The Revolution of a/Autonomia. Conceptual itineraries and political practice in Italy (1973-1979)

Abstract

This article analyses the emergence of Autonomia Operaia in Italy in the 1970s and the notion of Revolution that this same component of the Italian extra-parliamentary left movement elaborates. The purpose of the analysis is twofold. On the one hand, we will show how the emergence of the autonomist movement represented a 'revolution' in the left political scene in those years and, on the other hand, we will show which modes of understanding the notion of Revolution were elaborated by Toni Negri in the framework of a magazine, Rosso, which constituted one of the most important references for the militants of Autonomia Operaia itself. Finally, we will indicate how the new takes on class vanguard and the Negri notion of ‘social worker’ are still useful for (re)thinking our contemporary horizon of action and its radical transformation.