[estratti dove citato Antonio Gramsci]

p. 13
Just what is Political Correctness? Political Correctness is in fact cultural Marxism(Cultural
Communism) Marxism translated from economic into cultural terms. Theeffort to translate
Marxism from economics into culture did not begin with the studentrebellion of the 1960s. It goes
back at least to the 1920s and the writings of the ItalianCommunist Antonio Gramsci. In 1923, in
Germany, a group of Marxists founded aninstitute devoted to making the transition, the Institute of
Social Research (later knownas the Frankfurt School). One of its founders, George Lukacs, stated
its purpose asanswering the question, Who shall save us from Western Civilisation? The
FrankfurtSchool gained profound influence in European and American universities after many of
itsleading lights fled and spread all over Europe and even to the United States in the 1930sto escape
National Socialism in Germany. In Western Europe it gained influence inuniversities from 1945.

p. 15-16
One group of Marxist intellectuals resolved their quandary by an analysis that focused onsocietys
cultural superstructure rather than on the economic substructures as Marx did.The Italian Marxist
Antonio Gramsci and Hungarian Marxist Georg Lukacs contributed themost to this new cultural
Marxism.Antonio Gramsci worked for the Communist International during 1923-24 in Moscow
andVienna. He was later imprisoned in one of Mussolinis jails where he wrote his famous Prison
Notebooks. Among Marxists, Gramsci is noted for his theory of culturalhegemony as the means to
class dominance. In his view, a new Communist man had tobe created before any political
revolution was possible. This led to a focus on the effortsof intellectuals in the fields of education
and culture. Gramsci envisioned a long marchthrough the societys institutions, including the
government, the judiciary, the military,the schools and the media. He also concluded that so long as
the workers had a Christiansoul, they would not respond to revolutionary appeals.
Georg Lukacs was the son a wealthy Hungarian banker. Lukacs began his political life asan agent
of the Communist International. His book History and Class Consciousnessgained him recognition
as the leading Marxist theorist since Karl Marx. Lukacs believedthat for a new Marxist culture to
emerge, the existing culture must be destroyed. Hesaid, I saw the revolutionary destruction of
society as the one and only solution to thecultural contradictions of the epoch, and, Such a
worldwide overturning of valuescannot take place without the annihilation of the old values and the
creation of new onesby the revolutionaries.

p. 19
Cultural Marxist profiles

Georg Lukacs

He began his political life as a Kremlin agent of the Communist International
His History and Class-Consciousness gained him recognition as the leading Marxisttheorist since
Karl Marx
In 1919 he became the Deputy Commissar for Culture in the Bolshevik Bela KunRegime in
Hungary. He instigated what become known as Cultural Terrorism.
Cultural Terrorism was a precursor of what was to happen in European and Americanschools
He launched an explosive sex education program. Special lectures were organised inHungarian
schools and literature was printed and distributed to instruct children aboutfree love, the nature of
sexual intercourse, the archaic nature of the bourgeois familycodes, the outdatedness of monogamy,
and the irrelevance of religion, which deprivesman of all pleasure. Children were urged to reject
and deride paternal authority and theauthority of the Church, and to ignore precepts of morality.
They were easily andspontaneously turned into delinquents with whom only the police could cope.
This call torebellion addressed to Hungarian children was matched by a call to rebellion addressed
toHungarian women
In rejecting the idea that Bolshevism spelled the destruction of civilisation and culture,Lukacs
stated: Such a worldwide overturning of values cannot take place without theannihilation of the old
values and the creation of new ones by the revolutionaries.
Lukacs state of mind was expressed in his own words:- All the social forces I had hated since
my youth, and which I aimed in spirit toannihilate, now came together to unleash the First Global
War. - I saw the revolutionary destruction of society as the one and only solution to thecultural
contradictions of the speech. - The question is: Who will free us from the yoke of Western
Civilisation? - Any political movement capable of bringing Bolshevism to the West would have
to be Demonic. - The abandonment of the souls uniqueness solves the problem of unleashing
thediabolic forces lurking in all the violence which is needed to create revolution.
Lukacs state of mind was typical of those who represented the forces of RevolutionaryMarxism
At a secret meeting in Germany in 1923, Lukacs proposed the concept of inducing Cultural
Pessimism in order to increase the state of hopelessness and alienation in thepeople of the West as
a necessary prerequisite for revolution.
This meeting led to the founding of the Institute for Social Research at FrankfurtUniversity in
Germany in 1923 an organisation of Marxist and Communist-orientedpsychologists, sociologists
and other intellectuals that came to be known as the FrankfurtSchool, which devoted itself to
implementing Georg Lukacss program.

