Abstract
The occupation of the factories by the Turin metalworkers in September 1920 represented the culmination of postwar working class unrest. The occupations, the final episode of the now fabled biennio rosso (two red years) of 1919–20, had a decisive impact on Gobetti, bringing him into proximity with a genuinely spontaneous working class politics and focusing his aspiration for renewal on a concrete historical subject. The occupations were defended theoretically by Ordine Nuovo and, in particular, by its twenty-nine-year-old communist coeditor, Antonio Gramsci, who, in its pages, outlined a theory of workplace democracy that envisaged the factories as the basis of a new workers’ state. Gobetti’s acquaintance with Gramsci and Ordine Nuovo’s project opened up a whole new horizon of possibilities, expanding his understanding of radical politics and encouraging him to transform his liberalism into what he understood as a revolutionary doctrine.
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Notes
For a historical account of the occupations, see Paolo Spriano, L’occupazione delle fabbriche, settembre 1920 (Turin: Einaudi, 1964), 159. The English translation is The Occupation of the Factories. Italy 1920, trans. Gwyn A. Williams (London: Pluto, 1975). See also
Martin N. Clark, Antonio Gramsci and the Revolution that Failed (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1977).
Ibid., 118.
Ibid., 68.
See Antonio Gramsci, “Il programma dell ‘Ordine Nuovo,’” L’Ordine Nuovo (August 14, 1920), in L’Ordine Nuovo 1919–1920, ed. Valentino Gerratana and Antonio A. Santucci (Turin: Einaudi, 1987) [hereafter, ON], 621.
Ibid., 619.
On De Leon’s influence on Ordine Nuovo, see Paolo Spriano, “L’Ordine Nuovo” e i consigli di fabbrica. Con una scelta di testi dall’” Ordine Nuovo” (Turin: Einaudi, 1971), 66–69. Spriano’s text also contains numerous writings from Ordine Nuovo by Gramsci and other writers.
Gramsci’s writings are collected in L’Ordine Nuovo. The best theoretical assessment of Gramsci’s ideas in Ordine Nuovo is Darrow Schecter, Gramsci and the Theory of Industrial Democracy (Aldershot: Avebury, 1991). Alternative contextual discussion can be found in
Carl Levy, Gramsci and the Anarchists (Oxford: Berg, 1999).
For a sketch, see also James Martin, Gramsci’s Political Analysis. A Critical Introduction (Basingstoke and New York: Macmillan, 1998), 24–29.
Gramsci, “Lo sviluppo della rivoluzione,” L’Ordine Nuovo (September 13, 1919), ON, 206.
See Gramsci, “La conquista dello stato,” L’Ordine Nuovo (July 12, 1919), ON, 131–32. On Gramsci’s criticisms of reformist trade unionism, see “Sindacati e consigli,” L’Ordine Nuovo (October 11, 1919), ON, 236–41, and “I sindacati e la dittatura,” L’Ordine Nuovo (October 25, 1919), ON, 256–62.
See Gramsci, “Lo sviluppo della rivoluzione,” 206, and “Sindacalismo e consigli,” L’Ordine Nuovo (November 8, 1919), ON, 298–99.
For Gramsci’s critique of Italian syndicalists, see “Sindacalismo e consigli,” and for his critique of anarchists, see “Socialisti e anarchici,” L’Ordine Nuovo (September 20–27, 1919), ON, 215–19. On Gramsci’s relationship to anarchism generally, see Levy, Gramsci and the Anarchists.
See Gramsci, “Note sulla rivoluzione russa,” Il Grido del Popolo (April 29, 1917), in
La Città futura 1917–1918, ed. Sergio Caprioglio (Turin: Einaudi, 1982), 138–42.
See Gramsci, “Lo stato italiano,” L’Ordine Nuovo (February 7, 1920), ON, 403–8.
Gramsci, “Il nostro Marx,” Il Grido del Popolo (May 4, 1918), in
Il Nostro Marx 1918–1919, ed. Sergio Caprioglio (Turin: Einaudi, 1984), 6.
