Study Guide to Capital, 1974-2012 Chapter-by-chapter outline and commentaries on Volume I of Marx's Capital. An ongoing project.
"Internationalization of Capital and Mode of Production in Agriculture", 1976. Originally prepared as a paper presented to the Seminar on the Political Economy of Agriculture at the A. N. S. Institute of Social Studies in Patna, India, it was subsequently published in the Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XI, No. 13, Review of Agriculture, March 27, 1976, pp. A2-A16. The article surveys and critiques a series of articles that appeared in the Economic and Political Weekly debating the "mode of production" in Indian agriculture. It then provides an alternative approach that shifts attention from structural typologies to class struggle.
Food, Famine and International Crisis, 1977. Article written as an intervention into the "food movement" that mobilized in the 1970s in response to widespread famine in Africa and Asia as well as more general concern over the organization and results of the ever-increasing agribusiness takeover of food production and distribution. The article was published in the second issue of Zerowork.
"Malaria, the Politics of Public Health and the International Crisis" (1977). This version (one of three), published in the Review of Radical Political Economics, 1977, pp.81-103, contains an appendix where I first laid out, in print, my "circuit of the reproduction of labor power", a theoretical innovation designed to situate investment in public health into Marx's analysis of the reproduction of capital and to complement his three circuits spelled out in the first section of Volume II of Capital. A more general application of this circuit was presented in chapter 3 of my book Reading Capital Politically published a year later.
Malaria, The Political Economy of Public Health, 1977 [pdf version] This article was published in the International Journal of Health Services, Volume 7, Number 4, 1977, pp. 557-579. Two other articles on the same topic were published about the same time. One was a previous draft of the same piece, "The Political Economy of Malaria De-control" which was published in the September 4, 1976 issue of the Economic and Political Weekly in Bombay, India --in direct response to an article published in the EPW revealing an upsurge in malaria. The second was a more detailed theoretical version, published as "Malaria, The Politics of Public Health, and the International Crisis" in the Review of Radical Political Economics, Spring 1977.
NEW! (on this page) Reading Capital Politically . First publication (in English) by the University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, 1978. Subsequent translations, often with specially written prefaces, from 1979 to 2012. A second English publication, with the same original text but with a new preface, by Anti/Theses and AK Press in 2000. I am currently (2014) preparing a revised and substantially expanded edition that incorporates much of the commentary from my Study Guide to Capital, Volume I.
Supply-side Economics: The New Phase of Capitalist Strategy in the Crisis, 1981 Written and published in Babylone (Paris), Metropoli (Rome) and El Gallo Illustrado (Mexico City). Strategic reading of the supply-side economics of the first Reagan Administration.
Technology as Political Weaponry, 1982. [pdf file]. A paper that discusses the class politics of technology and technological change using the Green Revolution technologies of high yielding grains as the principle example.
Marx's Theory of Crisis as a Theory of Class Struggle, 1982, written with Peter Bell, first published in Research in Political Economy, Vol. 5, 1982. This piece was intended as the first chapter of a book on Marxist Crisis theory. See Preface written for its republication in the on-line journal The Commoner edited by Massimo de Angelis.
Introduction to Marx Beyond Marx by Toni Negri, 1984. An introduction arguing that despite its diffculties the book and its interpretations of Marx's Grundrisse are important for all those trying to get beyond capitalism.
The Uses of an Earthquake, 1986. Essay about the autonomous struggles of the people of Tepito in Mexico City before and after the earthquake of 1985. "Zapatismo" before the Zapatistas.
Karl Marx: Economist or Revolutionary?, 1986. Revolutionary, of course. Written for 1983 centennial conference on Marx, Schumpeter and Keynes in Denver. Published in Suzanne W. Helburn and David F.Bramhall (eds) Marx, Schumpter & Keynes, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, 1986.
"Some Notes on Argentine Gauchos in the 19th Century", 1987 Extract from a letter to George Rawick concerning the concept of class. Originally published in Common Sense: Journal of the Edinburgh Conference of Socialist Economists, No. 10, May 1991. Republished in the Swedish journal Lønnsslaven, No. 5, 1994. [pdf of Swedish version].
Industrialism or Capitalism? Conviviality or Self-Valorization? Some notes on Ivan Illich's Tools for Conviviality, 1987 Paper comparing and contrasting Illich's critique of industrialization and his notion of conviviality as an alternative with the ideas of autonomist Marxism on capitalism and self-valorization.
