Johannes Agnoli's death in 2003 deprived us of one of the most important thinkers of the categorical imperative of human emancipation. Werner Bonefeld, a former student of Agnoli's, outlines Agnoli's life and works. This article also collects his much too few English publications below.
Johannes Agnoli was a Italian Marxist political scientist, though he rejected the label Marxist, preferring instead - somewhat ironically - to call himself an Agnolist. Werner Bonefeld, a founder of Open Marxism, was a student of Agnoli's in Berlin. This piece first appeared in German in 1990 and was translated by Bonefeld for issue #12 of the journal Common Sense. An updated translation and preface by Bonefeld appears here from the book Revolutionary Writing, a collection of writings from the Common Sense journal.
Social democracy aims to achieve a fairer society through balanced power relations between classes, but no matter how many rights tenants hold under capitalism, landlords still exploit them. Organizers must resist the incorporation of working class struggles into the state, otherwise they ensure the ongoing reproduction of capitalist social relations.
Fathom regularly invites writers to select their favourite books about a subject. Here, Matthew Bolton recommends three on critical theory and antisemitism. A much longer piece than the norm, the edit.