Gramsci, Class and Post-Marxism.pdf

International Gramsci Journal Volume 1 Article 2 Issue 1 International Gramsci Journal J anuary 2008 Gramsci, Class and Post-Marx ism Mike Donaldson University of Wollongo ng, miked@.au Follow this and a itional works at : .au/gramsci Recommended Citation Donal son, Mike, Gramsci, Class and Post-Marxism, International Gramsci Journal, 1(1), 2008. Available at :.au/gramsci/vol1/iss1/2 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: research-pubs@.au Gramsci, Class and Post-Marx ism Abstract Often Gramsci is presented in the social sciences, particularly by post-Marxists, as a precursor of an justification for abandoning the concept of class. This is incorrect. This article outlines Gramsci’s ideas of class, class composition, formation and alliance which Gramsci based on a detaile , accurate reconnaissance of the Italy of his time. This journal article is available in International Gramsci Journal: .au/gramsci/vol1/iss1/2 GRAMSCI, CLASS AND POST-MARXISM Mike Donaldson, Sociology, University of Wollongong While Gramsci was without doubt a revolutionary Marxist at least since 1920 and at the time of his imprisonment at the end of 1926, Ernesto Laclau and others have claimed that because of fascism’s victory, Gramsci fundamentally rethought his ideas in writing the Prison Notebooks (Poynting, 1995: 181). Laclau and other post- Marxists almost exclusively rely on the Notebooks for their understanding of Gramsci even though most of the concepts central to the Notebooks are in his pre- prison writings (Bellamy, 1994: x). Germino and Fennema (1998: 18