Das Planetarische

Europe between the Atlantic and Urals

Antonio Negri (Universität Paris)

Abstract

The question to ask today is how we can imagine a Europe outside of unilateral American imperialism. Our initial hypothesis is, in fact, that the United State’s attempt to unilaterally control the process of globalization has failed.

To answer, first of all, an observation: European history is a history of nationalisms and imperialisms but also a history of Enlightenment and class struggle. The American dominion over Europe, following two world wars, organized Europe as a border against “real socialism” externally and against class struggle within. This double bind was interrupted with the end of the Soviet Union.

The transformations of class struggle that are underway in Europe (managed by the new intellectual and precarious labor force) can permit to connect the Enlightenment and the socialist gains of the proletariat. European capitalism, the European Central Bank (ECB) have to suffer this new development in class struggle. We can verify a few concrete examples but, above all, we can verify the tendency.

Is it possible to think that the Atlantic is getting deeper? That the exchanges between USA – Europe are becoming less important from in military aspects, and more important from a cultural point of view? On the other hand, is it possible that European culture opens itself towards Urals? What are the possible consequences of these two tendencies? How can a class struggle that crosses the Atlantic and opens up to Siberia, rekindle the hope of the Enlightenment?

Bio

Antonio Negri ist ein italienischer Politikwissenschaftler und ein bedeutender Vertreter der neomarxistischen Strömung des Operaismus. Bereits früh wurde er Professor für Staatstheorie in seiner Geburtsstadt Padua. Nach Konfrontationen mit dem Staat floh er 1983 nach Frankreich, wo er an der Université de Paris VIII (Saint Denis) und am Collège International de Philosophie lehrte. In Frankreich setzte er sich intensiv mit poststrukturalistischen Denkern wie Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze und Felix Guattari auseinander. 1997 kehrte er nach mehr als 15 Jahren des Exils wieder nach Rom zurück. Heute pendelt Antonio Negri zwischen Rom, Venedig und Paris, wo er Vorlesungen am Collège International de Philosophie und an der Université de Paris I hält.

Ausgewählte Veröffentlichungen

Political Descartes: Reason, Ideology and the Bourgeois Project, Verso, New York 2007.

Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (zusammen mit Michael Hardt), Penguin Press, New York 2004.

Time for Revolution, Continuum, New York 2003.

Empire (zusammen mit Michael Hardt), Harvard University Press, 2000.