Antonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci was one of the pioneers of the communist movement in Italy during the early part of the 20^th century. He co-founded the Communist Party of Italy and became a leader of the party in 1924. Gramsci was also a great philosopher, and he published some writings about culture and politics. He conceived a number of important ideas within the framework of Marxist philosophy, one of which was the theory of cultural hegemony.

Antonio Gramsci was born on the 22^nd of January, 1891 in the town of Ales, Sardinia. He belonged to one of the few literate families in Sardinia, and he was an excellent student in school . He was granted a scholarship to attend the University of Turin, and he was greatly influenced by the social atmosphere of Turin. Turin was the most advanced industrial city in Italy at that time, and it was home to a great number of industrial workers, who often staged demonstrations and strikes.

Gramsci’s brother had introduced him to socialist philosophy when he was still in Sardinia. When he was studying in Turin, he met many people who shared his socialist beliefs, including Palmiro Togliatti and Angelo Tasca. In 1915, he joined the Italian Socialist Party and wrote articles for the Turin Avanti! Soon, he was recognized as one of most influential journalists in Italy, and his articles were widely read.

In 1919, Gramsci started a journal called The New Order with fellow members of the Italian Socialist Party, and the journal created a lot of attention for the political situations in Europe, Russia, and the US. Two years later, the pro-Bolshevik members of the Italian Socialist Party decided to form the Communist Party of Italy, and Gramsci became a committee member of the party. He became the leader of the new party a few years later, and he foresaw that the Fascists of Mussolini would cause a great deal of problems for the working class as well as democrats of Italy.

In 1922, Gramsci attended the Communist International in Moscow as a representative of the Italian communist movement, and it was during this trip that he made the acquaintance of Julka Schucht, who would become his wife and mother of his two children. On the 8^th of November, 1926, Gramsci was arrested by the Fascists, and he was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison. He passed away on the 27^th of April, 1937.

Gramsci wrote extensively throughout his life , and he expressed his political philosophy through these writings. He established a political concept called cultural hegemony , which suggested that a diverse culture could be governed by one class of people. He felt that the discontentment of the working class resulted from the ideologies of the bourgeoisie, and a governmental system that would narrow the gap between these two fractions of the society would eliminate the possibility of revolt. Gramsci opposed the idea of economism , which states that the history of the world was determined by economical laws. He believed that it was equally possible that cultural and political forces had primacy over economic forces.

Gramsci co-founded the Communist Party of Italy because he felt that a party with Leninist ideals was needed. When the party was first established, he was a subordinate to Amadeo Bordiga, but he was involved in the decision-making of major party issues. After he returned from Moscow in 1923, he suggested that the party should form an alliance with Russian leftist forces to topple Fascist rule, but the other members of the party rejected his proposal. Gramsci became the leader of the party in 1924, after Bordiga was arrested.

Gramsci was incarcerated in the well-known Roman prison, Regina Coeli, right after he was arrested. Then, he spent 5 years in solitary confinement on the island of Ustica before moving to Turi to serve a 20-year sentence. He suffered from serious health problems while he was in prison, and he died of cerebral hemorrhage in 1937. During his prison years, Gramsci spent most of his time writing, resulting in over 30 notebooks and 3,000 pages of analysis and history.

After his death, Gramsci became known as one of the inventors of western communism. His writings have been extensively studied , and he is a widely discussed figure in the study of critical theories. Gramsci’s legacy as a socialist is questionable. While the Communist Party of Italy agreed with his socialist theories, his connection with Moscow caused many party members to regard him as a Left Communist. Comunism of course being the oposite of capitalism, so you can't expect any equipment leasing, or any other aspect of a capitalistic economy.

Gramsci’s most enlightening works were written during his imprisonment, and they are collectively known as the Prison Notebooks. Prior to his imprisonment, he had written numerous political writings, and some of the more popular ones include Newspapers and the Workers, Character, One Year of History, Men of Flesh and Blood, Parties and Masses, and Maximalism and Extremism.