Antonio Gramsci

He was an Italian Marxist on an intellectual par with Georg Lukacs who arrived byanalysis at the
same conclusions as Lukacs and the Frankfurt School regarding the criticalimportance of
intellectuals in fomenting revolution in the West
He had travelled to the Soviet Union after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and madesome
accurate observations that caused him to conclude that a Bolshevik-style uprisingcould not be
brought about by Western workers due to the nature of their Christian souls.
Antonio Gramsci became the leader of the Italian Communist Party, which earned him aplace in
one of Mussolinis jails in the 1930s, where he wrote Prison Notebooks and otherdocuments.
These works became available in English to Brits and Americans.
His advice to the intellectuals was to begin a long march through the educational andcultural
institutions of the nation in order to create a new Soviet man before there couldbe a successful
political revolution.
This reflected his observations in the Soviet Union that its leaders could not create sucha new
Soviet man after the Bolshevik Revolution.
This blueprint for mind and character change made Gramsci a hero of RevolutionaryMarxism in
American education and paved the way for creation of the New AmericanChild in the schools by
the education cartel.
The essential nature of Antonio Gramscis revolutionary strategy is reflected in CharlesA. Reichs
The Greening of America: There is a revolution coming. It will not be likerevolutions in the past.
It will originate with the individual and the culture, and it willchange the political structure as its
final act. It will not require violence to succeed, and itcannot be successfully resisted by violence.
This is revolution of the New Generation.

Wilhelm Reich

In his 1933 book entitled The Mass Psychology of Fascism, he explained that theFrankfurt School
departed from the Marxist sociology that set Bourgeois against Proletariat. Instead, the battle
would be between reactionary and revolutionary characters.
He also wrote a book entitled The Sexual Revolution which was a precursor of what wasto come
in the 1960s.
His sex-economic sociology was an effort to harmonise Freuds psychology withMarxs
economic theory.
Reichs theory was expressed in his words: The authoritarian family is theauthoritarian state in
miniature. Mans authoritarian character structure is basicallyproduced by the embedding of sexual
inhibitions and fear in the living substance of sexual impulses. Familial imperialism is ideologically
reproduced in national imperialismthe authoritarian familyis a factory where reactionary
ideology and reactionarystructures are produced.
Wilhelm Reichs theory, when coupled with Georg Lukacs sex education in Hungary, canbe seen
as the source for the American education cartels insistence on sex educationfrom kindergarten
onwards and its complete negation of the paternal family, externalauthority, and the traditional
character structure.
Reichs theory encompassed other assertions that seem to have permeated Americaneducation:-
The organised religious mysticism of Christianity was an element of the authoritarianfamily that led
to Fascism.- The patriarchal power in and outside of man was to be dethroned.- Revolutionary
sexual politics would mean the complete collapse of authoritarianideology.- Birth control was
revolutionary ideology.- Man was fundamentally a sexual animal.
Reichs The Mass Psychology of Fascism was in its ninth printing as of 1991 and isavailable in
most college bookstores.

p. 30
How did this situation come about in European universities? Gertrude Himmelfarb hasobserved that
it slipped past traditional academics almost unobserved until it was toolate. It occurred so quietly
that when they looked up, postmodernism was upon themwith a vengeance. They were
surrounded by such a tidal wave of multicultural subjectssuch as radical feminism, deconstructed
relativism as history and other courses whichundermine the perpetuation of Western civilisation.
Indeed, this tidal wave slipped by justas Antonio Gramsci and the Frankfurt School had envisioned
a quiet revolutionpropagating a European hate ideology with the goal of destroying Western
civilisation andwhich was: anti-God, anti-Christian, anti-family, anti-nationalist, anti-patriot,
anticonservative, anti-hereditarian, anti-ethnocentric, anti-masculine, anti-tradition, andanti-
morality. Cultural Marxism, as preached by the Frankfurt School has thus spurred the
widelypopular and destructive concepts of affirmative action, multiculturalism and diversity.
One cant escape these terms today. These concepts have destroyed everydefensive structure of European
society which has laid the foundation for the Islamisationof Europe.