Ibid., 5–6.
On Bordiga and Il Soviet, see Paolo Spriano, Storia del Partito comunista italiano, I Da Bordiga a Gramsci (Turin: Einaudi, 1967), chap. 3.
Ibid., 111–12. See Tasca’s defense from Gramsci’s criticism in Ibid, 266–90.
Gramsci, “Per un rinnovamento del partito socialista,” L’Ordine Nuovo (May 8, 1920), ON, 511.
Piero to Ada, in Gobetti and Gobetti, Nella tua breve esistenza. Lettere 1918–1926, ed. E. A. Perona (Turin: Einaudi, 1991), 375–76.
Gobetti’s reaction to the factory occupations, the Turinese workers, and evidence of the influence of Gramsci upon him is visible mostly in writings subsequent to the events. See, in particular, Gobetti, “Storia dei comunisti torinesi scritta da un liberale,” La Rivoluzione Liberale (March 26, 1922)
Scritti politici, ed. Paolo Spriano (Turin: Einaudi, 1960), 278–95 (hereafter SP). An English translation of this important article can be found in volume one of
James Martin (ed.), Antonio Gramsci: Critical Assessments of Political Philosophers (London: Routledge, 2002), 213–24.
For an illuminating sketch of Gramsci and Gobetti, see Paolo Spriano, Gramsci e Gobetti, 3rd ed. (Turin: Einaudi, 1977). I have made a (rather rough) translation of the first chapter of this book (previously in an article published in Studi storici) in Martin (ed.), Antonio Gramsci: Critical Assessments, 60–82.
See Gramsci, “Stato e sovranità,” Energie Nove (February 1–28, 1919), in Il Nostro Marx, 518–23.
Gobetti, Carteggio 1918–1922, ed. Ersilia A. Perona (Turin: Einaudi, 2003), 120–21.
Gobetti, “Storia dei comunisti,” 282.
Gobetti, “Uomini e idee [X],” La Rivoluzione Liberale (April 22, 1924), SP, 646.
Gobetti, Carteggio, 124.
Gobetti, “Storia dei comunisti,” 289.
Ibid., 290.
See his letter of May 14, 1921, to Prezzolini in Gobetti, Carteggio, 209. The project continued in preparation in June with, it seems, Gramsci’s approval. See Gobetti’s further letter to Prezzolini in which he indicates Gramsci’s preference concerning the volume’s contents: Gobetti, Ibid, 211–12. However, Gramsci’s departure for Moscow in 1922 appears to have interrupted these plans.
Gramsci, “Vecchia musica,” L’Unità (July 2, 1925), in
La costruzione del Partito Comunista 1923–1926, ed. Elsa Fubini (Turin: Einaudi, 1971), 377.
See Gramsci, “Some Aspects of the Southern Question,” (September–November 1926),
in Gramsci: Pre-Prison Writings, ed. Richard Bellamy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 313–37.
Gobetti, “Storia dei comunisti,” 294.
See, for example, Gobetti, “La rivoluzione italiana. Discorso ai collaboratori di “Energie Nove,” L’Educazione Nazionale (November 30, 1920), SP, 187–94.
On the various aspects of Gobetti’s interest in Russia, see Bruno Bongiovanni, “Piero Gobetti e la Russia,” Studi storici 37, no. 3 (1996): 727–46.
Ibid., 730.
See Paradosso dello spirito russo, in Gobetti, Scritti storici, letterari e filosofici, ed. Paolo Spriano (Turin: Einaudi, 1969), 289–341.
Gobetti, “Rassegna di questioni politiche,” Energie Nove (July 25, 1919), SP, 151.
See Georges Sorel, Reflections on Violence, ed. Jeremy Jennings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), and also the essays collected in Sorel
From Georges Sorel. Essays in Socialism and Philosophy, ed. John L. Stanley (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976). For an illuminating study of the formation of Sorel’s ideas, see
Marco Gervasoni, Georges Sorel, una biografia intelletuale. Socialismo e liberalismo nella Francia della Belle Èpoque (Milano: Edizioni Unicopli, 1997).
