Raniero Panzieri (14 February 1921 – Turin, 9 October 1964) was an Italian politician, writer and Marxist theoretician, considered as the founder of operaismo.
In 1953 he became a member of the central committee of the PSI and then in 1957 the co-director of the theoretical review Mondo operaio (Workers World), which he turned into a discussion forum for the left of the party.
Influenced by the French group Socialisme ou Barbarie he founded the Quaderni Rossi (Red Notebooks) review, together with Mario Tronti, Romano Alquati and Danilo Montaldi.
The first editions of the review, which aimed at exploring the real life of the factory and the relationship of the workers to production, had a profound impact in the sphere of workplace struggles, as they departed from the habitual positions of the socialists and communists in this area.
[2] Panzieri was praised by the magazine as follows: "among the countless leaders of the organised movement only one had consciously chosen the path of his own defeat, because this led towards the working class.