Frank R. Annunziato.Gramsci's Theory of Trade Unionism. RM 1(2):142-164 "An analysis of Antonio Gramsci's contributions to Marxist theory concerning the role of trade unionism in a strategy for social transformation. Gramsci's famous critique of the economism that permeated the Second International is shown to be situated in the politics of the Italian workers movement of his era. Gramsci's powerful intervention within this workers' movement - to divert it from these economistic tendencies and to become, through the factory council, organizations for socialism - is described. Gramsci applied Marxist theory to argue that there is no universal, absolutist form of trade unionism. Rather, the trade union must be understood as an overdetermined site of various political, economic, and ideological processes. Based on this understanding, Gramsci argued that the trade unions of his historical moment contributed to the capitalist hegemony of the Italian social formation. Further, Gramsci began a class analytical perspective of these trade unions, asserting that they acted as merchant capitalists, selling the collective labor-power of their membership to industrial capitalists.