet o a messianic transition. It is rather a

Marxism hat hs repdiated the Hegelian and posiivist readings seekingan anomalous connection with Spinoza; a Marxism where the word dialectics is a term indicating something ultimatel negative to be itselfsuperseded; a Marxism where dilectics means es, th composition of theoppositions into some kind of snthetic nit but onl in the name of theabsotion of the proletarian bod into the spirit of the social factor

Common to the dissonant voices o the Movement is a terminolog inwhich words such as "diference "displacemen, "leap orward "ima-ginar are pivots in the project of decomposing the traditional grid logicmkes of continuit, nit causali and identit The magazine that per-haps better exemplies this state of things was, and is Metropoli, althoghit is ar rom being the nilateral spokesman of the Movement It i s however


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xiii MARX BEND MARX

e o popa pbicaion becae of he negaie pbiciy ae fo iby he pepea o bowing aon ia iciay epeie o aigna he aep of he iniion o ience i Negi wie eeaaice fo i a ohe iipione iian o In opo he o-hoox coni pepecie ha copeey iappeae Rian ociaiha becoe he highe age of Sae capiai he USa coayage of he Iaian efi no away bece o a niaea ciiqe

n he conay an inee i hown fo he aonoo expeience hahae en pace wihin he a eioy of he o aance capiaicony of he wo If hi aenion fo he US i pecia o opolony he einoogy aope by hi agazine poiion e neqiocay a oice coing fo he aea of uoom; a einoogy which ihe expeion of a pecie effo o pefec he aeqaion of he yboicoe o eaiy ha i an effo o iinih he gap beween heoy ana icee eaiy ha can no onge be aiackee in ipoen foae

I i a hi poin ha I hin I can hea an obecion aie by eaeof hi book in he US ne igh ey we hae he ipeion ha heaono angag coningeny exepie by Bod

i exeey abace fo ha eaiy pocaie being h ain ageI can hea a coonenica eaonabe poe aying ha Negi booki ahe eoe fo any poibe appopiaion by an aeae poeaianeae Whie I hope ha hi won ee he eae fo ping hi/heinee in hi aea I wo ike o anicipae a wofo anwe o hiobecion In he pace one eebe ha he anayi of henew ca copoiion ha pobe he concep of ocia woe an haen an ineeca ae ce of hi poeifo concep I i henconceiabe ha Negi oiche oice ha ee hee ey eon inPai an oganize he in Iayi aee o ha paica eco ofhe ecopoe ca Ti i openy aie wiho any eciinaionby he nonineeca eeen of he Moeen ch a he Neapoianneoye woke who hae a high epec fo Negi wok wihohing ha he opponiy o foow hi ine eca gynaic I wobe an ieai iae ooe in he bogeoi noion of niea an oae ha a book can be cone an appopiae iniffeeny by hewhoe pec of he ocia bec I i oeoe poibe o n inIaian bookoe anae ha i bogh beyon paae i-ance of he ae icoe: nonacaeic oice can be hea a hogh-o he conicaion aeie of he Moeen an Negi eaboaeangage i nohing b an hoage o d, o he inaabe exienceof aonoo epaae boie wiin he foce ha oppoe he Sae ani eeing hooogizing aegie

Secony he ifcy of a ex ao be eae o he woing ofi ocioca conex ha i o he iecion ipae by ca

Ioduco xxxix

poiic haing iene o he angage of e noa naaoice ake i cea ha hei icoue i ike ona ic aie o ieno han a ic whoe oe an ni ae no epeae an hnce no gienhe ke onopoy which p he wihin eeybo each whichae he ca The poce of ocabay an caey) acqiiion ifa fo being a nea one an we canno ay a uoom einoogyi oehing we ae ofen exe o uoom angage in genea an

Negi in paia Negi a afe a ony a ppeenay acaeicifcy o an aeay ogh angage) ae hen poiione a he aginby he exiing ye of yboic epocion Bee hey ae poiionean po ml a he agin a a poiica po ec of iociaionpacica an iciefo he cenaize ieoogy of he Sae Ani i pon a cae conieaion of he aicaion of hi wofo anweha I can hea he Aeican eae oen hei ciici wen face wihhe ogh pobe ha x Bod po Sofen hei ifencean ping heee o ai a a aage appopiaion of anyhing inhee eon ha igh enich hei own beciiy becaciiy)hei own poency Pehap i wi no ee o iffeen

