This chapter rethinks identity politics from the perspective of revolution. Hardt and Negri unfold their argument by first critiquing what might be called “liberal” or “liberal multiculturalist” variants of identity politics which have culminated in “race-blind discourses” and struggles for social recognition.

The joining of neoliberalism and unilateralism in the latter half of the twentieth century is illustrative of the problems faced by capital in contending with the emergence of biopolitical production. In fact, the current crisis in neoliberalism is not due to unilateralism’s death grip, but rather because both systems proved to be solutions generated by an outmoded approach to understanding production.

Cross posted at Fugitive Imagination. Part 4: Empire Returns 4.1 Brief History of a  Failed Coup D’État Let the Dead Bury the Dead For Hardt and Negri, the definitive event of the 21st century, thus far, has been the failure of unilateralism. They see the failure of the US to gain imperial supremacy as evidence [...]

Part 3 Capital (and the struggles over common wealth) 3.1 Metamorphoses of the Composition of Capital This chapter proceeds to outline the biopolitical character of contemporary political economy and how contradictions rooted within this particular phase of global capitalism provide specific openings to social struggles centered on the common. First, Hardt and Negri detail the [...]

In this section Hardt and Negri problematise the traditional dialectic opposition of modernity/antimodernity. This opposition, they argue, is what gives rise to problematic notions of modernity as an “unfinished project,” inherently good, and simply in need of further advance.

In the opening pages of Commonwealth Hardt and Negri claim that the book represents an attempt to “articulate an ethical project, an ethics of democratic political action within and against Empire” (vii). Reiterating their position in Empire and Multitude, they argue that despite the insecurities, conflicts, and contradictions wrought by globalization there is no longer any space “outside” the new global capitalist order. For better or worse, globalization has created a common world. Because there is no longer an outside, creating more sustainable and democratic futures requires acting in this world through new collective projects of self-rule and political invention.

Respect is established between equals “while tolerance is a vertical concept, typical of a stance that believes to be superior and therefore entitled to mark out the boundaries of what is tolerable and thus impose its views of the permissible on the tolerated.”

Adorno has his knife out for the eclectic mixing of popular music and protest. A rare TV interview clip.

We can continue to build defences, try to fight against the bad guys, or mend the shredded cloth of democracy through which our naked body is clearly visible.