Factory of Strategy: Thirty-Three Lessons on Lenin

Antonio Negri

Published by Columbia University Press 2014

Factory of Strategy

Thirty-Three Lessons on Lenin

Antonio Negri
Translated by: Arianna Bove

In the series Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture

https://doi.org/10.7312/negr14682

Overview
Contents

About this book

Lenin is the only prominent politician of the modern era to seriously question the "withering away" and "extinction" of the state, and like Marx, he recognized the link between capitalism and modern sovereignty and the need to destroy capitalism and reconfigure the state. Antonio Negri refrains from portraying Lenin as a ferocious dictator enforcing the proletariat's reappropriation of wealth, nor does he depict him as a mere military tool of a vanguard opposed to the Ancien Régime. Negri instead champions Leninism's ability to adapt to different working-class configurations in Russia, China, Latin America, and elsewhere. He also argues that Lenin developed a new political figuration in and beyond modernity and an effective means of organization capable of absorbing different historical conditions. He ultimately urges readers to recognize the universal application of Leninism today and its potential to institutionally—not anarchically—dismantle centralized power.

A renewed engagement with Lenin's revolutionary politics and a persuasive case for his contemporary relevance.

Author / Editor information

Antonio Negri has taught political philosophy at the University of Padua, the University of Vincennes, and the College Internationale de Philosophie. His books include The Politics of Subversion: A Manifesto for the Twenty-First Century and Negri on Negri.

Arianna Bove has translated many texts from Italian and French into English. Her work can be found at www.generation-online.org.

Reviews

Alberto Toscano, Goldsmiths, University of London, author of Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea:
Factory of Strategy is a bracingly original and systematic inquiry into the development of the Russian revolutionary's political thought, bearing comparison with Lukács's earlier Lenin. It doubles as a unique record of a crucial moment in Negri's trajectory as a political philosopher and activist, when questions of strategy and insurrection were foremost in his mind. Among the most accessible, accomplished, and vibrant pieces of Negri's writing, it stands out for its effort to combine political pedagogy and ideological intervention.

Fredric Jameson, Duke University:
There are many Lenins: in this exciting synthesis, with its emphasis on philosophy as well as praxis and on spontaneity versus organization, Antonio Negri discloses the dialectical logic of Lenin's historical situation. At the same time, by insisting on situational logic as such, he demonstrates its differences from our own today, where keeping faith with Lenin's lessons might lead to different forms. This important text from Negri's activist period is therefore a crucial document for understanding Negri's own work and positions and those of Lenin.

Slavoj iek, author of Living in the End Times:
This book on Lenin turns into a revolutionary text, into a true manual of resistance.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface to the English Translation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Preface to the Second Edition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xvii
Translator’s Note Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xxv
Part One. Lenin and Our Generation
1. Toward a Marxist Reading of Lenin’s Marxism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
2. From the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization (1) Economic Struggle and Political Struggle: Class Struggle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
3. From the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization (2) The Working-Class Character of Organization: The Party as Factory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
4. In Lenin’s Footsteps from the Theory of Capital to the Theory of Organization Annotations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	40
5. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (1) Proletarian Independence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
6. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (2) The Factory of Strategy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
7. From the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution (3) Organization Toward Communism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
8. In Lenin’s Footsteps from the Theory of Organization to the Strategy of Revolution Annotations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
9. Insurrection as Art and Practice of the Masses Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
Part Two. Lenin and the Soviets in the Russian Revolution and some Remarks on Sovietism
10. The Soviets between Spontaneity and Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
11. Lenin and the Soviets between 1905 and 1917 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
12. The Soviets and the Leninist Inversion of Praxis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
13. The Reformist Change of Praxis Soviets Today? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
14. Verifying the Question of Whether the Soviet is an Organ of Power Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	144
15. The Soviet Form of Masses and the Urgency of Workers’ Struggle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Part Three. Interregnum on the Dialectic
16. Dialectics as the Recovered Form of Lenin’s Thought Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
17. Lenin Reads Hegel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
18. Between Philosophy and Politics The Weapon of Dialectics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
Part Four. The Economic Foundations of the Withering-Away of the State
19. “Where to Begin?” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
20. The Concept of the State in General Can and Must be Destroyed Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
21. Opportunist and Revolutionary Conceptions of the Withering-Away of the State Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	216
22. The Problem of the “Withering-Away” of the State Against Equality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	224
23. First Approach to a Definition of the Material Bases of the “Withering-Away” Against Work, Against Socialism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	234
24. Marx’s Anticipation of the Problem of “Withering-Away” Against the Law of Value Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	246
25. Toward a Problematic View of Transition Impossible Socialism and the Coming Communism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
26. On the Problem of Transition Again The Word to the Masses Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
27. Transition and Proletarian Dictatorship The Particular Interests of the Working Class Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	274
28. Transition, Material Basis, and Expansiveness of the Working-Class Government Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
29. A Provisional Conclusion Lenin and Us Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	294
Part Five. Appendix on “Left-Wing” Communism
30. A Difficult Balance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
31. A Definition of “Left-Wing” Communism, and Some (Adequate?) Examples Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	312
32. Toward a New Cycle of Struggles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	324
33. From “Left-Wing” Communism to What is to be Done? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	332

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 368

eBook

Published: February 4, 2014
ISBN: 9780231519427