In N for Negri a long discourse unfolds in front of the camera, recorded in the afternoon of June 6, 2000, in Rome. At that moment Toni Negri was in his house, yet under remote control surveillance. Negri was then serving an open prison sentence which obliged him to return to Rebibbia prison to sleep every night. He joked that he spent the day with his wife and went off with his friends at night. His sentence will not be completed until 2004.

The result was organised in ABC form. This structure, already used in the famous interview with Gilles Deleuze, produced an interesting clash between analytical notions of his work (such as constituent power) and terms with which he has a living relationship (prison or exile). In the course of these almost two and a quarter hours, Negri pieces together a vision of the twentieth century rarely represented with such analytical solidity and, above all, with such optimism. Anyone who has seen this video cannot help wondering how a man like this could be kept locked up in jail. Toni Negri has become a vital reference in the themes of social struggle and critical thought in the capitalist world.

In 1967 he became Professor of State Theory of the Faculty of Political Science in Padua. Throughout, his organisational skills had already led him to set up journals such as Quaderni Rossi, Classe Operaia and Contropiano. His militancy and experience with masses have taken the concrete form of platforms such as Potere Operaio and Autonomia Operaia. His thinking has almost always developed against a backdrop of terrorist, police and judicial violence. His response, however, has been to dignify the potential of the masses in the face of a model of modern, violent and usurping state.

His arrest in 1979 involved a trial marked by all manner of irregularities. It was in 1983 that he was released from prison upon being elected representative of the Radical Party, and was offered political asylum by the French Government after a spectacular escape. During his fourteen years of exile in Paris, which ended in 1997, he lectured at the University of Paris VIII and became a member of the Collège Internationale de Philosophie. Despite being deprived of his freedom, he has had time to write a considerable number of books. The most outstanding and influential include Il dominio e il sabottagio (1978), Marx beyond Marx (1980), L’anomalia selvaggia (1982), Fabbriche del soggeto (1987), Il potere constituente (1992) and the most recent, Empire (2000), which he wrote with Michael Hardt.

Download a PDF transcript of the whole of Negri's discourse N for Negri: a conversation with Toni Negri. first published by Grey Room MIT Press Spring 2003, No. 11: 86-109.

See also Neil's notes for framing the Carles interview

There's even more for swots, related readings, references, etc

Last modified: 28.05.07 by neil