Negri on Negri

by Antonio Negri

First published in 2003.

Genres: Philosophy

216 pages, Paperback

First published December 9, 2003

About the author

Antonio Negri was an Italian political philosopher known as one of the most prominent theorists of autonomism, as well as for his co-authorship of Empire with Michael Hardt and his work on the philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Born in Padua, Italy, Negri became a professor of political philosophy at the University of Padua, where he taught state and constitutional theory. Negri founded the Potere Operaio (Worker Power) group in 1969 and was a leading member of Autonomia Operaia, and published hugely influential books urging "revolutionary consciousness."
Negri was accused in the late 1970s of various charges including being the mastermind of the left-wing urban guerrilla organization Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse or BR), which was involved in the May 1978 kidnapping and murder of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro. On 7 April 1979, he Negri was arrested and charged with a long list of crimes including the Moro murder. Most charges were dropped quickly, but in 1984 he was still sentenced (in absentia) to 30 years in prison. He was given an additional four years on the charge of being "morally responsible" for the violence of political activists in the 1960s and 1970s. The question of Negri's complicity with left-wing extremism is a controversial subject. He was indicted on a number of charges, including "association and insurrection against the state" (a charge which was later dropped), and sentenced for involvement in two murders.
Negri fled to France where, protected by the Mitterrand doctrine, he taught at the Paris VIII (Vincennes) and the Collège international de philosophie, along with Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Gilles Deleuze. In 1997, after a plea-bargain that reduced his prison time from 30 to 13 years, he returned to Italy to serve the end of his sentence. Many of his most influential books were published while he was behind bars. He hence lived in Venice and Paris with his partner, the French philosopher Judith Revel. He was the father of film director Anna Negri.
Like Deleuze, Negri's preoccupation with Spinoza is well known in contemporary philosophy. Along with Althusser and Deleuze, he has been one of the central figures of a French-inspired neo-Spinozism in continental philosophy of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, that was the second remarkable Spinoza revival in history, after a well-known rediscovery of Spinoza by German thinkers (especially the German Romantics and Idealists) in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled across this book as I was exploring different theories of the state. This book is an outstanding interview with Negri in which he speaks to themes arranged alphabetically. The book is a fast read and an excellent introduction to both Negri's life and thought. Although the combination of his speech and the translation of the conversation occasionally produce confusing text, on the whole it is infinitely more readable than his books Empire (see complete text here: www.infoshop.org/texts/empire.pdf) and Multitude, which he co-authored with Michael Hardt and which includes much of the same theoretical material.

Negri's work immediately struck a chord with me because it reconciles Marxist and postmodernist thinking. The practical considerations of his work speak to the social movements in which I'm most interested, namely, indigenous people's movements and autonomous worker organizing. Negri's responses walk us through his tumultuous life, his reflections on it, and his ideas about future struggle.

Much of Negri's thought departs from the assumption that capitalist domination has extended to all areas of life. Labor is increasingly immaterial and communicative in nature. Negri takes the task of reformulating Marxist thinking for a postmodern era. In part, this means the centrality of class struggle even for those outside of the wage-earning system (homemakers, students, homeless, etc.).

For me, the most revealing theory of Negri's is that of empire. Building on other globalization theorists, he sees empire not as the U.S. or any other state, but rather supra-national or transnational spheres of activity like the financial sphere. According to Negri, there are three phenomenon leading to the need for empire:
(1) Working class struggle with nations, causing capitalist reproduction to take place transnationally
(2) Anti-colonial wars and the Vietnam War, leading to anti-imperialist pressure on capitalism
(3) The crisis of socialist countries unable to manage capital and greater demands for liberty

Importantly, Negri outlines three fundamental demands against empire:
(1) The right to free circulation (as global citizens)
(2) The right to a social wage (citizenship income)
(3) The right to reappropiration (productive forces belonging to the many)

Easy demands, right!

I highly recommend another similar interview, published as “N is for Negri,” in an MIT Journal. Next in my exploration of Negri is the material found in the collection, Autonomia.

[Vanessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible introduction to Antonio Negri's life and ideas. I was told it was "Negri lite," a beginner's book before one moved on to the more difficult texts of Hardt and Negri. I especially love Negri's discussion of how being in prison changed the way he physically experienced the world: grass, love, food, time...

[Dries · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast read introducing you to Antonio Negri in which he talks about philosophy and his life.

I read it together with Empire and it was good to get read about Negri's personality.

4-stars

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A different kind of Marxism.