The Weight of the Printed Word

Steve Wright is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University. He has written widely on operaismo, including Storming Heaven: Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism (Pluto, second edition, 2017).

Preface

Acknowledgements



Introduction: Print, Document Work, and Class Politics



1 What Are Militants? Ceto politico and ceto operaio



2 Texts Have Bodies Too: Towards a Materialist Approach to Document Work and Genre



3 Genre, Document Work and Militancy amongst the Operaisti: Some Preliminary Reflections



Part 1 The Workers’ Enquiry and Co-research



Introduction to Part 1



4 The Fiat Workers’ Enquiry of 1960–61: Setting the Scene



5 The Fiat Workers’ Enquiry of 1960–61: What Actually Happened?



6 The Meaning of the Workers’ Enquiry and Co-research in the Early 1960s



Part 2 Essays and Their Contexts



Introduction to Part 2



7 Cultural Production in the Italy of the ‘Economic Miracle’



8 The Essay and Its Discontents



9 The Role of the Review in Classical Workerism



10 The Book Trade and Academia



Part 3 Leaflets and Sundries



Introduction to Part 3



11 The Emergence of the Assemblea operai e studenti



12 The Assemblea’s Document Work



13 A Short Addendum on Pamphlets



Part 4 Potere Operaio



Introduction to Part 4



14 Debating Organisation in Print: Potop 1969–71



15 Other Elements of Potere Operaio’s Genre Repertoire



16 Two Brief Interludes: ‘In Praise of Illegal Work’ and ‘Sotto la Mole’



17 A Gamble That Failed: Potere Operaio del lunedì



Part 5 Internal Documents and Perspectives Papers



Introduction to Part 5



18 Internal Communication Concerning Potere Operaio’s Press and Organisation



19 ‘The Measures Taken’



20 Position Papers and Discussion Documents



Part 6 ‘Dites-le avec des pavés!’ Autonomist Newspapers and the Challenge of Radio



Introduction to Part 6



21 The Best Re(a)d Paper in Autonomia?



22 Senza Tregua – A Brief and Unhappy Existence?



23 ‘A Paper That Speaks, a Radio That Writes’: I Volsci and the Impact of Radio on the Printed Word



Part 7 Journals in a Minor Key



Introduction to Part 7



24 ‘The Firebrands of Porto Marghera’



25 ‘There Is No Housework in Marx’



Conclusion: Print, Document Work, and Class Politics



Glossary

References

Index