Maizio Viano


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esso Oe

T h e G r u d r i s s e Ja p W o r k

The subjective birth of a text: "the imminence of crisis, the startingpoints of the analysis. A forma description of the text TheGrundrisse and the outlne of Capital: the ensorcelling of themethod the blockage of research? Fom the terrain of philoloyto a more substantial terrain the two paths; the discovery of surplsvaue the links of circulation socia capit-subjectivityommunism The Grunse, an open work some other hypotheses

for reading The "plural univese of the Marxian method F(

shung arteung neue ateung The traditiona interetations (a) the Grundrisse a delirum (b) the renewal of iamat?(c) homologous with Capital? (d) "a revolution from above Nodelegation in the theo The Grurisse the dynamic centerof Maian thought, in its intern history in its reolutionaryproject An outline of the reading Marx beyond Marx?

Erc Hobsbwm hs s of the Grde notebooks tht they re knof nteectu, person n often nec pherbe shorthn" The pertnenceof ths jugement s rerme by Enzo Gro n the ntroucton to hsremrkbe Itn trnston There s no oubt tht n so fr s ther

reng n ther trnston re concerne we re e to this ugement:the Ge consttutes very cut work But we must not exggertethe esoterc chrcter of ths work of Mrx by rwng on certn pssgesIn ct the fcuty comes more from the form of the mnuscrpt fromthe troube chrcter of ts eborton thn from the ct substnce ofthe resonn g If we exmne Mrxs proect n of ts scope n ensty the gung ne ppers very cery s ony prty cone by thefcutes of n mptent wrtng the conunctur chrcter of some poemcs n the experment se of some eveopments There ws nextreme urgency tht e to the brth of ths rst gret potc synthess

1


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2 MARX BEYOND MARX

of Marx's thought: The American crisishich e resa in the November 1850 issue of the revie ould break out in Ne Yorkis fantastic Marx rote to Engels on November 13 1857 even though mynancial situation is disasterous; I have never felt so cosy since 1849 thanwith this outbreak I am orking like a madman for hole nights in orderto coordinate my ork on economics and to get together the Grundrebefore the deluge. (To Engels, December 12 , 1857 I am orking like

a condemned man. Sometimes until 4 oclock in the morning. It is a doubleork: 1 the elaboration of some ndamental aspects of the economy . . 2)the current crisis. To Engels, December 1 8 185 7 Ryaanov, the editorsof the Grundrie, Rosdolsky, Vygodskij and, last no one better than SergioBologna have each amply claried the birth of the Gundrise its relationto the ork being done by Marx for the Ne York Daily Tribune the linksto subsequent ork, the political situation born out of the crisis of 185 7-58 and the expctations and hopes of Marx and Engels I can do no better thanrefer the reader to these discussions.

What I ant to insist on is another element it is a question of the basisof the ynthei on the theoretiopractical level in Mas project. The imminence of the crsis is not simply the occasion for an historical forecast it

becomes a practicopolitical synthesis. The imminence of catastophe is onlycatastrophic for capital in so far as it istheposibilty 0/theparty, the possibilityto establish the party The description of the imminent crisisis at the sametime a polemic against true socialism," against all the mystications andtravesties of communism The ork of the condemned in the area of heoryis an impatient refusal of eclipses in practice if this practice is not giventhe Coepondence retraces lly its painl birthnalysis must discover itas it occurs, in so far as analysis brings out the revolutionary subjectivityimplicated in the crisis. The synthetic character of Marx's work is to befound ithin this relation beteen forecast and deluge the catastrophies forcapital are the party, the deployment of communist subjectivity and rev-olutionary ill and organization The crisis reactivates subjectivity and makesit appar in all of its revolutonary potentiality at a level determined by the

development of the productive forces The synthesis signies th linkagesamong the punctual and catastrophic character of the crisis the rulesdevelopment and the dynamic of subjectivity Where these dierent termsare linked the dialectic rules. And it is no accident if, alongside the activityof the chronicler and polemicist aimed at an American newspaper alongsidethe critical exploration of the categories of political economy, we nd Hegelpresiding over the birth ofthe Gndrise: "For the rest I am making greatprogress. For example I have thrown overboard all the theory of prot thathas existed until now. As far as the method goes the fact of having leafedthough once again, by mere accident, Hegel's Logic rendered me a greatserice To Engels Jan 185 8 ) By mere accident but not ocasionally"; so much so that Marx continues, If I ever nd the time for a

