The Rescue of Gramsci:

Thoughts on reading Robert Griffiths’ “Was Gramsci a Eurocommunist?”

     In recent years, some scholars have labored to pull Gramsci’s name and reputation out of the Eurocommunist swamp where it was left after the Euros achieved their aim in 1991. He was left there then because he was far too dangerous to let run around outside; somebody might have actually read him. No good at all! Unlike his disciple Poulantzas-who could also do with rescue-Gramsci never belonged there.

     Gramsci’s labored prison studies as to why the first European wave of communism failed were mordant but deep. His categorizations and concepts were created to explain defeat, not to prescribe formulae for victory. Our “science of society”-our “metanarrative,” if you will- is punctuated with unpredicted-unpredictable, really-“conjunctures.” randomness, and accidents. There is a price that comes with reading Gramsci; the development of a serious sense of humility – not just the pandering we usually do to assuage our doubts.