p. 355
In un capitolo intitolato 2.10 Feminism Leads to the Oppression of Women viene indicato, tra le
sources (fonti) questo link:

9. http://www.grecoreport.com/gramsci_a_method_to_the_madness.htm

p. 639
German sociologist Theodor Adorno was a member of the Frankfurt School and wasinfluenced by
Georg Lukcs, one of Gramscis fellow cultural Marxists.
The Authoritarian Personalit, a book carrying Adornos name but in reality produced by the
combinedefforts of a number of people from the Frankfurt School, was extremely influential in
theUnited States in the generation following WW2 and contributed to the Allieddenazification
program in Germany. Working at the University of Berkeley, California,during and after the war,
Adorno and others such as the German-Jewish thinker MaxHorkheimer through a large number of
interviews tried to establish that what led to therise of Nazi Germany was the predominance of a
particular kind of authoritarianpersonality, which happened to be closely tied to conservative
viewpoints. In their view,this was not just the case in Nazi Germany; there were large numbers of
potentialFascists all over the Western world.

p. 1482-3 (libri consigliati)
I recommend you start the course by choosing either of these, or one of the books listedbelow, and
reading it through slowly:

Kolya Abramsky (ed.), Restructuring and resistance: diverse voices of struggle in westernEurope
(2001) is an up-to-date collection of writings by contemporary activists in andaround the "anti-
globalisation movement".
Hannah Arendt, On revolution (London: Penguin, 1973) is a classic discussion by this well-known
political philosopher.
Todd Gitlin, The sixties: years of hope, days of rage. (New York: Bantam, 1993) is a
classichistory of the "revolutionary moment" of the 1960s.
Antonio Gramsci, Selections from prison notebooks (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971)is the
classic English-language selection of this difficult but rewarding theorist: the leader of the Italian
Communist Party, writing as a political prisoner in the face of rising fascism inEurope, and asking
"Where did we go wrong?"
[]

p. 1484 ss.
Lecture 1: Why study revolutions?

Traditionally, revolutions have been studied for three main kinds of reason. One iscelebratory, in
particular when states born out of revolution (such as Ireland) "canonise"past revolutionaries while
simultaneously seeking to block off present movements forchange. A second is training, when
people who seek to bring about revolutionary changestudy the history of past revolutions for ideas
to use in the present. A third is "keepingthe rabble in line", when politicians and intellectuals seek
to show that revolution is neverworkable or will only lead to dystopia. This lecture looks at images
and uses of theRussian Revolution of 1917 to think about how we can tackle past revolutions.
Marilyn Butler, Burke, Paine, Godwin and the revolutionary controversy. Cambridge:Cambridge
UP, 1984
James deFronzo, Revolutions and revolutionary movements. Boulder: Westview, 1996
Antonio Gramsci, "The revolution against Capital". 68 -72 in Political writings 1910 -
1920.London: ElecBook, 1999 [other collections may also contain this]
John Keep, The Russian Revolution: a study in mass mobilization. London: Weidenfeld
andNicolson, 1976
George Orwell, Animal farm. Harlow: Longman, 1996
John Reed, 10 days that shook the world. Strand: Sutton, 1997
Robert Service, The Russian Revolution, 1900 - 1927. Houndmills: Macmillan, 1999 (3rdedition)
Theda Skocpol, States and social revolutions: a comparative analysis of France, Russia andChina.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979
Leon Trotsky, History of the Russian Revolution. New York: Anchor, 1980

Lecture 3: "It's all about violence": what is a revolution?

