The Workers’ Inquiry from Trotskyism to Operaismo: a political methodology for investigating the workplace

Journal article

This article discusses different approaches to conducting a workers’ inquiry. Although there is a certain level of ambiguity in the term, it is taken to mean a method for investigating the workplace from the point of view of the worker. The article aims to examine the methodological concerns involved with conducting a contemporary inquiry and to consider the different debates that have emerged from its use. It examines a particular set of examples from Marx, the breaks from orthodox Trotskyism with the Johnson-Forest Tendency and Socialisme ou Barbarie, and early phase of Operaismo or Italian Workerism. It is intended as a specific intervention that aims to understand what can be learned from an unorthodox Trotskyist interpretation of a workers’ inquiry and how this moment can provide an inspiration for the rethinking and reapplication of Marxism, both in terms of theory and practice, to the changing world.

Authors: Woodcock, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Ephemera Editorial Collective
• Journal: Ephemera : Theory and Politics in Organization
• Issue: 3
• Publication date: 2014-09-07
• Acceptance date: 2014-01-23
• EISSN: 1473-2866
• ISSN: 2052-1499
• Keywords: SBTMR; method; Workplace; Marxism