Gilles Deleuze

This Book Is Literally Proof of Innocence

(Le Matin de Paris, December 13, 1979)

Why is the appearance of Negri's book important, not only in itself but in relation to Negri's situation in the special prison?

1. Because, in many Italian newspapers, a curious enterprise of depreciation has occurred: "Negri is not an important thinker, he's a mediocre and even a pathetic theoretician" We will note that fascism, when it imprisoned a thinker or theoretician, did not feel the need to diminish him; rather it said, "We have nothing to do with thinkers, they're detestable and dangerous people." Now present-day democracy needs to depreciate, to persuade public opinion that the person in question is a false thinker. But Negri's book shows quite obviously what all of us here knew: namely that Negri is an extremely important, profound and new Marxist theoretician.

2. In the second place, Negri has never wanted to be just a theoretician; his theory, his interpretations are inseparable from a certain type of practical social struggle. Now Negri's books describe this field of struggle as a function of what he calls social capital, as a function of new forms of struggle within capitalism; in particular it follows from this that the struggles don't take place in the simple framework of the business firm or the union. But at no moment does the type of practical struggle analyzed and supported by Negri pass by way of terrorism, nor can it be confused with the methods promulgated by the Red Brigades. In this sense, since the Italian judges are so interested in Negri's style, intentions and thoughts, this book is literally proof of innocence. Then could we say that Negri is double, that as a writer he makes up a theory of a certain social practice, but that, like a secret agent, he has a completely different, terrorist practice? This idea would be particularly idiotic because, unless he's obviously being paid by the police, a revolutionary writer cannot practice a type of struggle different from those he approves and promulgates in his writings.