Ibid., 118.
On Sorel’s reception and influence in Italy, see Gian Biagio Furiozzi, Sorel e l’Italia (Messina: G. D’Anna, 1975). On the various strands of Italian syndicalism, see
Carl Levy, “Currents of Italian Syndicalism before 1926,” International Review of Social History 45 (2000): 209–50.
See Giancarlo Bergami, “Sorel e i giovani rivoluzionari di Torino,” II Ponte 8–9 (1970): 1062–64.
Ibid., 159–60.
Ibid., 159.
For commentary on Sorel’s influence on Gramsci, see Darrow Schecter, “Two Views of the Revolution: Gramsci and Sorel, 1916–1920,” in Antonio Gramsci: Critical Assessments, vol. 1, ed. James Martin (London: Routledge, 2002), 153–71. On Sorel’s influence on Gobetti, see
Pietro Polito, “Gobetti e Sorel,” Mezzosecolo: materiali di ricerca storica 6 (1985–86): 29–62.
Gobetti, “Storia dei comunisti,” 287.
Ibid., 292
Gobetti, “Il nostro protestantismo,” La Rivoluzione Liberale (May 17, 1925), SP, 824.
Ibid., 825.
Gobetti, “Storia dei comunisti,” 292.
See Giampiero Carocci, “Piero Gobetti nella storia del pensiero politico italiano,” Belfagor, 6 (1951): 148. Norberto Bobbio also begins his study of Turinese cultural life with a chapter devoted to Gramsci and Gobetti together, pointing to their joint role as instigators of a distinctive culture of intellectual militancy in the city. See Trent’anni di storia della cultura a Torino (1920–1950) (Turin: Einaudi, 2002), 5–14. For a more recent, critical evaluation of the intellectual relationship, see
Franco Sbarberi’s “Gramsci e Gobetti: un eredità difficile,” in L’utopia della libertà eguale. Il liberalismo sociale da Rosselli a Bobbio (Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 1999), 25–53.
A point underlined by Paolo Bagnoli, Rosselli, Gobetti e la rivoluzione democratica, Uomini e idee tra liberalismo e socialismo (Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1996), 132–33.
Gobetti, “Il problema della civiltà russa,” L’Ora (November 23, 1923), in Scritti storici, 425. On this interpretation of the Russian Revolution as a Menshevite strategy delivered by Bolsheviks, see the discussion by Bongiovanni, “Piero Gobetti e la Russia,” 738–39, 742–44.
Gobetti, “La rivoluzione italiana. Discorso ai collaboratori di ‘Energie Nove,’” L’Educazione Nazionale (November 30, 1920), SP, 187–94.
Gobetti, Carteggio, 141.
Ibid., 183.
Gobetti, Carteggio, 194, 205, 222. See also his scathing critique of the socialist leader Fillipo Turati, “Letture sui partiti politici,” La Rivoluzione Liberale (April 8, 1922), SP, 304–8.
Ibid., 290.
Ibid., 293.
Ibid., 289.
Franco Sbarberi, Gramsci, un socialismo armonico (Milan: Angeli, 1986). This tension, argues Sbarberi, continues into Gramsci’s later writings in prison. Sbarberi compares the tension in Gramsci with Gobetti’s “conflictualism” in L’utopia della libertà eguale, 49–53.
See the discussion by Marco Revelli, “Gobetti ‘liberal comunista’?” in I dilemmi del liberalsocialismo, ed. Michelangelo Bovero, Virgilio Mura, and Franco Sbarberi (Rome: La Nuova Italia Scientifica, 1994), 63–84.
Ibid., 122–23.
Ibid., 292–93.
Ibid., 292
Ibid., 294.
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© 2008 James Martin
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Martin, J. (2008). Liberty and Discipline Gramsci and the Factory Council Movement. In: Piero Gobetti and the Politics of Liberal Revolution. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230616868_4
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