The rundre" 3

ork of this type, I ould greatly desire to make accessible to the intellectof the common man . ho much there is in Hegels method of rationality and of mystication . The rationalmethodical that Marx seeks hereis the theoreticopractical of revolutionary insurrection. The imminence ofthe crisis demands this rationality Marxs score ith Hegel as settled longbefore here it is only a question of going back to him in a critical andscientic man ner From Hegel t is a question of taking practically that

hich constitutes the irreducible contribution the spirit of theorecticopractical synthesis.

Let us begin to examine the text or rather the texts, published by theMarxEngels Institute in Moco in 193 1 under the tie ofGrundrisser Kritik der politihen Oekonoie. Here are the parts and the dates, takenfrom Grillo (Prazione ai Lneamenti I p.xxi

1) The Enetung contained in a single notebook M written between

August 23 and mid-September 18572) The manuscript of notebooks (the Grundiss numbeed and often

dated by Mx himself except for the rst one, in the following order:

Notebook I ctober 18 57II around November 185

II I November 29midDecember 18 57 more or lessIV around midDecember 185 7 Februay 185 8

V: Januay 22 1858round the beginning ofFebruay 1858

VI round ebruary 1858

VI I end of FebruaryMarch end of May beginning o f une1858

The secondary texts which mke up the Anbang and whi ch are directlylinked to the preceding texts are

) The sketch of Bastiat und Ca, written n July 1857 before theEinltung. riginally this text took up the rst seven pages of the third

notebook of the Gundiss

4) The Indx zu dn 7 Hn written in une 1858 and inseted intothe same notebook M which contains the Enltung

5) The Utt written between August and November 1858. It occupies

twO undated notebooks of which the rst is marked B; and the second

divided into two pats B" and Bn.

6) The Rfrat related to the content of notebooks M (Enetung II

VIII Gundrss) Utxt; writte n around February 1 85 9 and found at the

end of notebook B".

7) The Planntwu of 1858) A short series of extracts concerning Ricardo's theory of money

which is found in the fourth of the 24 noteboo between 18505, anddated London, Noember 1850December 1850


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8 MARX BEYOND MARX

possessin all f Ma x's manuscripts, published (with vulgar errors) Einlitungin 1903 (Ne Zei, XXI 1 but did not publish the rest f the Grundise.Was this an accident? Maybe. The vicissitudes of the revolutioary mvementrather prve the contrary The ct is that the Gundri is nt a text thatcan be used nly for studying phillogically the constitutin of Capital; itis als a poliical x that conjugates an appreciatin of the revolutinarypossibilities created by the "imminent crisis together with the theoreticalwill to adequately synthesize the communist actins of the wrking classfaced with this crisis; the Gundi is the theory of the dynamics of thisrelatinship. Reading the Gundi frces us to recgnize nt so much theirhomogeneity as their differences from other Maian texts particularly Capial Inversely Capial is quite seriusly perhaps nly one par f Marxsanalysis More or less imprtant In any case its eectiveness is often limitedand transformed by its categorial presentatin Our Italian cmrades recgnized that the ensorcelling of the method in Capital is wak andcncluded that this blocked research The objecticatin of categoris inCapial blocks action by revlutinary subjectivity Is it nt the casndwe will see this shrtly-that the Gundi is a text dedicated t revolutionary subjectivity? Des it not renstruct what the Marxist traditin hastoo oen torn apart that is to say the unity of the constitution and the

strategic poject f wrking cls subjectivity? es it nt present Mar a whle where other texts cut him apart and give unilateral denitins

