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The Porcelain Workshop: For a New Grammar of Politics (Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents)

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Antonio Negri- The Porcelain Workshop

If you're new to Antonio Negri, this book is really a boon, because it effectively encapsulates the essence of his thought and compresses his doctrine into an accessible, attractive text. This book collects a series of lectures that Negri delivered in France, and its conversational style is a good deal more approachable than some of his more obscure texts, such as the excellent, but excruciatingly dense, Time for Revolution. Of course, this does not mean that the text is entirely free from some of Negri's stylistic/philosophical idiosyncracies. I have always been rather frustrated with the ambiguity of Negri's thought- he never manages to justify his unremitting optimism, which I find to be premised upon a vulgar-Marxist faith in historical evolution- but I should really throw the reins upon my stream of thought here, I don't want to dissuade you from picking this up! My reservations aside, Negri's analyses of contemporary labor are of inestimable importance for our time. One might disagree with the conclusions that he makes from his observations, but one need not read him for his prescriptions.

Also of interest, especially to those who are already familiar with Negri and are wary of purchasing this text, is Negri's engagement with rival theorists. It is here that Negri makes his relation toward Deleuze and Foucault crystal clear, assessing their implications for political science and militant strategy. Following this, Negri delineates the differences that distinguish him from `weak thought', post-Marxism, hermeneutics, the Frankfurt School and 'postmodernism' (Lyotard, Virilio, Baudrillard).

My suggestion is that you read this alongside Goodbye Mr Socialism, a compendium of interviews that find Negri engaging with contemporary political and geopolitical issues. Having done this, you can move on to Marx Beyond Marx, which provides a full exposition of Negri's reading of Marx, an interpretation that essentially grounds post-Operaist critique. I also find that The Savage Anomaly is pretty crucial if one wants to gain an understanding of Negri's unflinchingly Spinozist orientation, but I expect that most readers will want to skip to Negri's `blockbuster' books with Hardt, Empire and Multitude.

A few words though, to those who are treading on unchartered territory:

Negri's central hypothesis is that modernity (structured by a Fordist, factory-line economy) and postmodernity/post-Fordism are separated by a cutting edge- the threshold between capitalism's `formal' (capitalism as a formal structure that regulates public intercourse and exchange, leaving private `worlds' intact) and `real' subsumption (capitalism blurs the distinction between public and private, colonizing the most intimate spheres of human existence, translating everything to the cash nexus).

Now, this hypothesis is entirely contingent upon a rather contentious reading of Marx's Grundrisse, the contours of which are elaborated upon in Negri's excellent Marx Beyond Marx. Essentially, Negri postulates that the `material' economy of yesteryear, centered around the production and exchange of mass-produced commodities, has been succeeded by an `immaterial' economy, premised upon the marketing of affects and services (personal trainers, babysitters, PR personnel, managerial staff, health gurus etcetera). Negri links this to Marx's conception of the `general intellect', and proposes that capitalism has moved beyond the production of goods to the `production of life', the forging of relations, techniques and knowledges that are shared-in-common. Globalization, in placing heterogeneous populations in contact with one another and facilitating transversal movements between continents, catalyzes new forms of solidarity and camaraderie. In essence, capitalism, unbeknownst to itself, nurtures its own gravediggers, an incipient society that invalidates its foundational principles of surplus-value and private property.

Marx and Engels, of course, had said all this before, and there is a certain truth in the suggestion that Hardt & Negri have re-written/reiterated the Communist Manifesto for our time. They are insistent that the revolution is not only possible, but that we are in the midst of it- it is in process at this very moment, enveloping us from every conceivable angle. The task of the theorist is to trace the trajectories of the multitude, to participate in the perpetual elaboration of the new by throwing his lot in with the triumphant masses. Yet, Slavoj Zizek's suggestion that Hardt & Negri are a little `too Marxist' for their own good is certainly accurate- Hardt & Negri can hardly hide their implicit evolutionism, which juxtaposes capitalism's insurpassable constrictions with the unfettered productive forces that it has engendered. This is the old contradiction between modes of production and relations of production- capitalism, supposedly, has outlived its function and must cede its place to self-sufficient rhizomorphous networks. Your appreciation for Negri, I think, ultimately hinges on your endorsement of this thesis.