Today is 87 years since Antonio Gramsci died at the hands of the Italian Fascists.
Gramsci, a founder and leader of the Italian Communist Party, was imprisoned by Mussolini’s regime in 1926. During his imprisonment he wrote extensively about history, politics and society.
His work on the role of culture, ideology, and the consent rulers obtain from those they rule has been influential in understanding how groups gain and maintain power.
The circumstances leading to the fascism of Gramsci's time are starkly comparable with the current rising tides of fascism; it terrifies me on a daily basis.
Nonetheless, Gramsci was optimistic about how people, together, can create change: 'when the individual can associate himself with all the other individuals who want the same changes ... the individual can be multiplied an impressive number of times and can obtain a change which is far more radical than at first sight seemed possible.'
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