“Do You Remember Revolution?” Emergency Magazine (1983/84)

Emergency was a relatively short lived journal out of the UK in the 1980s. The editorial collective (listed in the image below) included, amongst others, John Merrington, an important figure in bridging Italian autonomist thought and politics with sympathetic theorists and activists in the UK and U.S (see P. Linebaugh’s 1997 obituary here, H. Cleaver’s mention of Merrington here, and Merrington’s role in the publication of Negri’s Revolution Retrieved here). Merrington was also a corresponding editor for Zerowork 1 and part of the editorial collective for Zerowork 2. Ed Emery (Red Notes) is generally credited with the translation of the article, but no credit for publication is given in this specific printing.

“Do You Remember Revolution?” was originally published in Il Manifesto in 1983. The context of the piece includes the Italian “state of emergency” that facilitated the mass state repression of the extra-parliamentary left in the late 1970s and early 1980s, changes in class composition as a result of struggles of preceding years, the historic compromise, the rise of the Red Brigades (and the increasing isolation of clandestine armed struggle groups), and the international media witch-hunt against Toni Negri and other militants. The piece is signed by prisoners held at Rebibbia, including: Lucio Castellano, Arrigo Cavallina, Gustino Cortiana, Mario Delmaviva, Luciano Ferrari-Bravo, Chicco Funaro, Toni Negri, Paolo Pozzi, Franco Tommei, Emilio Vesce and Paolo Virno.

“Do You Remember Revolution?” is historically quite important as document written by political prisoners (including key figures in the autonomist movement and tradition), as an analysis of state repression in context of changing class composition, and as an oft-cited article that circulated in the autonomist milieus in Europe and the U.S. during the 1980s and 1990s. Negri’s thinking plays a central role here. Within its short paragraphs we see the change from the “mass worker” to the “social worker” and the shift from classic workerist struggles to the demands for an income separate from work and the space to live life on self-determined terms. The piece is a very powerful and clear example of an analysis of class composition and movement dynamics.

The Emergency introduction to “Do You Remember Revolution?” emphasizes that it is forward-looking and part of debates within the Italian radical left: “It is part of the attempt to find, or recover, the political space for the new movements that emerged outside established politics in the seventies, a space that was closed off by the military confrontation between the ‘practice of the terrorist organisations amid generalised state repression.”

The first English appearance of “Do You Remember Revolution?” is often credited to Negri’s Revolution Retrieved, published by Red Notes in 1988 (translations by Ed Emery with notes from Merrington). The Emergency publication of predates Revolution Retrieved by roughly five years. The piece was also reprinted for academic audiences in Hardt & Virno’s 1996 book Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics.

The journal is surprisingly scarce, especially given that it was distributed by Pluto Press (a much smaller outfit for sure in the early 1980s). Issues show up in the trade once in a while but not often, and we could locate few institutional holdings at the time of writing. (Importantly, MayDay Rooms holds a copy).

For those interested in the introduction by the Emergency collective and its appearance in the journal, we have scanned a copy and posted it to Libcom – here.

The Correspondence Booklet: Selections From a Paper That is Written, Edited and Circulated by its Readers (1984)

Given the importance of Correspondence – the group and the publishing project – it is curious that much of their material is not readily available on the internet. The Correspondence Publishing Committee marks the move of C.L.R. James, Raya Dunayevskaya, Grace Lee, Martin Glaberman and other key figures of autonomist Marxism away from dissident Trostkyism into a fundamentally new political effort. Rosengarten (2008) notes:

“In July 1947, James, Dunayevskaya, and others withdrew from the [Workers Party] and in September rejoined the SWP, whose membership and influence were growing at a remarkable rate at the time. This affiliation lasted for only four years: in 1951 [James] and other like-minded JFT comrades broke definitively with Trotskyism and sought to translate the ideas of the [Johnson Forest Tendency] into a program of political action committed to a renewal of revolutionary socialism. The group took the seemingly anodyne name of the Correspondence Publishing Committee. The name was inspired by Committees of Correspondence formed between 1774 and 1776 that became “the most radical political force of the [American] revolution”… The remnant of the JFT that continued to function as a more or less cohesive group after 1951` and up to 1970 was also known for the publications it produced under the name Facing Reality, which was the title of an influential book of 1958” (p. 25).

In his remarkable biography, In Love and Struggle: The Revolutionary Lives and James & Grace Lee Boggs (2016), Ward includes an enlightening chapter that explores Correspondence in depth (“Building Correspondence,” pp. 156-197). Ward begins his chapter by discussing how the newspaper Correspondence became indistinguishable from the group Correspondence:

“The group in effect became the Correspondence Publishing Committee. The group’s “chairman,” Raya Dunayevskaya, said as much in a speech to the Detroit membership just two weeks after the convention when she described the paper not just as a project of the organization or a stage in its life, “but as the organization itself. We breathe the paper all over the place now as our way of life, and all else follows.” Correspondence was to be the center of their activity and the full expression of their politics” (p. 156).

Ward identifies three “closely linked ideas [that] formed the ideological foundation of Correspondence: affirming the role of the working class as the agent of revolutionary change; rejecting the concept of the vanguard party and instead celebrating the self-activity and spontaneous mobilization of the working class; and standing in full opposition to all forms of bureaucratic control” (p. 158).

