Let's Take It All! Autonomia and the Italian 1970s

Marcello Tarì

Introduction by Idris Robinson
Release Date: March 31, 2026

ISBN: 979-8-9997930-2-7

“We want everything” was the slogan of Italian activists in the late 1960s. But by the 1970s, movements stopped demanding things of politicians and bosses and instead turned to each other and said, “Let's take it all!” For a while, it looked like they might.

Across Italy, a communist movement known as Autonomia exploded. For the autonomists, communism did not mean a distant future utopia planned by a central state. Instead, it was all around them, ready to be cracked open by people who turned their revolutionary energy toward the remaking of daily life and the defense of their ability to do so.

First published in French in 2011, Marcello Tarì’s history of Autonomia is a kinetic narrative through this movement, taking readers through its tactical innovations, its strategic debates, internal conflicts, and the depth of its transformation of everyday life, which left a lasting mark on communist theory and practice. Finally appearing for the first time in English, this book and the movement it recounts deserve to be discussed, debated, and mined for inspiration by those who are finished waiting for anyone to come save us.

In an original introduction, Idris Robinson explains why this movement’s experience half a century ago is not so distant from ours today, and why Autonomia is a crucial reference from which to begin any realistic strategy for revolution today.

Marcello Tarì is a renowned participant-researcher of contemporary social movements. He is the author of There is No Unhappy Revolution: The Communism of Destitution (Common Notions, 2021) and is the Italian translator of the Invisible Committee’s The Coming Insurrection, To Our Friends, and Now. He lives in Italy.

Idris Robinson is a philosopher and writer from the New York hinterlands. He is the author of The Revolt Eclipses Whatever the World Has To Offer (MIT, 2025).

About the Translators

Shelley Tootell is a visual artist, curator, writer and translator. She studied Psychology and Philosophy at the University of Oxford, Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmiths, and Fine Art at Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin. She lives and works in Berlin.

Matteo Spanò is a researcher and radio producer. His work focuses on experimental radio practice and the intersection between media culture and radical politics. He is co-founder of Cashmere Radio, a Berlin based community radio. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Sound Studies Department of Berlin's UdK, with a research project on Radio Alice and free radio culture.