Customer Reviews

Capital and Language: From the New Economy to the War Economy (Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents)

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This book is fantastic. It's about time that the greater interest shown in workerist / autonomous Marxist thought and politics has translated into publishing some of Christian Marazzi's work in English. If Toni Negri's work provides one with a giant hammer for smashing through the mystifications of class reality, Marazzi conversely provides a set of finely sharpened blades and scalpels for the dissection of processes of class decomposition. Of particular interest and usefulness is his exploration of fiscal crisis of New York City during the 1970s, and how that proved to be a turning point is the disciplining of the working class as pension funds were invested into stock markets (thus workers came to have an interest in the workings of financial markets that were both benefitting and working against them). It is unfortunate this book was not published several years earlier, as the fact that Marazzi is analyzing an earlier financial crisis (namely the one relating to the new economy bubble) might suggest to one that this book is old hat (it is strange, for instance, to be reading commentaries and analysis involving a number of companies that only recently have ceased to exist), but this is not the case. The dynamics of financialization and class composition that Marazzi are all the more present, even if having changed exaggerated since he wrote this book, within the conjunction of factors leading to the current crisis. Definitely worth a read. Looking forward to more of his work being translated and published.

Arcane,cumbersome, unnecessarily wordy------ page after page of what could have been succinctly stated in 5 pages. Poorly translated!
If you have trouble sleeping buy this.