FACTORY OF STRATEGY INSURRECTIONS Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture INSURRECTIONS Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture Slavoj Žižek, Clayton Crockett, Creston Davis, Jeffrey W. Robbins, Editors The intersection of religion, politics, and culture is one of the most discussed areas in theory today. It also has the deepest and most wide-ranging impact on the world. Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture will bring the tools of philosophy and critical theory to the political implications of the religious turn. The series will address a range of religious traditions and political viewpoints in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world. Without advocating any specific religious or theological stance, the series aims nonetheless to be faithful to the radical emancipatory potential of religion. After the Death of God, John D. Caputo and Gianni Vattimo, edited byJeffrey W. Robbins The Politics of Postsecular Religion: Mourning Secular Futures, Ananda Abeysekara Nietzsche and Levinas: “After the Death of a Certain God,” edited by Jill Stauffer and Bettina Bergo Strange Wonder: The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe, Mary-Jane Rubenstein Religion and the Specter of the West: Sikhism, India, Postcoloniality, and the Politics of Translation, Arvind Mandair Plasticity at the Dusk of Writing: Dialectic, Destruction, Deconstruction, Catherine Malabou Anatheism: Returning to God After God, Richard Kearney Rage and Time: A Psychopolitical Investigation, Peter Sloterdijk Radical Political Theology: Religion and Politics After Liberalism, Clayton Crockett Radical Democracy and Political Theology, Jeffrey W. Robbins Hegel and the Infinite: Religion, Politics, and Dialectic, edited by Slavoj Žižek, Clayton Crockett, and Creston Davis What Does a Jew Want? On Binationalism and Other Specters, Udi Aloni A Radical Philosophy of Saint Paul, Stanislas Breton, edited by Ward Blanton, translated by Joseph N. Ballan Hermeneutic Communism: From Heidegger to Marx, Gianni Vattimo and Santiago Zabala Deleuze Beyond Badiou: Ontology, Multiplicity, and Event, Clayton Crockett Self and Emotional Life: Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and Neuroscience, Adrian Johnston and Catherine Malabou The Incident at Antioch: A Tragedy in Three Acts / L’Incident d’Antioche: Tragédie en trois actes, Alain Badiou, translated by Susan Spitzer Philosophical Temperaments: From Plato to Foucault, Peter Sloterdijk To Carl Schmitt: Letters and Reflections, Jacob Taubes, translated by Keith Tribe Encountering Religion: Responsibility and Criticism After Secularism, Tyler Roberts Spinoza for Our Time: Politics and Postmodernity, Antonio Negri, translated by William McCuaig ANTONIO NEGRI FACTORY of STRATEGY Thirty-Three Lessons on Lenin Translated by Arianna Bove Columbia University Press / New York Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex cup.columbia.edu Copyright © 2004 manifestolibri English translation copyright © 2014 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Negri, Antonio, 1933– [Fabbrica della strategia. English] Factory of strategy : thirty-three lessons on Lenin / Antonio Negri ; translated by Arianna Bove. pages cm — (Insurrections: critical studies in religion, politics, and culture) Translation of the author’s Fabbrica della strategia. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-231-14682-1 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-51942-7 (e-book) 1. Communism—Soviet Union—History. I. Bove, Arianna, translator. II. Title. HX312.N3513 2014 335.43—dc23 2013021200 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. This book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 jacket design and art: Martin Hinze References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. CONTENTS Preface to the English Translation xi Preface to the Second Edition xvii Translator’s Note xxv PART ONE Lenin and Our Generation 1 1. TOWARD A MARXIST READING OF LENIN’S MARXISM 3 2. FROM THE THEORY OF CAPITAL TO THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATION (1) Economic Struggle and Political Struggle: Class Struggle 15 CONTENTS 3. FROM THE THEORY OF CAPITAL TO THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATION (2) The Working-Class Character of Organization: The Party as Factory 29 4. IN LENIN’S FOOTSTEPS FROM THE THEORY OF CAPITAL TO THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATION Annotations 40 5. FROM THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATION TO THE STRATEGY OF REVOLUTION (1) Proletarian Independence 50 6. FROM THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATION TO THE STRATEGY OF REVOLUTION (2) The Factory of Strategy 58 7. FROM THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATION TO THE STRATEGY OF REVOLUTION (3) Organization Toward Communism 70 8. IN LENIN’S FOOTSTEPS FROM THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATION TO THE STRATEGY OF REVOLUTION Annotations 78 9. INSURRECTION AS ART AND PRACTICE OF THE MASSES 88 vi CONTENTS PART TWO Lenin and the Soviets in the Russian Revolution and Some Remarks on Sovietism 99 10. THE SOVIETS BETWEEN SPONTANEITY AND THEORY 101 11. LENIN AND THE SOVIETS BETWEEN 1905 AND 1917 113 12. THE SOVIETS AND THE LENINIST INVERSION OF PRAXIS 123 13. THE REFORMIST CHANGE OF PRAXIS Soviets Today? 137 14. VERIFYING THE QUESTION OF WHETHER THE SOVIET IS AN ORGAN OF POWER 144 15. THE SOVIET FORM OF MASSES AND THE URGENCY OF WORKERS’ STRUGGLE 151 PART THREE Interregnum on the Dialectic: The Notebooks of 1914–1916 157 16. DIALECTICS AS THE RECOVERED FORM OF LENIN’S THOUGHT 159 vii CONTENTS 17. LENIN READS HEGEL 169 18. BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND POLITICS The Weapons of Dialectics 179 PART FOUR The Economic Foundations of the Withering-Away of the State: Introduction to the Reading of The State and Revolution 189 19. “WHERE TO BEGIN?” 191 20. THE CONCEPT OF THE STATE IN GENERAL CAN AND MUST BE DESTROYED 203 21. OPPORTUNIST AND REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPTIONS OF THE WITHERING-AWAY OF THE STATE 216 22. THE PROBLEM OF THE “WITHERING-AWAY” OF THE STATE Against Equality 224 23. FIRST APPROACH TO A DEFINITION OF THE MATERIAL BASES OF THE “WITHERING-AWAY” Against Work, Against Socialism 234 viii CONTENTS 24. MARX’S ANTICIPATION OF THE PROBLEM OF “WITHERING-AWAY” Against the Law of Value 246 25. TOWARD A PROBLEMATIC VIEW OF TRANSITION Impossible Socialism and the Coming Communism 255 26. ON THE PROBLEM OF TRANSITION AGAIN The Word to the Masses 265 27. TRANSITION AND PROLETARIAN DICTATORSHIP The Particular Interests of the Working Class 274 28. TRANSITION, MATERIAL BASIS, AND EXPANSIVENESS OF THE WORKING-CLASS GOVERNMENT 285 29. A PROVISIONAL CONCLUSION Lenin and Us 294 PART FIVE Appendix on “Left-Wing” Communism: A Conclusion and a Beginning 301 30. A DIFFICULT BALANCE 303 ix