View source for Workerism

{{Short description|Ideology focusing on the working class}}
{{Distinguish|Wokeism}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{More citations needed|date=February 2021}}
{{Expand Italian|Operaismo|date=August 2022}}
{{Expand French|Opéraïsme|date=August 2022}}
}}
{{Marxism sidebar|Other Variants}}
{{Communism in Italy|expanded=Ideologies}}
'''Workerism''' is a [[Political philosophy|political theory]] that emphasizes the importance of or glorifies the [[working class]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/workerism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304212624/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/workerism |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |title=workerism - definition of workerism in English - Oxford Dictionaries |website=Oxford Dictionaries - English}}</ref> Workerism, or '''{{lang|it|operaismo}}''', was of particular significance in [[Italy|Italian]] [[left-wing politics]], being largely embraced in Italian political groups ranging from Italian [[communist]]s to [[Italian anarchists]].

== As revolutionary praxis ==
{{See also|Autonomism}}

Workerism (or {{lang|it|operaismo}}) is a political analysis, whose main elements were to merge into [[autonomism]], that starts out from the power of the working class. [[Michael Hardt]] and [[Antonio Negri]], known as operaist and autonomist writers, offer a definition of {{lang|it|operaismo}}, quoting from [[Karl Marx]] as they do so:

:{{lang|it|Operaismo}} builds on Marx's claim that [[Capital (economics)|capital]] reacts to the struggles of the working class; the working class is active and capital reactive. 

:Technological development: Where there are strikes, machines will follow. "It would be possible to write a whole history of the inventions made since 1830 for the sole purpose of providing capital with weapons against working-class revolt." (''Capital'', Vol. 1, Chapter 15, Section 5)

:Political development: The factory legislation in England was a response to the working class struggle over the length of the working day. "Their formulation, official recognition and proclamation by the State were the result of a long class struggle." (''Capital'', Vol. 1, Chapter 10, Section 6)

:{{lang|it|Operaismo}} takes this as its fundamental axiom: the struggles of the working class ''precede'' and ''prefigure'' the successive re-structurations of capital.<ref>{{cite magazine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629153802/https://www.eurozine.com/articles/2002-02-13-hardtnegri-en.html |archive-date=29 June 2011 |title=Marx's Mole is Dead! Globalisation and Communication |author-first1=Michael |author-last1=Hardt |author-link1=Michael Hardt |author-first2=Antonio |author-last2=Negri |author-link2=Antonio Negri |date=2002 |url=https://www.eurozine.com/articles/2002-02-13-hardtnegri-en.html}}</ref>

The workerists followed Marx in seeking to base their politics on an investigation of working class life and struggle. Through translations made available by [[Danilo Montaldi]] and others, they drew upon previous activist research in the United States by the [[Johnson–Forest Tendency]] and in France by the group [[Socialisme ou Barbarie]]. The Johnson–Forest Tendency had studied working class life and struggles within the [[Detroit]] auto industry, publishing pamphlets such as "The American Worker" (1947), "Punching Out" (1952) and "Union Committeemen and Wildcat Strikes" (1955). That work was translated into French by Socialisme ou Barbarie and published, serially, in their journal. They too began investigating and writing about what was going on inside workplaces, in their case inside both auto factories and insurance offices.

The journal {{lang|it|[[Quaderni Rossi]]}} ("Red Notebooks", 1961–5), along with its successor {{lang|it|[[Classe Operaia]]}} ("Working Class", 1963–6), both founded by Negri and Tronti, developed workerist theory, focusing on the struggles of proletarians.

Associated with this theoretical development was a [[praxis (process)|praxis]] based on workplace organising, most notably by [[Lotta Continua]]. This reached its peak in the Italian "[[Hot Autumn]]" of 1969.

By the mid-1970s, however, the emphasis shifted from the factory to "the [[social factory]]"—the everyday lives of working people in their communities. The ''operaist'' and ''post-operaist'' movement was increasingly known as the [[autonomist]] movement.

== See also ==
* [[Autonomia Operaia]]
* [[Labourism]]
* [[Raniero Panzieri]]
* [[Post-Marxism]]
* [[Potere Operaio]]
* [[Syndicalism]]
* [[Mario Tronti]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |last=Galimberti |first=Jacopo |title= Images of Class. Operaismo, Autonomia and the Visual Arts (1962-1988) |date=6 September 2022 |publisher=[[Verso Books ]] |isbn= 978-1-8397-6531-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Wright |first=Steve |title=Storming Heaven: Class composition and struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism |date=20 February 2002 |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |isbn=978-0-7453-1607-9}} (Extract: [http://libcom.org/library/the-workerists-and-the-unions-in-italys-hot-autumn The Workerists and the unions in Italy's 'Hot Autumn' at Libcom.org])
* {{cite book |last=Filippini |first=Michele |title=Leaping Forward. Mario Tronti and the History of Political Workerism |publisher=[[Jan Van Eyck Academie]] |isbn=90-72076-68-0}}

== External links ==
=== Workerism as revolutionary movement ===
* [https://viewpointmag.com/2014/12/15/workerism-beyond-fordism-on-the-lineage-of-italian-workerism Sergio Bologna, Workerism Beyond Fordism: On the Lineage of Italian Workerism] at Viewpoint Magazine
* [http://www.workersliberty.org/node/1521 A critique of autonomism, which grew from ''operaismo'', published by a Trotskyist group]
* [http://www.generation-online.org/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=FuturoAnterioreInterviews Interviews of members of the ''operaismo'' movement] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061208042347/http://www.generation-online.org/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=FuturoAnterioreInterviews |date=2006-12-08 }}

=== Workerism as pejorative ===
* {{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/our80s90s/workerism.html |title=Workerism |work=Antagonism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060214161400/http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/our80s90s/workerism.html |archive-date=14 February 2006 }} A critique of "workerism" with a Marxian definition of proletariat.<!-- [http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/3909/our80s90s/workerism.html Anarchist critique of workerism] (Antagonism) Seems broken -->
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060210073804/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pubs/umrabulo/umrabulo19/workerism.html A critique of workerism from an ANC (South Africa) internal bulletin in 1986]. It differentiates three types of workerism.

{{Organized labor}}
{{Syndicalism}}

[[Category:Workerism]]
[[Category:Autonomism]]
[[Category:Economic ideologies]]
[[Category:Labor]]
[[Category:Marxist theory]]
[[Category:Syndicalism]]