International Socialism: Gramsci: the Turin years Since the mid-1970s academics have rarely considered Antonio Gramsci’s revolutionary activism. The emphasis has been on ‘a more subtle and academically assimilable Gramsci’, a figure whose later work is separated from his political development in the Italian city of Turin in 1919 and 1920, known as the biennio rosso—the ‘two red years’. This is a serious misrepresentation. The strike wave and factory occupations in Italy in those years shaped Gramsci’s thought throughout his life. with gramsciisjmarxismsocialismturin
International Socialism: Hegemony and revolutionary strategy The PSI was the only social democratic party in Western Europe to oppose the First World War and played a key role in organising the Zimmerwald Conference, held in September 1915 to rally the European anti‑war left. It was the first mass party to join the Communist International—the international grouping of parties, usually known as the Comintern, which supported the October Revolution. with gramscihegemonyisjmarxismsocialism