ABSTRACT
Antonio Negri and Paulo Virno argue for an affirmative communist politics based on the capacities of the multitude. Negri and Virno argue that since work has changed in profound ways, due to proletarian struggle, then the old methods of exploitation have become inoperative and capital starts to accumulate value in a new way. For both Virno and Negri the concept of the multitude is crucial for understanding both contemporary capitalism and the forms and possibilities of communist praxis. Virno and Negri work to create an image of capitalism that provides the basis for an emancipatory politics: a politics that lives in the antagonisms of the material conditions of global capitalism. The depiction of capitalism that has been presented here dissolves the previous central importance that was applied to the factory and the struggle in the workplace of the industrial proletariat.