Revolutions involve a situation of "dual-power" within which the ruling class are no longercapable
of ruling, and ordinary people are no longer willing to be ruled. Such situationsare inherently
unstable and prone to conflict, as each side attempts to establish thenormality and legitimacy of its
own vision of the world. These conflicts often involveviolence, although it is not always on a large
scale. This lecture takes the example of theParis Commune of 1871.
Hannah Arendt, On revolution. London: Penguin, 1973
Michael Bakunin, The Paris Commune and the idea of the state. London: CIRA, 1971
Colin Barker, "Some notes on revolution in the 20th century". Journal of Area Studies 13,1998
Antonio Gramsci, Selections from prison notebooks. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971
Alastair Horne, The fall of Paris: the siege and the Commune. London: Papermac, 1997
VI Lenin, State and revolution. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1965 [other collectionsmay also
contain this]
Ken MacLeod, The star fraction. London: Legend, 1995 (novel)
Theda Skocpol, Social revolutions in the modern world. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress,
1994
Sidney Tarrow, Power in movement: social movements and contentious politics.
Cambridge:Cambridge UP, 1998
Charles Tilly, From mobilization to revolution. London: Addison Wesley, 1978

Lecture 4: "Things just are the way they are": how are non-revolutionarysituations created?

Everyday life involves a situation of "hegemony" in which ordinary people take givenpower
relations as "normal", see their needs as being met by the existing socialstructures and so accept the
leadership of ruling groups within society. Creating this kindof situation is by no means easy, and
this "hegemony" is constantly threatened bymovements from below, even when they are kept within
bounds. This lecture looks atsome of the processes whereby hegemony was maintained and
challenged during the"English Revolution" of the 17th century.
Carl Boggs, The two revolutions: Gramsci and the dilemmas of western Marxism. Boston:South
End, 1984
Megan Davies and Keith Flett, "Forgetting and remembering: memory and political action".In
Colin Barker and Mike Tyldesley (eds.), Sixth international conference on Alternativefutures and
popular protest. Manchester: Manchester Metropolitan University, 2000
tienne de la Botie, The politics of obedience: the discourse of voluntary servitude.Canada:
Black Rose, 1975
FD Dow, Radicalism in the English Revolution, 1640 - 1660. Oxford: Blackwell, 1985
Allen Ginsberg, Howl and other poems. San Francisco: City Lights, 1959 (poem)
Antonio Gramsci, "Some aspects of the Southern question". 595 - 625 in Political writings1921 -
26. London: ElecBook, 1999. Available online
athttp://www.marxists.org/archive/gramsci/works/1926/10/southern_question.htm [othercollections
may also contain this]
Christopher Hill, The world turned upside down: radical ideas during the English
revolution.Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982
James Holstun, Ehud's dagger: class struggle in the English revolution. London: Verso, 2000
Karl Marx, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, in The revolutions of 1848.Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1973 [other collections may also contain this]
Roger Simon, Gramsci's political thought: an introduction. London: Lawrence and Wishart,1991
Lawrence Stone, The causes of the English Revolution. London: Ark, 1986 (2nd edition)

Lecture 5: "It's always about leaders": who makes a revolution?

Revolutionaries do not make revolutions; ordinary people do. Although revolutionariesbring crucial
skills to the process of popular revolutions, they cannot make them happenin the absence of large
numbers of ordinary people who have decided "things can't go onlike this". These are not choices
that people make in isolation, however. This lecture looksat the failed European revolutions of 1919
- 1923 and asks why they failed.
Colin Barker, "Some remarks on collective action and transformation". In Colin Barker andMike
Tyldesley (eds.), Alternative Futures and Popular Protest III. Manchester: ManchesterUniversity
Press
Giuseppe Fiori, Antonio Gramsci: life of a revolutionary. London: Verso, 1990
Todd Gitlin, The whole world is watching: mass media in the making and unmaking of thenew
left. Berkeley: UC Press, 1980
Nick Howard, "Shirkers in revolt - mass desertion, defeat and revolution in the German army1917
- 1920". In Colin Barker and Paul Kennedy (eds.), To make another world: studies inprotest and
collective action. Aldershot: Avebury, 1996
Alan Johnson, "Leadership and self-emancipation in Trotsky's History". In Colin Barker andMike
Tyldesley (eds.), Fifth international conference on Alternative futures and popularprotest.
Manchester: Manchester Metropolitan University, 1999
Rosa Luxemburg, Mass strike, party and trade unions, in Selected Political Writings. NewYork:
Monthly Review, 1971 [other collections may also contain this]
David Mitchell, 1919: red mirage. London: Jonathan Cape, 1970
Philip Morgan, Italian fascism, 1919-45. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995
George Rud, Ideology and popular protest. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1980
Arthur Ryder, The German revolution, 1918 - 1919. London: Historical Association, 1959
Starhawk, The fifth sacred thing. London: Thorsons, 1997 (novel)
EP Thompson, The making of the English working class. London: Gollancz, 1963