Whisperings, lose tal wins such have been the ways in which interpreters have approached the Gundriwith its exceptioal density Fromthis point of view the thesis ofVygodskij constitutes a decisive step frwardHis thesis is that Mar nally develpd the thery of surplus value in theGrunde in the notebooks of OctJune 1857-58 after having acuiredin the 1840's the classical theory of value, and in the 1850s the thery ofhistrical materialism inliung which dates frm AugustSeptember 18shuld be attached t this perid in the development f Marxs thught).Rosdolsky for example desnt see this (p 2). For him the Grundri are

only an imprtant phase in the evlution of a cntinuus thught prcessthat leads to Capial by 1848, his thery of surplus value, the cornerstoneof his economic system was established in its fundamentals and it nlyremained to work out the details of the theory a process which we can studyin detail in the Rough Dra " It was nly the rst phase f a develpmentthat occurred throug adjustments, crrectins and successive rings Buteven this theoretical step frward by Vygodskijbecause grasping the mveent forward by breas and leaps constitutes a deepning f a theoreticalelement in Marxs thughtes not lead t determinant results This isnt simply because Vygodskij fails t g beynd the discove of surplusvalue but als because he ds not lly grasp the imprtance of thisdiscovery To deelp the thry f value as a thery of surplusvalue t

Th "Gundr 9

recognize that the historical form of value is surplus value signies thedevelpment f an immediately revlutionary project Letter t LassalleSpt 15 1860 That wuld man to nd a lever of an antagonistic theryf capital of a thery of social explitatin in rder t tip it toward claompoition a ubjivity of th tul The thry f surplus value- IsaacRubin has alrey showthus becomes the dynic center the dynamicsynthesis f Mars thought the point where the bjective analysis of capitaland the subjective analysis of class behavir cme tgether where classhatred permeates his science But even this is insucient far we haveonly the signicance f the discvery of the law of explitatin We uststill discover the full implications fllow the effects and the repercussionsin their llness. We must thus go frm the discovery of surplus value andits thoretical prcting to the analysis of the likages productionreproductioncirculatirisis, scial capitalworking class subjetivity and again developmentsiommunism We must see how the totality of this processis prmanently shaped by the fundamental antagonism and carries the marof explitation. In other words the dynai uniy of h pro of uplu-alu no in any way lminat h paration of th ubjt (wage labr andcapital) but rather continually pushes each mediation (value form moneyfrms f wrk r exchange, etc.) to its pint of cntradiction and its su

cessin. Crisis and class struggle are articulated s prfundly that therst takes n within this anatagonistic dialectic the form f catastrophewhile the secnd takes n the frm f cmmunismthe real physical polef an implacable will necessary to elimiate the adversary Histrical materialismthe specied analysis of the class cmpositionis given newcntent here, within the abstractin of the critique of political economyand the laws f crisis are mediated by the cncrte emergence f the classstruggle. Is there any place left fr any ambiguity? Any f the ambiguitiesprduced by th interpretation of Capia? I dont think s Because herethere is n pssibiliy even in the frm of a paradx of destrying thedynamism f this process by hypstatizing it, by rigidiing it into a totalitywith its own laws f development that one might b able to possess, or

dminate, r reverse N he re domination and versal can only be accomplished by thse who rticipate in an antagnistic relation Outside ofantagonism not nly is there no movement but the categries do not evenexist The originality the happiness the freshness of the Grundri restentirely with its incredible pnness he padoxical nonon chararf the science is derived necessarily frm the fact that it contains a subjectivedeterminatin Why then d we nd such timidity in the reading andinterpretatin f the Grundi? The guiding line f the pssibility and willt vlutin is t b fund in the movement frm surplus value to thearticulatin scial capitalrisissubjectivitymmunism and thus thenctin of antagnism in the eprduction of the capitalist relatin TheGrundrieconstitutes the subjective approach the imminent crisis) to the

h


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1 MARX BEYON MARX

nlss o the revolutonr sujetvt n the roess o tl The noteoos reesent the stronest ont nlss nd o mgnton n therevolutonr ll o Mrx. All o the orml dulsm bout hh so muhdebte ours theoretl nlss o tl s oosed to oltl nlssdlets s oosed to mterlsm obetvt s oosed to sujetvts urned u nd meltd n the relt o tht dulsm hh onsttutes,ntgonstll the tls roess.

