Autonomism

This page covers the political concept of autonomism. For a page on autonomism from a philosophical perspective, see the Philosophyball Page.

"In opposition to this, we maintain the working class can rise to victory only when it independently attacks its problems and decides its own fate. The workers should not unquestioningly accept the slogans of others, nor of our own groups, but must think, act and decide for themselves."

Anton Pannekoek

Autonomism, also known as Autonomous Marxism, is an anti-authoritarian form of Marxism. It wants the working class to force changes without the state, trade unions, or political parties.

History

Autonomism is a political movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s in Western Europe, particularly in Italy and Germany. It is characterized by its emphasis on individual autonomy, direct democracy, and grassroots organization, and its rejection of traditional forms of political representation.

The roots of autonomism can be traced back to the student and worker protests of the 1960s, which challenged the traditional structures of power and authority in society. In Italy, the movement was heavily influenced by the writings of Antonio Negri, a Marxist philosopher and political activist who argued for the importance of workers' self-management and the rejection of bureaucratic forms of organization.

In the 1970s, autonomism became more organized and militant, with the emergence of groups such as the Red Brigades in Italy and the Red Army Faction in Germany. These groups engaged in armed struggle against the state and capitalist institutions, and advocated for the creation of autonomous zones in which individuals and communities could organize themselves according to their own needs and desires.

Despite its radicalism and militancy, autonomism has had a lasting impact on leftist politics, particularly in Europe. Its emphasis on grassroots organization and direct democracy has inspired a range of social movements, from the anti-globalization movement of the 1990s to the Occupy movement of the 2010s. Its rejection of traditional forms of political representation has also influenced the rise of alternative forms of governance, such as participatory democracy and citizen assemblies.

Autonomous Action (Russia)

Autonomous Action (Avtonomnoe Deistvie) is a Russian anarchist organization founded in the early 2000s, emerging from post-Soviet radical youth and anti-fascist networks. It developed as a decentralized association of activists advocating revolutionary social transformation grounded in libertarian socialist principles. The organization operates without centralized leadership, reflecting its commitment to anti-authoritarianism and horizontal decision-making structures.

Ideologically, Autonomous Action aligns closely with anarcho-communism, promoting a stateless, classless society organized through voluntary cooperation and collective ownership of resources. Its orientation is explicitly anti-capitalist, rejecting private control of production, and anti-neoliberal, opposing market reforms and austerity policies that characterized post-Soviet economic transitions. The group also maintains a firm anti-fascist stance, actively confronting nationalist and far-right movements within Russia.

Autonomous Action articulates strong anti-imperialist and anti-Putinist positions, criticizing Russian state expansionism, centralized executive authority, and restrictions on civil liberties under Vladimir Putin’s administration. It frames these critiques within a broader opposition to authoritarian governance and geopolitical domination. Its anti-Zionism is expressed through solidarity with Palestinian movements and opposition to ethno-nationalist state policies, situating its analysis within global anti-colonial discourse.

The organization integrates eco-anarchist and eco-socialist perspectives, emphasizing environmental sustainability, grassroots ecological initiatives, and resistance to extractive industrial projects. These ecological commitments are tied to critiques of industrial capitalism and state-managed resource exploitation.

Autonomous Action also incorporates Marxist feminist, anarcha-feminist, and queer anarchist currents, foregrounding struggles against patriarchy, gender hierarchy, and heteronormativity. Gender liberation is treated as inseparable from class struggle and anti-state activism. The group’s framework of revolutionary progressivism and revolutionary socialism underscores its belief in systemic transformation rather than reformist gradualism.

Internationally, Autonomous Action has expressed sympathy for movements such as Neozapatismo, identifying with its decentralized, community-based resistance model and indigenous autonomy. Through publications, campaigns, and direct action, the organization situates itself within transnational libertarian socialist networks while maintaining a distinctly Russian political context shaped by post-Soviet authoritarian consolidation.

Beliefs

Unpaid Labor and Marxist Feminism within Autonomism

Theorists such as Silvia Federici connect feminism to Automonist theory. Federici also discusses the value of unpaid female labor within a capitalist society. She argues that this is proof that the capitalist system inherently discriminates against women.

