Abstract

A major theme in Hardt's and Negri's work concerns how domination is exercised in the era of empire. Current capitalist globalization results in the rise of immaterial labor — a phase in which capital subordinates labor through biopolitical domination. Along this new form of domination which engulfs more social groups than before, a new subject of resistance has emerged — the multitude. These changes highlight the weakness of earlier forms of communist politics: that they focus only on a homogenous working class as the revolutionary subject. The Chinese communists' strategies of mobilization in early 20thcentury Shanghai challenge their argument. First, the Chinese case shows that previous communist resistance was not blind to the centrality of non-class categories in the struggle against capitalism. Second, it suggests, in lieu of Hardt's and Nergi's "multitude," an alternative conception of the common ground among various counter-hegemonic social groups and classes