Storming Heaven is the first comprehensive survey of Italian autonomist theory, from its origins in the anti-Stalinist and workerist left of the 1950s to its heyday twenty years later. The themes of autonomist Marxism include the refusal of work, self-organisation, an openness to non-militarised political violence, mass illegality and the extension of revolutionary agency, which are all relevant trends today.Emphasising the dynamic nature of class composition and struggle as the distinguishing feature of autonomist thought, Steve Wright documents how its understanding of class politics developed alongside emerging social movements.Offering a critical and historical exploration of the tendency's trajectory in postwar Italy, Storming Heaven moves beyond the crisis of traditional analytical frameworks on the left, and assesses the strengths and limitations of Italian autonomist Marxism as first developed by Antonio Negri, Mario Tronti, Sergio Bologna and others. This edition includes a substantial new afterword looking at the debates around operaismo and Autonomia since the book originally appeared in 2002.