Variants

Negrism

Antonio Negri (born 1933) is an Italian Marxist philosopher, political theorist, and activist whose work has had a profound influence on contemporary leftist thought. Negri rose to prominence during the 1960s and 1970s, engaging with Italy’s radical workerist and autonomist movements while also participating in broader debates about post-Marxist and post-industrial social change. His life has been marked by both theoretical innovation and political controversy, including legal accusations linking him to militant organizations such as the Red Brigades, which were ultimately contested and did not define his scholarly contributions.

Negri’s intellectual development bridges classical Marxist analysis with libertarian Marxism, neo-Marxism, and post-Marxism, emphasizing the autonomy of social actors and the transformative potential of collective organization outside hierarchical structures. His engagement with post-anarchism and post-leftism critiques rigid party-based or state-centered approaches, advocating for decentralized networks of resistance. He draws on Foucauldian and Deleuzoguattarian frameworks to explore how power operates across institutions and social practices, while Machiavellianism informs his analyses of strategy, negotiation, and the deployment of force in political movements.

Economically and socially, Negri interrogates conventional labor structures, incorporating anti-work perspectives and developing communization theory, which envisions forms of social organization that bypass capitalist exploitation. His early engagement with Leninism and interest in Mao-Spontex strategies of 1963 influenced his understanding of revolutionary praxis, though he distances his thought from authoritarian or Stalinist models, consistently promoting anti-Stalinism. The experiments of communal living, such as those seen in Kibbutzism, shaped his ideas about collective management and cooperation, while Franciscanism reflects ethical attention to shared human responsibility and minimal hierarchy.

Philosophically, Negri synthesizes insights from Spinozism, producing a Spinozist Marxism that combines materialist social analysis with a focus on collective empowerment and ethical community. He also engages with Hobbesianism, using the concept of the state and social contracts to critique authority and strategize forms of resistance. His work in structural Marxism examines systemic constraints and class formations, while his attention to post-industrial societies situates his critique in contemporary globalized and technological contexts.

Negri’s political thought is further oriented toward global movements and alter-globalism, emphasizing anti-imperialism and critiques of centralized, exploitative power structures. While he has been accused in the past of supporting violent tactics or terrorism, these claims were largely refuted; his writings instead prioritize theoretical clarity, strategic insight, and radical democracy over coercive action. By integrating radical Marxism, ethical philosophy, and post-structuralist theory, Negri’s oeuvre provides a comprehensive framework for understanding contemporary struggles over labor, power, and collective self-determination.

Operaismo/Workerism

Mario Tronti (1931–2023) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, political theorist, and activist, widely recognized as a founder of Operaismo, or workerism, which emerged in Italy during the 1960s. Tronti’s early life was marked by engagement with leftist movements, particularly within the industrial labor context of postwar Italy. He actively participated in student and worker organizing, using firsthand observation of labor struggles to inform his theoretical work. His writings and activism were deeply entwined with Italy’s tumultuous political climate, including resistance to fascism and engagement with radical critiques of capitalist society.

Tronti’s intellectual framework is grounded in Hegelian Marxism, which emphasizes historical development, contradictions within social structures, and the dialectical role of labor. His contributions extend Marxist theory by foregrounding the autonomy and agency of workers, arguing that social change originates from the working class rather than abstract party programs or state-led initiatives. This focus on the centrality of labor aligns with workers’ anthropology, an analytical lens Tronti developed to study the everyday practices, knowledge, and strategies of workers as the primary drivers of class struggle.

Politically, Tronti maintained a consistent anti-capitalist and anti-fascist stance, critiquing both economic exploitation and authoritarian structures. His early engagement with Leninism informed his understanding of strategy and revolutionary organization, though he adapted these ideas to emphasize bottom-up worker autonomy rather than hierarchical party control. Tronti’s thought also intersects with anti-work perspectives, challenging the assumption that labor under capitalism is inherently virtuous and instead highlighting its exploitative structures.

Tronti’s work has occasionally been associated with more controversial tactics, including debates around terrorism, reflecting the intensity of Italian political struggles in the 1960s and 1970s. While some of his contemporaries engaged in militant activity, Tronti’s writings prioritize theoretical and analytical rigor, emphasizing strategy, consciousness, and the mobilization of collective power over unmediated violence.

Personality and Behavior

Autonomism is incredibly rebellious to any form of Authoritarianism and Paternalism seeing it as its duty to rebel wherever possible along with this Autonomism is very aggressive always going on riots or planning assassinations of high ranking government officials (it is one of his favorite past-times).

