New Books Network Agustín Santella and Adrián Piva, "Marxism, Social Movements and Collective Action" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)
Feb 16, 2026
Agustín Santella, sociologist and professor at the University of Buenos Aires, explores Marxist theory and social movements. He discusses connecting class struggle to protests, strikes, and uprisings. He traces shifts from classical Marxists to the 1960s New Left and critiques fragmentation since the 1970s. He highlights neoliberal individualization, expanding concepts of labor, and rebuilding Marxism for political practice.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Theory Must Bridge Class And Struggle
- A theory of class struggle must link class antagonism to concrete forms of struggle and class formation.
- Marxism lacks a unified theory that explains both strikes and revolutions as connected mechanisms.
Classical Marxism Was Fragmented
- Early Marxists developed concepts across political economy, organization, and imperialism but did so fragmentarily.
- This produced valuable propositions but not a systematic, general theory of class struggle.
New Left Recentered Theory
- The New Left shifted toward methodology and general theory while reacting to Soviet models.
- Both classical and Western Marxists contributed essentials that should be recombined, not separated.