Development or Autonomy, December 1988 Essay against development --which is always capitalist-- and for autonomous self-determination. Written for conference in Mexico City in 1985, subsequently expanded and published as introduction to Korean edition of Reading Capital Politically, 1988 .
"Close the IMF, Abolish Debt and End Development: a Class Analysis of the International Debt Crisis," 1989 Capital & Class No. 39, Winter 1989. The analysis argues that the debt crisis is both a result of workers struggles and a strategy used against them. The depth and duration of the crisis is a measure the strength of those struggles.
"Work, Value and Domination: On the Continuing Relevance of the Marxian Labor Theory of Value in the Crisis of the Keynesian Planner State," 1989. Published in Vis a Vis: Quaderni per l'autonomia di classe (Bologna), No. 2, primavera 1994, pp. 73-90, as: "Lavoro, Valore e Dominio: Sull'attuale rilevanza della teoria di Marx del laboro-valore nella crisi dello stato piano Keynesiano". Originally written June 1989. A critique of the writings of Claus Offe and Toni Negri on work.
Competition? or Cooperation? 1990 , Published in Common Sense (Edinburgh, Scotland) No. 9, April 1990, pp. 20-22.[pdf of original].
The Political Economics of the Gulf War, 1991, (pamphlet). (A version of this piece was published in the Polemist, December 1990 and in Austin Peace and Justice Coallition Newsletter, January 1991.) Article sketching the political and political economic issues at stake in Bush's drive to intervention and war in the Gulf.
"Marxian Categories, the Crisis of Capital and the Constitution of Social Subjectivity Today", (1992), paper presented to the session on "Considering the Side of Wage Labor" at the Rethinking Marxism Conference on "Marxism in the New World Order: Crises and Possibilities", Amherst, Massachusetts, November 14, 1992.
"The Subversion of Money-as-Command in the Current Crisis," (1992) in Werner Bonefeld and John Holloway (eds) Global Capital, National State and the Politics of Money, London: St. Martin's Press, 1995, pp. 141-177. This paper was written for and presented to the Conference on Money and the State at FLACSO, Mexico City, Mexico, July 14-17, 1992. The Conference was organized by John Holloway and brought together a number of people from Mexico, the United States and Europe to discuss theoretico-political issues of money in the crisis. Several of the papers presented were subsequently published in this volume.
"The Inversion of Class Perspective in Marxian Theory: from Valorization to Self-Valorization," in W. Bonefeld, R. Gunn and K. Psychopedis (eds) Essays on Open Marxism, London: Pluto Press, 1992, pp. 106-144.
"Socialism," 1992, an essay on the ambiguities of the concept and practice through history and why we should no longer use the term to talk about alternatives to capitalism. Published in Wolfgang Sach(ed), The Development Dictionary: Knowledge as Power, London: Zed Books, 1992, pp. 233-249. A revised version has been published as a booklet in English and another in Spanish by Ediciones ¡Basta!, Oaxaca, 2006, partly as contribution to discussion within the Zapatistas' "Other Campaign" and partly as a contribution to on-going discussions amidst the struggles within Oaxaca.
"Kropotkin, Self-Valorization and the Crisis of Marxism," 1992 , Anarchist Studies (UK), 1993. Originally written 1992 for a Kropotkin conference in Russia, this essay compares Kropotkin's work on the future in the present and that of autonomist Marxists on self-valorization.
Theses on Secular Crisis in Capitalism: The Insurpassability of Class Antagonisms, May 1993. Written for Rethinking Marxism Conference, November 1992, reworked for publication the following year. Published C. Polychroniou and H.R. Targ (eds), Marxism Today: Essays on Capitalism, Socialism and Strategies for Social Change, Westport: Praeger, 1996, pp. 87-97.
"An Interview with Harry Cleaver," July 1993, by Massimo De Angelis, recorded in London. First published in the Italian journal Vis-a-vis, No. 1, Autumn 1993. The interview focuses on 1) the tradition of "autonomist Marxism", 2) The nature of capital's rule: work, 3) the refusal of work, 4) self-valorization, and 5) organization. Republished in the Australian journal Re-construction, No. 9, Summer 1996/97, pp. 13-24. (Swedish translation, Dutch translation, português brasileiro)
"The Chiapas Uprising and the Future of Class Struggle in the New World Order," 1994, RIFF-RAFF (Padova), 1994. First essay on Zapatista rebellion and the role of the Internet in the circulation of that struggle. [In Italian from RIFF-RAFF web page; In Spanish (pdf).]
