Ricerc@Sapienza

The life of Lelio Basso spans the history of the ‘short’ twentieth century – the aftermath of the First World War, the tragic decades of fascism, the post-war democratic reconstruction, the decline of party politics, the rise of international activism on human and peoples’ rights. His was an original, dissonant voice within the socialist tradition, with a view of socialism drawn from the history of the subaltern classes, that he put into practice in decades of high-profile political action. It is a lesson that today seems more relevant than ever.

Lelio Basso is without doubt a twentieth-century socialist. His interpretation of classical socialism is at times heretical, combining different elements of Marxist thought (while remaining faithful to it), the intellectual tradition of the labour movement, and early twentieth-century socialism

In classical Marxist theory, surplus value is defined as the difference between the value of the product of labour and the remuneration that is sufficient to support labour power. This essay focuses on this classical issue in new way.