TY - BOOK
T1 - The Weight of the Printed Word
T2 - Text, Context and Militancy in Operaismo
AU - Wright, Steven
N1 - This book is now in the Monash University library - https://brill.com/view/title/19696
Funding Information:
On the face of it, therefore, the launch of a weekly publication in February 1972 marked a significant milestone for Potere Operaio, seemingly a successful reset for a group that was still struggling to make concrete the vision articulated at its ?ome conference. Potere Operaio del lunedì was intended to come out on a onda y – not only the beginning of the working week but also the one day when the Il ManiM? festo daily was not on sale.5 Just as the first iteration of Potere Operaio faced legal problems, so its successor struggled to meet the requirements demanded of periodicals by Italian law. When the first issue of the new weekly hit the newsstands, its lead story concerned the sentencing of its direttore responsabile Emilio Vesce to five months’ imprisonment for contempt of court (further charges followed a week or so later).6 In its third issue, therefore, Potop took a leaf out of the book of Lotta Continua and appealed for ‘the collaboration of democratic public opinion’ in taking over Vesce’s role. Evidently this was not the first time the matter had been raised in liberal circles, since the notice added that to date ‘we have received only evasive replies: where are all the “consistent democrats” who fight for the freedom of the press?’7 ?o less challenging was the question of finances: like the group’s original weekly, Potere Operaio del lunedì battled for funding throughout its existence. A sidebar on the front page of the seventh issue (16 April 1972) contained a public appeal for funds: We need money in order to continue to keep our paper alive. We don’t ask you to join our organisation, we ask for money in order to publish an instrument that we have created for struggles – because, like all those who struggle with the workers, money is something that we don’t have. This is the only terrain on which we feel weak and ask for your help.8
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - In The Weight of the Printed Word, Steve Wright explores the creation and use of documents as a key dimension in the activities of the Italian workerists during the 1960s and 1970s. From leaflets and newspapers to books, internal documents and workers’ enquiries; the operaisti deployed a wide variety of printed materials in their efforts to organise amongst new subjectivities of mass rebellion.
As Wright demonstrates, the practice of working with print was a central part of what it meant to be a workerist or autonomist militant during these years: one that throws light both on the meaning of political engagement, as well as the challenges posed by the use of technologies of communication and by emergent social subjects.
AB - In The Weight of the Printed Word, Steve Wright explores the creation and use of documents as a key dimension in the activities of the Italian workerists during the 1960s and 1970s. From leaflets and newspapers to books, internal documents and workers’ enquiries; the operaisti deployed a wide variety of printed materials in their efforts to organise amongst new subjectivities of mass rebellion.
As Wright demonstrates, the practice of working with print was a central part of what it meant to be a workerist or autonomist militant during these years: one that throws light both on the meaning of political engagement, as well as the challenges posed by the use of technologies of communication and by emergent social subjects.
KW - information management
KW - Social movements
KW - Marxism
KW - document analysis
KW - Genres
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85115996413
M3 - Book
SN - 9789004471535
T3 - Historical Materialism Book Series
BT - The Weight of the Printed Word
PB - Brill
CY - Leiden The Netherlands
ER -