According to the dominant narrative, italian workerism ought to be credited for its rejection of «the party form» as a mode of political organisation. The aim of this article is to challenge this narrative. Starting with a brief account of the recent reassessment of the party in Hardt and Negri’s Assembly, it articulates a reading of Negri’s reflection on political organisation in the 1970’s. Resulting from this reading is a distinction of three models of the «party form» – the party of composition, the party of autonomy and the party of separation – which all represent various ways of articulating a political ontology of social being with an ontological politics of social emancipation.