"Worried About Grade Inflation? Abolish Grades!", May 1994. Letter to The Stanford Daily on a debate at Stanford University over the re-imposition of the "F" grade.
"Introduction," 1994 to Zapatistas! Documents of the New Mexican Revolution, New York: Autonomedia, 1994. Introduction to the first published collection of Zapatista writings.
John Ross, Rebellion from the Roots: A Review, January 1995 Book review for Love & Rage.
George Collier, Basta! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas: A Review, April 1995 Book review for Love & Rage.
Elaine Katzenberger, First World, Ha Ha Ha!: A Review, June 1995 Book review for Love & Rage.
Six Postings on Cholera in Chiapas, June24-July 4, 1995 Six postings to the activist listserv Chiapas95 on cholera — that was spreading in Chiapas at that time — and on the political economy of epidemic disease more generally. Includes my "Notes on Death in Venice that analyzes Thomas Mann's novella set in a cholera epidemic in Venice, and Peter Linebaugh's Lizard Talk (1989) on the politics of ten famous episodes of disease. See also the original pamphlet and a nicely formatted version of Lizard Talk.
The 'Space' of Cyberspace:Body Politics, Frontiers and Enclosures, November 1995 This is the LawyerNet version of an essay on how we created the Internet and capital seeks to enclose it.
The 'Space' of Cyberspace:Body Politics, Frontiers and Enclosures, 1996 This is the Women and Performance version of the above paper, (Vol. 9, #17).
The Zapatistas and the Electronic Fabric of Struggle, November 1995 Extended essay on the role of the Internet in the international circulation of the Zapatista rebellion and of the revolt against neoliberalism more generally.
Nature, Neoliberalism and Sustainable Development: Between Charybdis & Scylla?, April 1997. Essay for a conference in Portugal that critiques sustainable development as the worst possible nightmare for humans and for the rest of nature.
The Zapatista Effect: The Internet and the Rise of an Alternative Political Fabric, November 1997 Essay for the Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 51, No. 2, Spring 1998, pp. 621-640, on the spreading global character of opposition to neoliberalism and discussions of alternatives.
The Zapatistas and the International Circulation of Struggle: Lessons Suggested and Problems Raised, February 1998 . Paper prepared for conference on Globalization from Below at Duke University about problems that persist.
Zapatista: Neoliberalism, the Chiapas Uprising and Cyberspace, 1998, Galmuri Publishing House, Seoul, Korea, 1998. This is mostly a collection of my writings on the Zapatistas. Although published in Korean most of the material was prepared in English, so all of the original English versions of the articles contained in the book, and of the introductions I wrote to the book, and to each article, are available here.
Work is Still the Central Issue!, 1999 [pdf file]. This paper was written for a conference on "The Labour Debate" held at the Univesity of Warwick, England, February 1999. It was subsequently published in Ana Dinerstein and Machael Leary (eds) The Labour Debate: An Investigation into the Theory and Reality of Capitalist Work, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2002.
Computer-linked Social Movements and the Global Threat to Capitalism, 1999 Paper presented to the summer course "Computers, Networks and the Prospects for European and World Security," Rovereto (Trento), Italy, August 13, 1999, organized by the International School on Disarmament and Research on Conflicts.
Virtual & Real Chiapas Solidarity Networks: A Critique of Judith A. Hellman's, "Real and Virtual Chiapas,"Socialist Register 2000, July 2000. Detailed rebuttal of a nasty attack on activists who use the Internet in the struggle against neoliberalism.
" From operaismo to 'autonomist Marxism': A Response to Aufheben's 'Review' of Steve Wright's Storming Heaven (2002) and Harry Cleaver's Reading Capital Politically (2000)", July 2003. [pdf version, in original Aufheben format] Detailed, inter-paragraph response to Aufheben's attacks on "autonomist Marxism" in general and my book in particular.
"On Schoolwork and the Struggle Against It".
A spin-off from the response to Aufheben above, this essay
is subject to repeated revision. The files below are all pdf files.
(For an earlier treatment of schoolwork with special reference to grades
see the 1994 Letter to The Stanford Daily above.)
"Outsourcing: A Problem? What kind?", 2004 Slide presentation accompanying debate with Dr. Robert Duvic, UT School of Business, April 7, 2004.
