Antonio Gramsci was an Italian journalist who suffered under Mussolini’s fascist regime and concluded that revolution in advanced capitalist societies could not be a sudden uprising alone. Instead, it required a long “war of position”, a slow struggle to transform culture, ideas, and institutions before any direct seizure of power. Central to this process were organic intellectuals, thinkers and artists emerging from the working class who could articulate new values and challenge dominant narratives.
For Gramsci, successful revolution meant winning minds as much as controlling factories or governments. Political change had to be preceded by cultural transformation, making his work foundational to modern critical theory, cultural studies, and leftist political strategy.
