Raniero Panzieri (14 February 1921 –

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, 9 October 1964) was an Italian politician, writer and Marxist theoretician, considered as the founder of

operaismo Workerism is a political theory that emphasizes the importance of or glorifies the working class. Workerism, or , was of particular significance in Italian left-wing politics. As revolutionary praxis Workerism (or ) is a political analysis, w ...

Biography

Raniero Panzieri was born in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. He lived in Sicily and was active in the ranks of the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 1892, ...

. Whilst taking an active part in struggles for land reform, he began to write. In 1953 he became a member of the central committee of the PSI and then in 1957 the co-director of the theoretical review '' Mondo operaio'' (Workers World), which he turned into a discussion forum for the left of the party. During this period he translated

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

's ''

Capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

'' into Italian. At the 1959 congress of the Italian Socialist Party, he opposed the creation of a governmental accord with the Italian Christian Democratic Party. This led to his expulsion from the party. He then moved to

, where he worked for the

Einaudi Einaudi is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Luigi Einaudi (1874–1961), Italian politician *Mario Einaudi (1905–1994), Italian political scientist, son of Luigi *Giulio Einaudi (1912–1999), Italian publisher, son o ...

publishing house. He forged links with several groups of militant trade unionists, socialists and dissident communists. Influenced by the French group Socialisme ou Barbarie he founded the ''

Quaderni Rossi ''Quaderni Rossi'' (Italian:Red Notebooks) was an Italian political journal founded in 1961 which became one of the primary sources of autonomist Marxism. The first issue appeared on 30 September 1961. Raniero Panzieri played a central role in fou ...

'' (Red Notebooks) review, together with

Mario Tronti Mario Tronti (born 24 July 1931 in Rome) is an Italian philosopher and politician, considered one of the founders of the theory of operaismo in the 1960s. An active member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) during the 1950s, he was, with Ranie ...

, Romano Alquati and

Danilo Montaldi Danilo Montaldi (1 July 1929 – 27 April 1975) was an Italian writer, intellectual and Marxist activist, who participated in the Autonomist Marxism movement. Danilo Montaldi was born in Cremona in 1929. His father was a working class anarchist who ...

. In the industrial revolt of the ''piazza Statuto'' in 1962 in Turin, Panzieri saw the emergence of the central role of the factory and the (factory) worker. The first editions of the review, which aimed at exploring the real life of the factory and the relationship of the workers to production, had a profound impact in the sphere of workplace struggles, as they departed from the habitual positions of the socialists and communists in this area. Mario Tronti would split off in 1963 to form the review '' Classe Operaia'' (Working Class). This review was the cradle of

(workerism), a Marxist tendency popular in Italy in the 1960s and 1970s. He died in

, aged 43.

Bibliography

*Raniero Panzieri, "Socialist uses of workers' enquiry" *Raniero Panzieri, "Seven Theses on Workers' Control (1958)" *Raniero Panzieri, "Surplus value and planning: notes on the reading of Capital" *''Raniero Panzieri: un uomo di frontiera'', Editions Punto Rosso, 330 p.

References

External links

''Uso socialista dell'inchiesta operaia'', Quaderni Rossi, 1965.
Autonomism Marxist theory Syndicalism Economic ideologies Writers from Rome 1921 births 1964 deaths Politicians from Rome Italian magazine founders {{Italy-writer-stub

Biography

Bibliography

Further reading

References

External links