All o the oregong ll e demonstrted But seems to me oortunend honst to l out rht m theses,gvn the ness,the mguousevlutons nd nrrtos to hh the Grudrie hs een sujet To thsont n order to hrterze the redng I nt to underte,I hve mnlunderlned the onts o ruure I no nt to underlne some other ontshh sem to me to e rtulr mortnt nd round hh mnlss ll be develoed

1 From form / mo o form / aue In the M o the Grudeths relton s undmentl the nlss o mone s resel ht llosus to nlse the orm o vlue Fro ths ont o e,s e ll see therelt o mstton ers hee n more tngble orm thn otherssges o Mrx here the ommodt orm s the entl rotgonst. On

the ontrr,use vlue,hen t s jutosed to vlue orm derved romone regns mortne nd lrge se o develoment Thus to benthe GrudriJ th "II Monehh seems to reer to I Vlue snot n dent The rst hter on vlue s never rtten but e nnd egnnng n noteoo VII (rudrie 881 763 under the ttleVlue.) We must egh ll the onsequenes o ths t sems to me thton the one hnd ths les to rdl rtque o one nd on the otherhnd t leds mmedtel to denn vlue n msted terms

(2 The diio / work In the Grudrie or ers s mmedtelbstrt lbor. We n onl understnd t nd ntegrte t thn theor tths level Wor s strt n so r s t s onl edtel retblet the level o the sol reltons o roduton Thus e n onl dene

or on the bss o the reltons o ehnge nd o the tlst strutureo roduton We n nd no onet o or n Mr tht s not tht oged or,o or tht s soll neesr to the reroduton o tlthus no onet o n or to restore,to lete to sublmte onl onet nd relt to suress

3) As Crstn ennvj n her resentton o Vgodsj hs underlned,the nlss s onduted t level here ntgonsm s suh tht e n no se onsder the theor o vlue s losed theor n n es uon t n theor o reroduton nd rulto n equlrum. "Inthe Grdrie Marim a aieoomi heo rtsm does not led bto oltl eonom,ut on the ontrr sene s n ntgonst movement All o solled solst eonoms s ut nto queston b ths

The Grudie 1 1

undrstndng o the l o vlue Msm hs nothng n on th solst eonom e t uton or lrd relzed

(4) The sstem, dnm nd en sstem,s omletel domnteb the queston o t relton beten the rs nd the emergene revolutonr sujett. Ths relton s so ndmentl tht Mrsmould ell b enttl he iee / he ri ad / uberio To nt toonsder the rss s sness to tret nd to ur s not onl to bet therevolutonr movent t s lso to l nto bter tht hs nothn nommon th Mr teores To nt to rdue subjetvt to e-lotton s to vod the denton o subjevt n M hh s resenteds subverson nd trnston. The rudrie re rom ths ont o veerhs the most mortntven nt t onlMrn tets on theraiio Let us te note ho stng t s tht none o the thousnds oommentres on the trnst t ount o ths

5 ) The Mrst denton o ommuim tht e nd n the Grudietes n etremel rdl om hh oes r beond the tures ttnormll hrterze t Notl the rtlton ommunsmlss omoston ls undmentl role. We hve e oneton o oer tths nothng n ommon th those trdtonl oltl sene Mrsmnluded Clss omostonoer lss oostontrnston the r

tulton o these reltons re bsed on the mterlt o the behvors,the needs, nd the struture o selvlorzto The theme o oer nMrsm must be subjeted to the re o rtque; e n onl gve t nebse elorng these nds o rtultons Ths s rolem tht tode n no longer unestmte

(6) The lst rtulr ont to the dnm o onets n theGrudie tht dene the orng lss We hve lred egun to enesome o the negtve eets o the ts tht the o on ge lbor or onthe e s not rtten nd tht some o ts ortnt elements ereredued to obetve eoston n Volume I o Capia. But ths does notresolve the roblem ostvel It s queston o ollong the tet oretrng the lns hh onetull unte the rtl denton o the

ge nd the revolutonr dentons o ommunsm nd o ommunstsujetvt It s queston o t lest erevng th outlne o the boooreseen Mrx on the ge nd grsng the mn rtultons