How to Draw

Flag of Autonomism

1. Draw a ball.
2. Fill in with a black
3. In the center, draw a red circle
4. Draw a red diagonal thunderbolt that goes through the center of the circle from the bottom left to the top right of the background
5. On the top right end of the thunderbolt, draw a diagonal red arrow
6. Draw in the eyes.

You're done!

Color Name		HEX	RGB
	Red	#E93423	rgb(233, 52, 35)
	Black	#000000	rgb(0, 0, 0)

Relationships

Friends

• Situationism - A big influence on me!
• Libertarian Socialism - The greatest friend an anti-authoritarian marxist could have.
• Minarcho-Socialism - Like the above.
• Anarcho-Communism - Has some excellent ideas but organizing the proletariat is something that I dislike.
• Marxist Feminism and Anarcha-Feminism - Down with the patriarchy!
• Libertarian Municipalism, Eco-Anarchism and Participism - Like the above but better.
• Anti-Fascism - Death to fascism!
• Neozapatismo - Long live the EZLN!
• Democratic Confederalism - And long live Rojava!
• Anti-Authoritarianism - Smash authoritarian structures!
• Communization Theory - Another Libertarian Marxist comrade.
• Alter-Globalism - Workers of the world, unite!
• Black Anarchism - Another comrade in the struggle against the statism and capitalism.
• Queer Anarchism - The TQILA is very based!
• Left-Wing Populism - Power to the People!
• Revolutionary Progressivism - Death to oppression!

Frenemies

• Eco-Socialism - Socialism is the only thing that can save the environment yes but you are often top down and electoralist.
• Anarcho-Syndicalism - Based on the workers' revolution and anti-authoritarianism, but labor is too organized. Unions are no longer a good force in fighting capitalism.
• Insurrectionary Anarchism - That's a bit too far.
• Socialism of the 21st Century - Boric is based, but please reject statism.
• Black Nationalism - Solidarity with the black people in their fight against imperialism, but reject statism and be more like your child
• Leninism - An early influence upon me I will not deny it. A shame what has become of you.
• Trotskyism - Even closer to me than the above, but also was too authoritarian.
• Council Communism - Pretty close but too organised and intellectual.
• Progressivism - I like you but you are far too moralist and paternalistic.

Enemies

• Totalitarianism - Literally hell on earth for everyone.
• Marxism–Leninism - You are not even a Marxist or a communist, just a despotic state capitalist.
• Eurocommunism - You really had the nerve to call me red squadrista.
• Authoritarian Capitalism - More like true capitalism.
• Anarcho-Capitalism - An oxymoron.
• Neoliberalism - Me and most of my children absolutely despise your effects on this world.
• Christian Democracy - Stop calling me a psychopath!
• Fascism - SMASH EM!
  • If you must know, I like Spinoza and Hegel as well.
• National Capitalism - The embodiment of my hatred.
• Particracy and Syndicalism - Down with orgnizationism!
• State Socialism - Not real socialism! Down with statism!
• Democratic Socialism - Just as statist as the above, fake socialist.
• Platformism - How can you claim to be an anarchist when you are obsessed with organizing???
• Anarcho-Fascism - Not a true anti-statist.
• National Syndicalism, Prussian Socialism, Neosocialism, Strasserism, Conservative Socialism, National Bolshevism, and Reactionary Socialism - You are not socialists, just reactionary and fascist infiltrators. Social justice, both economically and culturally, is a main part of socialism that you people ignore.
• Crusade of Romanianism, National Anarchism and Lys Noir - At least the above isn't pretending to be Libleft and are openly Authoritarian. At least the last one was influenced by me.
• Patriarchy - A force that deserves to be destroyed as much as capitalism.
• Authoritarian Conservatism - One of my worst enemies! Fire to your police stations and conversion camps!
• Reactionary Libertarianism - Another oxymoron. The principles of liberty are incompatible with things such as colonialism and patriarchy.
• Corporatocracy - Monopolies and corporations are a part of the oppression of workers. Down with the bourgeoisie!

Further Information

Wikipedia

• Autonomism
• Antonio Negri
• Mario Tronti
• Autonomist Movement (Chile)
• Autonomous Left (Chile)

Literature

• Workers & Capital
• Capitalist Domination and Working-Class Sabotage
• The Proliferation of the Margins
• Mapping Pathways within Italian Autonomist Marxism
• Reading Capital Politically
• Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High Technology Capitalism

Gallery

Portraits

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  old design

Comics

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  Credit: Aycee Lovelace
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  By u/VarietyTimely3590