The Correspondence Booklet is the kind of text that could serve as a theoretical and historical introduction to autonomist Marxism for unfamiliar readers. In its 64 pages of pieces published in the newspaper, the pamphlet includes pieces that explore state-capitalism, unions as barriers to worker control, bureaucracy, popular culture, self-activity, anti-racism, white chauvinism, sexism, housework and various other themes. (Selma James, in early contributions of her career, writes about women’s experiences in here as ‘Marie Brent’).

This pamphlet is rare. At the time of writing we are unable to locate an institutionally-held copy in OCLC, though it’s likely held in at least a couple of collections (e.g. the Martin & Jessie Glaberman Papers at Wayne State). There is a single copy available in the trade at the time of writing (for $150). We have scanned the pamphlet and posted it to Libcom, here, for interested readers.

Night Shift in a Pickle Factory – A Singlejack Little Book by Steve Turner. 1980.

Stan Weir published a few ‘little books’ in 1980 including Night Shift in a Pickle Factory. This booklet is Steve Turner’s recollection of his time in a pickle factory. This is a very quick read and there are echoes of the core themes one finds in Weir’s writings: informal work groups, sabotage, and humor. It’s a great example of workers’ writing. This book is common in the trade and also held in many institutions but had not been put online as of the time of writing. We have scanned a copy and posted it to Libcom (here).

Bewick Editions – February 2001 Mail Order Catalog

Bewick Editions (written as Bewick/Ed on my publications) was the small press started by and run by Marty Glaberman. This 2001 catalog is a helpful rundown of its publications. Glaberman also sold pamphlets from fellow travelers like Black & Red (run by Lorraine Perlman, also in Detroit).

Bewick Editions was named after the street where Glaberman lived in Detroit (Bewick St).

Martin Glaberman – The Grievance: Poems from the Shop Floor (a Singlejack Little Book). 1980.

Martin Glaberman is a towering figure in the tradition of autonomist Marxism. Glaberman (he went by Marty) was a member of the Workers Party, the Johnson-Forest tendency, Facing Reality, and perhaps the person most responsible for ensuring that many of CLR James’ lesser known essays stayed in print. Born 1918 in New York, Glaberman passed away in Michigan in 2001 (Neil Fettes of Red & Black Notes wrote a powerful obituary that has since been re-published here). Not long after his death, Staughton Lynd wrote, “I consider Marty Glaberman the most important writer on labor matters in the United States during the second half of the twentieth century” (2002, v).

Regrettably, Glaberman’s poetry has not been the subject of much writing or analysis. Even in the bibliography he drafted in the preparation for his collected works, Punching Out & Other Writings (2002), he did not include a sub-heading to breakout his poetry by publication source (pp. xiv & 223).

The Grievance was the first published collection of Glaberman’s poetry and the only chapbook of Stan Weir’s Singlejack Little Book series. In scanning the Weir archives deposited at Tamiment Library we were, unfortunately, unable to locate specifics of how Weir came to publish the collection on his Singlejack Press; the folders did not contain correspondence between Weir and Glaberman. However, with the generous help of one of Tamiment’s archivists, we were able to locate the original paste-up of the publication. (Location is TAM 279, Box 7).

As we were preparing to say something about The Grievance we were humbled that Alice and Staughton Lynd generously gave of their time for us to inquire about Singlejack, and also to share some of their memories of Marty Glaberman. Similar to others who have recalled him, the Lynd’s recounted participating in a small reading group of Capital that he led. Glaberman – who also taught some of the core members of DRUM the same book – would drive hours from Detroit to Youngstown, OH to teach a half dozen people. Staughton also mentioned that he, unfortunately, was never was able to get Stan Weir and Glaberman together to meet.

The Grievance: Poems from the Shop Floor is a witty, funny and poignant contribution to workers’ poetry and, from our perspective, well worth studying. This booklet, one of the half-dozen ‘Singlejack Little Book[s]’, is common in the trade and found in many libraries (per OCLC). Yet the pamphlet still isn’t easily accessible online. We have scanned and posted a copy to Libcom for those who are interested (here).

Internationale Korrespondentie – April/May 1975

The striking April-May issue of Internationale Korrespondentie, an important Dutch left-communist journal. This issue presents early (and likely the first) Dutch publication of Paolo Carpignano’s article on U.S. class composition in the sixties and Mariarosa Dalla Costa’s ‘Women and the Subversion of the Community’.

Dalla Costa’s article (in this printing written as ‘della Costa’) is a Dutch translation of her seminal essay ‘Women and the Subversion of the Community’, first published in Italian in 1971 and then in initial English translation in 1972. Dalla Costa wrote an extensive note on the genesis of the essay in the English collection of her writings published by PM Press in 2019 (pp. 47-49).

The Italian version of Carpignano’s article appeared in 1974 in the book Crisi e Organizzatione Operaia and would appear in Zerowork 1 in 1975. The date on the Dutch translation is December 1973, whereas the English translation is dated January 1974.

The journal shows up in the trade from time to time and is held at a handful of European archives, mostly in the Netherlands. No copies of this issue are found in North American institutions. (The Martin & Jessie Glaberman Papers hold a couple of issues). We have scanned and uploaded the journal to Libcom for those interested (here).