Antonio Negri

About Antonio Negri

Antonio Negri (; Italian: [ˈneːɡri]; 1 August 1933 – 16 December 2023) was an Italian political philosopher known as one of the most prominent theorists of autonomism, as well as for his co-authorship of Empire with Michael Hardt. Born in Padua, Italy, Negri became a professor of political philosophy at the University of Padua, where he taught state and constitutional theory. Negri founded the Potere Operaio (Worker Power) group in 1969 and was a leading member of Autonomia Operaia, and published highly influential books, including Empire and Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire. Negri was accused in the late 1970s of being the mastermind of the left-wing urban guerrilla organization Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse or BR), which was involved in the May 1978 kidnapping and murder of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro. On 7 April 1979, Negri was arrested and charged with a number of crimes, including the Moro murder. Most charges were quickly dropped, but in 1984, having fled to France, he was sentenced in absentia to 30 years in prison.