Texas Archives of Autonomist Marxism

Welcome

These archives contain a wide variety of material related to those threads of the Marxist tradition which have emphasized the self-activity of the working class. "Autonomist "is used here in several senses: 1. the autonomy of the working class vis a vis capital, 2. the autonomy of workers vis a vis their official organizations, e.g., trade unions or parties, 3. the autonomy of various sectors of the class from each other, e.g., that of blacks from whites, women from men, etc.

I use the term "threads" because it is only fairly recently that elements of this tradition have emphasized the concept of workers autonomy. Previously an understanding and appreciation of autonomy could often be found only within some parts of various Marxist movements. For example, the Council Communists emphasized the autonomy of the working class vis a vis capital and the party in their political writings but often forgot about the idea when they turned to the theory of capitalist crisis. Similarly, there have been Marxists who have very much understood the ability of the working class to initiative struggle against capital (taking the offensive rather than being purely reactive) but have had no sympathy for the notion of the autonomy of struggles within the class.

Much of the material included in this archive has been written as contributions to the elaboration of Marxist theory and pratice. Other materials touch on issues of working class autonomy but are not written by Marxists, e.g., there are commentaries on various political movements, writings of anarchists who would not call themselves Marxist (though they might well accept the label autonomist), campesinista writings which emphasize the autonomy of peasant struggles, and so on. As a byproduct of a long term research project, these archives include whatever materials I have found to be of interest in exploring both the history of thinking about workers autonomy and possible ways of elaborating such theory and pratice.

These archives are being made available to the movement to acclerate the circulation of struggle, both from place to place and through time. As many contemporary Marxist historians have discovered the reconstruction of bottom up history, of our history, of the history of our struggles and of our thinking about our struggles, is generally very difficult. Materials pass from view and are forgotten, or they are lost or destroyed, and so on. What histories do exist are often written by outsiders with no direct experience or sympathy for the movements described. The various elements of the Marxist tradition that I am calling "autonomist" have been largely outside the mainstreams of Marxism, alien and critical of both orthodox Marxism (Leninist, Trotskyist, Maoist) and Critical theory (Frankfurt School, etc) for neglecting the self-activity of workers in favor of the study of capitalist power.

E-Texts

The Indexes

To facilitate access to the materials in the archive, they have been indexed in several ways. The two basic approaches are alphabetical by author or title and chronological. Because the quantity of material is large, and the index citations often contain detailed information, e.g., chapter titles, or article subheadings, to give the brouser some sense of the contents, both kinds of indexes are made available in two ways: either in the entirety (as very large files) or broken down into smaller, easier to download files.

Alphabetical Index (complete) (file size: 386k)

Alphabetical Index (by section)

A - F

G - L

M - R

S - Z

Chronological Index (complete) (file size: 350K)

1900 - 1940

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

Other Materials

In the course of my research on these traditions of "autonomist" Marxism I have written a few things which have dealth with various aspects of this approach to Marxist theory and politics and compiled an annotated reading list for teaching purposes. These are currently available on the Net.

"Introduction" to Reading Capital Politically, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979.

"Interview" with Massimo de Angelis, Vis a Vis, 1995.