Here then re some o the undmentl roblems tht e ll ee nve durng ths redng nd denton o the to ret moments o thenlss n the Grudrie surlus vlue nd relzton

The eetonl mortne o the GrudriJ n te ongurton o Mrn thought s lso sed on the mthod Wth ei nd ts retvelton to the roet o the Grudrie heved on the mthodologl level snthess o hs erler mulse n ths re We lldell t length on the Eieiu no s not t moment to l out thorough nlss I ll ontent msel r the tme eng th sng tht


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1 2 MARX BEYOND MARX

Noebook M elaborates explicitly the ethod of terminan abstration, theethod of the endency the ethod of historical aterialis the researchebodied in the Grundrisse is the rst application which grafts the aterialistethod onto a rened dialectical practice. The synthesis of the to dialecticlforces is open in every sense. On the one hand, dialectical reson intervenesin the relation between deterination and tendency, it subecties the abstraction, the logicalheuristic ediation, and iposes on it a qualicationand historical dynaic. On the other hand, the aterialist ethod in sor as it is copletely subectivized, totally open toward the ture, andcreative, cannot be enclosed within any dialectical totality or logicl unity.The deterination is always the basis of all signicance, of all tension, ofall tendencies. As for the ethod, it is the violent breath that infuses thetotlity of the research and constantly deterines new foundations on whichit cn ove forward. n this sense w e can say again that the Grundrise isan essentially open work, we can repeat that this is hat characterizes it,even if this is still an hypothesis to be veried ore thoroughly in the areaof ethod We can also ins ist equally that this phase is for Ma a oentof total happiness, a oent situated at a halay point which is neithereclectic nor ediating the wealth of forces is not reduced to an averageindifferent ter, the categories are not attened out, the iagination does

not stagnate These general considerations, although they are iportant, are not yet

sufcently concrete. They can only begin to indicate how what like to callthe "plural universe of Max's ethod actually eerges. They can only givesoe exaples. They cannot show it at ork in the Marxian labotory. nthe Afterword to the second edition of Volue o f Capital Marx distinguishes between the Forhung and the Darslung, between the oent ofresearch and the oent of scientic presentation "Of course the ethodof presentation ust differ in for fro that of inquiry The latter hs toappopriate the aterial in detail, to analyse its different fors of devel-opent and to track down their inner connection. Only after this work hasbeen done can the real oveent be appropriately presented (Capial

Volue Vintage edition p. 12). n the Grundrise we can follow in allits stages the logical process that takes place between the Forhung and theDarseung. Now, if we take account of the preceding indications, we realizevery quickly that this process is neither linear nor even less , unilateral. Thedialecic researchpresentation is on the contrary, open on all sides: everyconclusion that takes the for of a presentation of the research opens spacesto new research and new presentation. This occurs not siply by soehoizontal exhaustion of successive ares of research but ainly through anhistorical and tendential oveent where each deterination of a nesubect iediately reveals a ne antagonis and sets in otion, throughthis, a process in which the deterination of ne subects eerges. Thusthe Daeung is followed dialectically by a neue Darseung: it is a questionof a proess that constitutes the totality of the real oveent, that is

The Grure" 3

understod scientically, that is renewed scientically. Thus there is nolinear continuity , but only a plurality of points of view which are endlesslysolicited at each deterinant oent of the antagonis , at each leap in thepresentation , in the rhyth of the investigation, always looking for nepresentations n this sense, the Grundrse constitutes, fro the point ofview of ethod (of a ethod which , in a aterialist way, always considersthe historical and concrete deterination as ndaental and which, in a

dialectical way, always nds the dynaic and tendency of each deterinationin he se oveent where the antagonis of ach constitutes itself,resolves itself and reproposes Grunde constitutes a "pluraluniverse. Each research result, in the presentation, attepts to characterizethe content of the antagonis and to s it tendentilly, in its own dy-nais when this dynais takes off, we observe a veritable conceptualexplosion Further on we will take tie to restate these things less forallyand to give soe exaples, aong others exaples of this way of lwaysbeing placed at the forefront of the debate, in consti tuting a neue Dateung-in such a way that the previous ode of presentation ust, itself, be subjectedto research and ust constitute in turn the aterial of a new presentation.Holding to the ere presentation of y hypotheses I only ention thispower of the Grundrise' ethod, this capacity to grasp a concept in order

to explode it, to displace the analysis each tie ont a new indeterinateterrain constituted such that it can be redened, characterized. And so on.

