Operaismo, Autonomia, Settantasette in Translation: Then, Now, the Future

Interest in the work of Antonio Negri is considerable these days, and can be measured by a variety of means. For the past few years, the prestigious Italian leftist daily Il manifesto has published the 30 most searched for terms within the newspaper's online edition. Of these, the word “Negri” ranked fifth in 1999, 14th in 2000, ninth in 2001, 11th in 2002, and ninth again for the month of May 2003. Engagement with Negri's work has also been on the rise in the English language press, as reactions to the success of the book Empire (co-authored with Michael Hardt) attest. Within the various circles active against global capital, interest in Negri has also been marked, with his ideas concerning the changing nature of the world capitalist system widely debated.