Published on Workers' Liberty (http://www.workersliberty.org)
Two critiques: "Empire" and "new imperialism"
By martin
Created 12 Jan 2008 - 9:22am

Empire
Author: 
Martin Thomas

Download this article (pdf) [1]. It discusses the issues round “globalisation” by way of two critiques, of Negri-Hardt and of the “new imperialism” theory of John Rees, Alex Callinicos and other writers associated with the British SWP.

Both accounts have a theological taste to them. But where Negri’s and Hardt’s is enthusiastic, mystical theology, Callinicos’s is the theology of the worldly-wise, “moderate” prelate of a modern established church.

Both Hardt/Negri and Callinicos/Rees slide off the narrow and slippery path of scientific analysis — substituting speculative construction for empirical investigation in one case, dragging the ill-fitting costume of yesterday’s theory onto today’s reality so as better to be able to agitate about “imperialism — just like Lenin condemned” in the other.

Other material about "autonomist Marxismm" on this site:

Autonomist Marxism: three themes, three critiques [2]

Autonomism, workerism, and Trotskyism in Italy [3];

Review of Steve Wright's book on the history of autonomism in the 1960s and 70s [4].

On other sites:

A compact summary of autonomism, in the form of an interview with the American autonomist Harry Cleaver by Massimo De Angelis: www.eco.utexas.edu/Homepages/facstaff/Cleaver/InterviewwithHarryCleaver.html [5].

Review of Hardt and Negri's Empire: Other texts, including the historic ones like Mario Tronti's "Lenin in England": www.geocities.com/cordobakaf/index.html [Array].



Source URL: http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2008/01/12/two-critiques-empire-and-new-imperialism

Links:
[1] http://www.workersliberty.org.uk/files/twocritiques.pdf
[2] http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2003/12/27/autonomist-marxism-three-themes-three-critiques
[3] http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2004/01/11/trotskyism-workerism-and-autonomism-italy
[4] http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2003/12/25/storming-heaven-class-composition-and-struggle-italian-autonomist-marxism
[5] http://www.eco.utexas.edu/Homepages/facstaff/Cleaver/InterviewwithHarryCleaver.html