Thus it is not by ethodological fetishis that we have presented theethod of the Grundrisse the ethod of Marx, in a poleical and diacticanner We can see in it the passion for totality, but only in the for ofa ultiplicity of sequences and leaps, never in a onolithic sense we cannd in i t, above all , a dynaic which has the plulity and the sae diversityof subectivity, and is nowhere osed Soeties, in the poleics on blindobectivis o f a certain Maist traditio n, soe have attributed this obil ityof the ethod to the political discourse of Marxis, in order to li berte itssocalled "realis fro the shackles of a aterialis degenerated intodeterinis. But this does not resolve this grave proble; it is rather a

question of characterizi the obility of the content studied by Marx, thewealth of the subective specications he expresses and soeties doinates.The Marxist ethod constitutes th e reality of science, in so far as it i s anadequate instruent to grasp the ultiplicity and the plul dynais ofreality The arxist ethod is a constituting one in so far as the classstruggle constitutes explosive antagoniss. Research ust nd its oentof presentationthere is a qualitative leap in the presentation, which doesnot correspond siply to the uniqu fact of its determinate synthesis, butcorresponds rather to the fact that this deterinate synthesis denes for theantagonis and its possibilitiespotentialities of explosio n, a new level ofdiffusion, a ne terrain of constitution. When we study the passage frothe theory of surplus value to that of realization, it will not be a questionof applying the rst theory to the second; certainly not! The proble ill


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4 MARX BEOND MARX

be o see how he consiuion of he whole capialis power reproduces hednamic of surplus value on a social levelin new forms, as much from hepoin of view of capial as from he poin of view of he class When wesud he consiuion of he world marke and he modicaion of isrelaions wih naional markes, here again we mus reread our research inis wo forms: research and presenaion) o gain new levels of generaliDetermiate atractio the method of the tedecy the ew preetatio ad car

catio of the d of reearch his dnamism of he mehod deermines a"plural universe in which i is risk o move, difcul o undersand, andexciing o make progress

One las elemen of our saring hpoheses on he mehod in he Grudrie i is a quesion of he crisis of he law of value, ha is o sa of hesummi of Marx's research The hpohesis is ha we have alread eneredino an advanced phase of he crisi s of he law of value Our Marxis mehod ,maerialis and dialecical, mus ake ino accoun he resuling modicaionsand mus change accordingl I will no be enough o pose he quesionWe mus also offer a response Nohing is more cenral han his quesion

A bri ef parenhesiso give us a momen o cach our breah Ver ofenoda, we are old o relae he quesion of he mehodolog of he humansciences o a problem of he plurali of momens of selfvalorizaion, ofdnamism and of recomposiion This mehodological sensibili is ofenequall opposed o Marxian mehodolog I is enough o speak of hemuliplici of insances of recomposiion, of ransversali of he mehodof recomposiion, in order o sa: beond Marx? Bu beond which Marx?The Marx augh b he schools of he Par? Or he Marx ha we discoverin he pracicoheoreical momen of he working class and proleariansruggle? When we reread he Grudrie one feeling dominaes: ha herewe are rul "beond Marx, bu also beond all possible mehodologies ofpluralism or of ransversali The eld of research is deermined b heconinual ension beween he plurali of real insances and he exposiveduali of anagonism Wha gives uni o his ssemaic or anissem

aic) framework is anagonism, no as he basis of his oali bu as hesource of ever more powerful and plural expansion of his same anagonismIn mehodolog, he class sruggle is even more anagonisic and desrucivein so far as i melds wih he liber of he subecs Marx beond Marx?The Grudrie beond Capita Mabe Wha is cerain is ha he cenralcharacer of he heor of surplus value pus an end o ever scienicpreension o derive an cenralizaion and dominaion from he heor ofvalue The heor of surplus value breaks down he anagonism ino amicrophsics of powr The heor of class composiion resaes he problemof power in a perspecive where recomposiion is no ha of a uni, buha of a muliplici of needs and of liber Marx beond Marx, his oois an impran, urgen hpohesis

