Antonio Gramsci
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Born 130 years ago, Antonio Francescio Gramsci became an esteemed Marxist philosopher and writer during his short life. He grew up on the island of Sardinia amongst 6 brothers and a father who was imprisoned for embezzlement, which left Gramsci’s family in poverty. It is believed that a form of Tuberculosis gave Gramsci a hunch back and kept him from growing taller than 5 feet. As a kid, Gramsci saw grave mistreatment of Sardinian peasants from Italian mainlanders, especially as Northern Italy rapidly became industrialized without the South or the islands.
When he was 20, Gramsci was granted a scholarship to study in the North, at the University of Turin. He focused on literature, linguistics, and history in school and socialized with Sardinian emigrants. In 1913, Gramsci became a member of the Italian Socialist Party and began writing for socialist newspapers. He also gave speeches on subjects ranging from the French Revolution to the emancipation of women. By 1917, Gramsci was a leading socialist in Turin and in 1919 the Italian Socialist Party joined the Third International, the international communist organization founded by Vladimir Lenin.
In 1922, Gramsci visited Russia as a representative of the Communist Party of Italy, where he met his future wife, Julia Schucht. While Gramsci was in Moscow, Benito Mussolini worked to repress the party and arrest its leaders back in Italy, leaving Gramsci as the head of the party. In November 1926, Gramsci was arrested in Rome by the fascist police. The prosecutor at his trial declared, “We must stop his brain from functioning.” Gramsci spent 11 years in prison, in which time his health waned, but his writing flourished. He died in prison at the age of 46.
During his imprisonment, Gramsci penned 30 notebooks and 3,000 pages of history and analysis. This work was published posthumously. He continues to be studied and cited for his contributions to Marxist theory and connections between culture, the state, the economy, and power relations. Gramsci argued that ruling classes maintain power not through force or violence, but through a hegemonic culture that turns ideology into “common sense,” so that even those most negatively impacted by capitalism are willing to fight to maintain the status quo. To this end, he argued powerfully for the widespread education of the working classes and the importance of consent in governance.