Lecture 6: the long time-scale of revolutionaries

Revolutionaries are human beings who are dedicated to changing the way things are.They are also
intensely creative agents who develop long-standing subcultures,institutions and intellectual
traditions. This lecture looks at contemporary counter-culturalmovements and their relationship to
the long time-scale.
Hakim Bey, T.A.Z. the temporary autonomous zone: ontological anarchy, poetic
terrorism.Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 1991. Also available online
athttp://www.t0.or.at/hakimbey/taz/taz.htm
Steven Brust and Emma Bull, Freedom and necessity. New York: Tom Doherty, 1997 (novel)
Laurence Cox, "Power, politics and everyday life: the local rationalities of social
movementmilieux." 46 - 66 in Paul Bagguley and Jeff Hearn (eds.), Transforming politics: power
andresistance. London: BSA / Macmillan, 1999. Also available online at this address
Von Dirke, "All power to the imagination!" The west German counterculture from the
studentmovement to the Greens. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1997
Antonio Gramsci, Prison Letters. London: Pluto, 1996
George Katsiaficas, The subversion of politics: European autonomous movements and
thedecolonisation of everyday life. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1997
Ursula le Guin, Malafrena. London: Gollancz, 1980 (novel)
Robert Lumley, States of emergency: cultures of revolt in Italy 1968 - 1978. London: Verso
George McKay, Senseless acts of beauty: cultures of resistance since the Sixties. London:Verso,
1996
Alberto Melucci, Nomads of the present. London: Hutchinson, 1989
Ray Mungo, Famous long ago: my life and hard times with Liberation News Service, at TotalLoss
Farm and on the Dharma Trail. New York: Citadel, 1990
Starhawk, Walking to Mercury. London: Thorsons, 1997 (novel)
Mike Waite, "Flecks, frames and carriers". In Colin Barker and Mike Tyldesley (eds.),Alternative
futures and popular protest III. Manchester: Manchester Metropolitan University,1997


Lecture 9: Revolution, skills and theory

Revolutions are complicated and difficult human practices, which involve effectivecommunication
and cooperation between a wide range of different groups whilesimultaneously manoeuvring
successfully against powerful institutions. How canrevolutionaries develop the necessary skills
outside of revolutionary periods? And howcan ordinary people learn to become effective political
agents within the short time-periods and intense pressures of revolutions? This lecture looks at the
role played bytheory within Marxist organisations and working-class revolutions.
Colin Barker, "Perspectives" in Revolutionary rehearsals (London: Bookmarks, 1987)
Marshall Berman, Adventures in Marxism. London: Verso, 1999
Paul Blackledge, "Understanding the defeat last time". In Colin Barker and Mike Tyldesley(eds.),
Seventh international conference on Alternative futures and popular protest.Manchester:
Manchester Metropolitan University, 2001
Carl Boggs, The socialist tradition: from crisis to decline. New York: Routledge, 1995
Alex Callinicos, The revenge of history: Marxism and the East European revolutions.University
Park, PA: Pennsylvania State UP, 1991
Virginia Coover et al, Resource manual for a living revolution. Philadelphia: New Society,1985
Laurence Cox, "Gramsci, movements and method: the politics of activist research".Alternative
futures IV. Available online at http://www.iol.ie/~mazzoldi/toolsforchange/afpp/afpp4.html
Antonio Gramsci, The modern prince and other writings. New York: International Publishers,1967
[other collections may also contain this]
Russell Jacoby, Dialectic of defeat: the contours of western Marxism. Cambridge:
CambridgeUniversity Press, 1981
Sheila Rowbotham, Lynne Segal and Hilary Wainwright, Beyond the fragments: feminismand the
making of socialism. London: Merlin, 1980
EP Thompson, The poverty of theory. London: Merlin, 1977
Raymond Williams, The long revolution. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965
Workers Solidarity Movement, Capitalism won't fall by itself! Dublin: WSM, 1998