The Gudrie" 15

The mos celebraed inerpreers of h Grudrie have been seduced bi, unable o move freel wihin i This is wh, wih a few excepions, hehave no read he ex for iself, he have ried insead o force and reducei o somehing else The iles alone ell his sor: L toria di ua gracoperta "The hisor of a grea discover) or more explicil, eor Kapita" etta "Befor he concep of Capita") or Zur Ettehuggechichtede Marxche Kapita" A conribuion o he hisor of he elaboraion

of Capita of Marx): wha is said abou he Grudrie is ofen quie good,bu i is alwas a quesion of makng i ino he genesis of anoher ex andno of aking i for iself Wha is being applied is a nonMarxian hisoriographic mehodolog, hich is saised wih he coninui of he genesis,he developmen of ideas, and is no aenivr a leas no sufcienlsoo he leaps, o he breaks, o he plurali of horizons, o he urgenciesof pracice

The raged is ha, when his maeriali is aken ino accoun, we arelef wih anoher error, which consi ss of classifing and ssemaizing es,some will sa, he Grudrie is, effecivel, an original work, bu i is somuch of one ha we mus ake lierall Marx's words in his leers heGrudrie noebooks were wrien in he deliium of a powerful inspiraion ,in he despair of exeme isolaion, in a ome when pracice had beenchecked The were wrien feverishl, afer idnigh So much for heform "in chari we won even look a he deails: he mahemaical calculaions are all wrong, he dialecial mehod confuses conceps and muliplies deniions)

As e cnen ges e Gudisse mus be lced bee egusly mels medlgcl upue chcezes Mxs"hey ey e e ls wk he yung Mx he culn cnceps nd e pgessn he nlyss e sll n p hzdusnd ncul he deelpmen he ey suplus lue s ldh he hey elzn wh s explsns sub ec y nd scspsm l lue; e mel culn ges wy

lms mepyscl nuences les gns (s n Die Fe) humns (s n he "Fgmen n Mcnes) he ex s us ccezed by mdble nne e bu n nly em epe

nd exl l s sll ppedeuc n Mxs yuhul humnsm TheGudise e us nly d snks delsm nd nddulehcs; he skech denn cmmunsm h we nd n e "Fgmen s syness e scenc delsm e 18h cenuy nd nndduls nd lben ude

I mus sa ha, faced wih all hese criiques, I ofen don know wha osa I am emped o show, wih a Germanic meiculousness, how, infac, faced wih he concree reading of he ex, hese riiques are false:

Th G d 1


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16 MARX BOND MARX

bu wh do How an we show ha one anno arbue o he delruo Marx he delru o he aeral n whh he worked and orged hsral nsruens Tha s here n hs aeral whh appears andn he os exree deernaons akes on ha we nd he exeponalharaer o he Gnde he exalaon b Maan sene o onradonpushed he pon where anagons eoes unresolvable "We proposeo brng o lgh he onrdons [onaned n apal Gnde p

1 257) n hs sene where onradon beoes anagons heres no plae or huans even here s a plae or he delru o heaeral

Le us reurn now o he os reen nerpreaons hose whh we havesad ake prularl poran use o he dea o geness The pa uhaenonoo uh n vewo he onnu o heoreal devel-open n Marx O all hese nerpreaons ha o Valj S Vgodskjs whou a doub he os srkng I s unreproahable when underlneshe porane o he pah raed b he Gnde I s poran or sdenon and hea reonsruon Neverheless he work oVgodskjs par o he "new look o Dat When oes o he las sruggleagans he operaon o he law o value

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Marx Beyond Marx Lessons on the Grundrisse CS

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