Podcast Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Stephen Dozeman
Guest: Agustín Santella (with mention of co-editor Adrián Piva)
Book: Marxism, Social Movements and Collective Action (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)
Release Date: February 16, 2026

This episode of New Books Network features a deep dive into the recent anthology Marxism, Social Movements and Collective Action, edited by Agustín Santella and Adrián Piva. The discussion explores the enduring gaps within Marxist theory regarding the understanding and theorizing of diverse forms of collective action—strikes, revolutions, protests—and how the book's essays attempt to develop cohesive frameworks to bridge longstanding theoretical challenges. The conversation navigates through historical developments in Marxist thought, contemporary academic debates, the influence of neoliberalism, methodological tensions, and the practical relationship between analysis and emancipatory action.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Theoretical Gap in Marxism on Collective Action

• Challenge: Despite a rich tradition, Marxism lacks a unified conceptual framework for collective action, often treating events like strikes and revolutions as fragmented phenomena rather than aspects of a broader, unifying logic.
• Agustín Santella:

  “The theory of class struggles should address two problems. First … the passage from class antagonism to class formation. Second, … the variety of forms of action and subjects.” (03:41)

• The book's purpose is to synthesize diverse approaches, providing both empirical studies and philosophical reflections to reinvigorate class struggle theory.

2. Historical Evolution of Marxist Approaches

• Classical Marxists: Figures like Lenin, Luxemburg, Gramsci, and Trotsky sought practical strategies but developed theory only sporadically, often tied to immediate political agendas.
  • Santella notes Gramsci as a bridge to critical Marxism, emphasizing culture and the stability of democracies. (06:32)
• Post-1960s New Left: Theorists split practice and theory, focusing more on epistemology and method (Frankfurt School, Althusser, etc.).
  • Critique by Javier Weiman: Both classical and New Left generations intertwined theory and politics, challenging Perry Anderson's narrative of division. (08:24)
• Present State: The fragmentation of Marxist theory has led to the loss of a unified language and focus, with many abandoning categories like class altogether.
  • Santella:

    “This course of events cannot be separated from the general crisis of Marxism since the mid-1970s…” (10:36)

  • The book explicitly pushes against post-materialist and post-class currents, seeking creative and original developments within Marxism rather than returning to orthodoxies.

3. The Impact of Neoliberalism

• Individualization: Neoliberalism intensifies individualism, presenting a major theoretical and practical challenge for Marxists.
  • Santella argues Marxists must not simply dismiss these developments as ideological:

    “Marxist theory of these phenomena should capture the material dimension of organization within, be it individualization or new forms of collective action.” (16:08)

• Updating Theory: References Italian workerist discussions and contemporary theoretical advances that acknowledge shifts in labor (deindustrialization, new forms of “immaterial” work), requiring nuanced approaches to class and struggle.

4. Economic and Political Dimensions—A Theoretical Tension

• The Rift: Essays in the book highlight the crucial distinction and interplay between “economic” and “political” compositions of class, both analytically and strategically.
  • Santella discusses avoidance of economic determinism:

    “It's difficult to maintain a concrete relational concept of the totality or of the relations within that totality that accounts for both separation and unity.” (20:27)

• Strategic Implications: Analysis must recognize that strategic weaknesses (especially outside Europe/US) demand new forms of organization and politics.

5. Methodological Debates: Materialism and Dialectics

• The Dilemma: The risk of “abstract empiricism” vs. “Hegelian idealism” frames a methodological problem.
  • Santella emphasizes practice as a missing “piece”:

    “Without incorporating practice, materialism remains passive. Dialectics must account not only for the process of conceptualization, but also for the subject's actions.” (23:49)

• Practice: Understood not as mere activism, but as the context in which theory and social reality interpenetrate.

6. Rethinking Labor and New Class Formations

• Beyond the Proletariat: The book's contributors expand on care work, informal labor, and social reproduction, critiquing the “industrial fetishism” of traditional Marxist views.
  • Santella:

    “Caratasli… show the emergence of forms of collective action that are not strikes, but which express sectors of the working class that he calls… the relative surplus population.” (26:02)

  • The focus is on reconstructing “working class” as a category embracing both production and reproduction, sidestepping narrow definitions.

7. Marxism as Guide for Emancipatory Action

• Analytic & Practical Unity: The anthology frames Marxism as both a method for understanding society and a roadmap for transformative action.
  • Looking to contemporary movements facing climate crisis, pandemic, and instability, Santella calls for a “new socialism”:

    “A new socialism should attend economic and political struggles without reducing one to another… that’s to say socialism is the process of advancing the struggle against exploitation and against domination between class groups as well as gender, race and other oppressive… inequalities.” (30:39)

• Reinvigoration Needed: Systematic Marxist consciousness aids not only analysis, but the capacity for collective organizing and change.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On theoretical gaps in Marxism:
  “The theory should explain the passage from class antagonism to class formation… The theory of revolution involves classes, state, parties and other forms of collective grouping such as social movements.” – Agustín Santella (03:41-04:40)

• On the divide between classic and new generations:
  “Both generations were concerned with theory and politics… In our book, we suggest an explanation as to why Marxist approaches no longer share the same object, the abandonment of theory’s subordination to strategy and tactics results in the loss of unity of the language of theory itself.” – Agustín Santella (08:24-10:10)

• On neoliberalism and collective action:
  “Marxist theory… should capture the material dimension of organization within, be it individualization or new forms of collective action… Neoliberalism, specifically, targets the dynamics of individualization.” – Agustín Santella (16:08-17:00)

• On economic vs. political analysis:
  “In analysis there’s persistent difficulty and a lapse back into economic determinism... It’s difficult to maintain a concrete relational concept of the totality… Regarding the strategic discussion, it's clear that this refers to the development of forms of struggle, organization, and consciousness.” – Agustín Santella (20:27-21:50)

• On method:
  “Without incorporating practice, materialism remains passive. Dialectics must account not only for the process of conceptualization, but also for the subject’s actions.” – Agustín Santella (23:49-24:30)

• On new working-class forms:
  “Caratasli… show[s] the emergence of forms of collective action that are not strikes, but which express sectors of the working class that he calls… the relative surplus population.” – Agustín Santella (26:02-27:30)

• On the need for a new socialist project:
  “A new socialism should attend economic and political struggles without reducing one to another… Socialism is the process of advancing the struggle against exploitation and against domination between class groups as well as gender, race and other… inequalities.” – Agustín Santella (30:39–31:45)

Timestamps for Major Segments

| Segment | Time | |--------------------------------------------|------------| | Introduction to guests & aims of the book | 00:05–02:48| | Theoretical gaps in class struggle theory | 02:48–05:42| | Classical vs. New Left Marxism | 05:42–10:15| | Crisis and fragmentation of Marxist theory | 10:36–15:14| | Neoliberalism and new challenges | 15:14–18:35| | (Advertisements skipped) | 18:35–20:27| | Economic vs. Political composition | 20:27–23:00| | Methodological debates: materialism/dialectics | 23:00–25:23| | New forms of labor/class | 25:23–29:28| | Marxism and emancipatory practice | 29:28–32:27|

Takeaways

• The anthology provides a vital contribution to current debates on Marxism, especially in its effort to reconstruct a unified theory of collective action relevant to today’s turbulent, neoliberalized world.
• The editors urge Marxists to return to rigorous theorizing without retreating to nostalgia or rigid orthodoxy and to connect intellectual renewal with real-world movements across labor, care, politics, and beyond.
• Central to the book—and this episode—is the idea that Marxism remains unfinished and open-ended, demanding creativity, practice, and continual critique to meet contemporary challenges.