Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri: Commonwealth (2009) [English/German]

When Empire appeared in 2000, it defined the political and economic challenges of the era of globalization and, thrillingly, found in them possibilities for new and more democratic forms of social organization. Now, with Commonwealth, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri conclude the trilogy begun with Empire and continued in Multitude, proposing an ethics of freedom for living in our common world and articulating a possible constitution for our common wealth.

Drawing on scenarios from around the globe and elucidating the themes that unite them, Hardt and Negri focus on the logic of institutions and the models of governance adequate to our understanding of a global commonwealth. They argue for the idea of the “common” to replace the opposition of private and public and the politics predicated on that opposition. Ultimately, they articulate the theoretical bases for what they call “governing the revolution.”

Though this book functions as an extension and a completion of a sustained line of Hardt and Negri’s thought, it also stands alone and is entirely accessible to readers who are not familiar with the previous works. It is certain to appeal to, challenge, and enrich the thinking of anyone interested in questions of politics and globalization.

Publisher Harvard University Press, 2009
ISBN 0674035119, 9780674035119
330 pages

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John Holloway, Fernando Matamoros, Sergio Tischler (eds.): Negativity and Revolution: Adorno and Political Activism (2009)

How can activists combat the political paralysis that characterizes the anti-dialectical theories of Foucault, Derrida, and Deleuze, without reverting to a dogmatic orthodoxy? This book explores solutions in the “negative dialectics” of Theodor Adorno.

The poststructuralist shift from dialectics to “difference” has been so popular that it becomes difficult to create meaningful revolutionary responses to neoliberalism. The contributors to this volume come from within the anti-capitalist movement, and close to the concerns expressed in Negri and Hardt’s Empire and Multitude. However, they argue forcefully and persuasively for a return to dialectics so a real-world, radical challenge to the current order can be constructed. This is a passionate call to arms for the anti-capitalist movement. It should be read by all engaged activists and students of political and critical theory.

Publisher Pluto Press, 2009
ISBN 0745328369, 9780745328362
Length 252 pages

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John Holloway: Change the World without Taking Power: The Meaning of Revolution Today (2002)

“The series of demonstrations since Seattle have crystallised a new trend in left-wing politics. Popular support across the world for the Zapatista uprising and the enthusiasm which it has inspired has led to new types of protest movement that ground their actions on both Marxism and Anarchism. These movements are fighting for radical social change in terms that have nothing to do with the taking of state power. This is in clear opposition to the traditional Marxist theory of revolution which centres on taking state power. In this book, John Holloway asks how we can reformulate our understanding of revolution as the struggle against power, not for power.

After a century of failed attempts by revolutionary and reformist movements to bring about radical social change, the concept of revolution itself is in crisis. John Holloway opens up the theoretical debate, reposing some of the basic concepts of Marxism in a critical development of the subversive Marxist tradition represented by Adorno, Bloch and Lukacs, amongst others, and grounded in a rethinking of Marx’s concept of ‘fetishisation’– how doing is transformed into being.

The struggle for radical change, Holloway argues, far from being marginalised, is becoming more and more embedded in our everyday lives. Revolution today must be understood as a question, not as an answer.”

First published 2002
New edition
Publisher Pluto Press, 2005
ISBN 0745324665
237 pages

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Change the World without Taking Power (English, 2nd ed., 2002/2005, updated on 2017-1-2)
Cambiar el mundo sin tomar el poder (Spanish, 2005, added on 2017-1-2)