"Deep Currents Rising: Notes on the Global Threat to Capitalism", 2006 [pdf version] in Subverting the Present, Imagining the Future: Insurrection, Movement, Commons, New York: Autonomedia, 2007. (ISBN: 1570271844) Also reprinted in Savyasaachi and Ravi Kumar, Social Movements: Transformative Shifts and Turning Points, New Delhi: Routledge, 2014, pp. 193-235. (ISBN: 978-0-415-71738-6)
"Paths of Autonomy", [pdf version], and "Neozapatismo and Autonomy", [pdf version], 2006. These two papers were presented to the Conference on La Autonomía Posible: Reinvención de la política y emancipación at the Universidad Autonóma de la Ciudad de México, October 24-26, 2006.
NEW!(on this page) "Learning, Understanding and Appropriating" (August 2008). An essay written for my students to explain what I was looking for when I asked them to write essays evaluating the extent to which they were "appropriating" ideas come across in the material we were studying together. Contains excerpts from Schopenhauer, Marcus Aurelius, Augustine of Hippo, Rousseau and a bit of my own intellectual autobiography.
Sports? (2008). Published as the Foreward to Marxism, Cultural Studies and Sport Edited by Ben Carrington and Ian McDonald, New York: Routledge, 2009.
"Preface" to the Polish edition of Reading Capital Politically, 2011 in both English (html & pdf) and Polish (pdf). Special preface written for the Polish edition and addressing some issues of interest to the translators and editors.
"Work Refusal and Self-Organization", 2011 [pdf version] [MSWord version]. Published as Chapter 3 in in Anitra Nelson and Frans Timmerman, Life without Money: Building Fair and Sustainable Economies, London: Pluto Press, 2011. Because I did not have time to prepare a new text for their project — which I liked and the editors would have preferred — they cobbled together this amalgam from previous texts, which I then edited.
"Preface" to the German edition of Reading Capital Politically, 2012 in both English (html, pdf, and MSWord) and German (pdf). Special preface written for the German edition and addressing some issues of interest to the translators and editors. This is a modified version of the Preface to the Polish edition published the previous year.
"Rupturing the Dialectic: The Struggle against Work, Financial Crisis and Beyond", 2012 [pdf version], [MSWord version]. Paper presented to the Conference on "Hegel, Marx and the Global Crisis", held at the University of Warsaw, Poland, October 22-23, 2012. This essay is currently (November - December 2014) being revised and expanded for publication as a booklet by AK Press. A video of my presentation in Warsaw is available on YouTube.
Genesis of Zerowork #1, June 16, 2014. This essay appears on a website devoted to an ongoing project reconstructing the genesis, evolution and end of the political project that produced and published two issues of the journal Zerowork in 1975 and 1977. The website includes the entire text of the first two issues. Most of the texts for a third issue — produced but never published — are now also available for the first time on the website. As explained on that site, this is an ongoing project whose texts are subject to change as research proceeds and feedback comes in. [MSWord version].
"Background: from Zerowork #1 to Zerowork #2", December, 2014. This second essay provides the results of research into the evolution of the Zerowork collective and covers the period from the publication of Zerowork #1 to that of Zerowork #2. Intended as a small contribution to bottom-up history, this background includes the interwoven intellectual and political history of the editors, their relations with others and their internal debates. During the period covered, some left the editorial collective and others joined. The internal debates eventually became serious enough to provoke a split. As a result, the second issue of the journal was produced by a recomposed group and benefited from new input. Included here are brief biographies of the new individuals who joined the collective. This essay, like the entire webpage on which it appears is the product of an on-going research project and is, therefore, subject to revision without notice. Corrections and other feedback will always be welcome. [pdf version]
NEW! "Circuits of Struggle" (2016). This essay is a revised version of a talk delivered to the Union for Democratic Communications' Conference on Circuits of Struggle, held at the University of Toronto on May 2, 2015.
NEW! Rupturing the Dialectic: The Struggle against Work, Money and Financialization, Oakland: AK Press, 2017. This is the book-length expansion of the 2012 article linked above. It is currently available from the AK Press online catalog.
NEW! Note to Polish Readers, 2017, This is the preface to the book-length Polish translation of Marx's Theory of Crisis as a Theory of Class Struggle" titled TEORIA KRYZYSU: JAKO TEORIA WALKI KLAS, Poznan, 2017. [Polish version] 2017.