A Review of Storming Heaven: Class Composition and Struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism by Steve Wright

Abstract

Storming Heaven is the outcome of research carried out for a PhD thesis and as such is also the first attempt at a critical historical reconstruction of the thought and militant practice of Italian operaismo. The research follows criteria of critical analysis of sources and shows a necessary detachment from events as well as an ability to comprehend its object that derives from a strong feeling of personal involvement with the ideas and motives of revolutionary movements. It is the first historical work on Italian operaismo that breaks with the memoir-autobiographical tradition and the widespread production of perfunctory and often dismissive accounts available so far. Wright uses the concept of “class composition” as an explanatory thread that runs through the peculiar political and intellectual affairs of Italian operaismo. In doing so, he recognizes the importance of a concept that even some operaisti often neglected or regarded as a mere criteria of pure empirical research, secondary to “Grand Political Theory” (on the state, the party, the revolution, class, general intellect, and so on).