The birth of Italian operaismo
In Italy, labour activist and writer Danilo Montaldi translated some of this international work. These ideas flowed into a group (and its journal) that was based in Turin, Quaderni Rossi, directed by Raniero Panzieri. Quaderni Rossi explored in depth the question of workers’ autonomy vis-a`-vis the party; the group came to propound the thesis that the working class was not the passive victim of changes in capitalism, but had the power to initiate struggle and to force change on the capitalist structure. This contention underpinned the so-called operaismo (workerism) of the Italian radical left in the 1960s.
The originality of this idea was perhaps best encapsulate in the classic Operai e capitale (1963), a collection of essay by the young philosopher-activist Mario Tronti. Although the book has been translated in its entirety only in 2019 (which is a testament to its enduring importance), translated extracted have circulated on both sides of the Atlantic since the Italian publication.