Raniero Panzieri

1921 - 1964

Raniero Panzieri (1921 – Turin, 9 October 1964) was an Italian politician, writer and Marxist theorist, considered as the founder of operaismo.

Raniero Panzieri is among the main intellectuals who have animated the Italian workers' movement in the sixties. The new intellectual wave known as operaismo focused upon a peculiar interpretation of marxism that theorized the centrality of the working class. This brought about a profound fracture with the traditional left parties, the Italian Communist Party and the Italian Socialist Party which had chosen instead to make their way within the institutions of the State, gradually taking distance from the workers' movement. read more »

Theorists: 

Seven Theses on Workers’ Control

These theses written in the context of the 1970s 'autonomia operaia' in Italy intend to initiate a debate on workers’ control of the factories as a 'democratic and peaceful' road to socialism.

The demand for workers’ control of the factories is at the center of the “democratic and peaceful road” to socialism. read more »