Post-Marxism

{{Short description|Trend in political philosophy and social theory}} {{About|the political philosophy that reinterprets Marxism|the study of formerly socialist states|Postsocialism|the economic and political transformations that occurred in certain countries as a result of the fall of their communist governments|Post-communism}} {{Redirect|Post-Marxian|the economic theory|Post-Marxian economics}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}} {{Marxism|common variants}} {{postmodernism|fields}} '''Post-Marxism''' is a perspective in critical social theory which radically reinterprets Marxism, countering its alleged association with economism, historical determinism, anti-humanism, and class reductionism,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McLennan |first=Gregor |date=1996 |title=Post-marxism and the 'Four Sins' of Modernist Theorizing |journal=New Left Review |volume=2 |issue=I/218 |pages=53–74 |article-number=1863 |doi=10.64590/xzn |url=https://newleftreview.org/issues/i218/articles/gregor-mclennan-post-marxism-and-the-four-sins-of-modernist-theorizing.pdf}}</ref> whilst remaining committed to the construction of socialism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Callinicos |first=Alex |title=Routledge Handbook of Marxism and Post-Marxism |publisher=Routledge |year=2022 |edition=1st}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Arditi |first1=Benjamin |title=Post-hegemony: politics outside the usual post-Marxist paradigm |journal=Contemporary Politics |date=September 2007 |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=205–226 |doi=10.1080/13569770701467411 |s2cid=154296914 }}</ref> Most notably, post-Marxists are anti-essentialist, rejecting the primacy of class struggle, and instead focus on building radical democracy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sim |first1=Stuart |title=Reflections on Post-Marxism: Laclau and Mouffe's Project of Radical Democracy in the 21st Century |date=2022 |publisher=Policy Press |isbn=978-1-5292-2183-1}}{{page needed|date=May 2023}}</ref><ref>Mclean, Ian; Mcmillan, Alistair (2003) ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics'' (Article: State). Oxford University Press.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mouffe |first=Chantal |date=June 1995 |title=Post-Marxism: Democracy and Identity |journal=Environment and Planning D: Society and Space |language=en |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=259–265 |doi=10.1068/d130259 |bibcode=1995EnPlD..13..259M |s2cid=144784412}}</ref> Post-Marxism can be considered a synthesis of post-structuralist<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jacobs |first1=Thomas |title=The Dislocated Universe of Laclau and Mouffe: An Introduction to Post-Structuralist Discourse Theory |journal=Critical Review |date=2 October 2018 |volume=30 |issue=3–4 |pages=294–315 |doi=10.1080/08913811.2018.1565731 |hdl=1854/LU-8600661 |s2cid=150207035 |url=https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8600661 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=bloomsbury.com |title=Marx Through Post-Structuralism |url=https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/marx-through-poststructuralism-9781441185082/ |access-date=2023-05-15 |website=Bloomsbury |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Alberto Toscano: Solidarity and Political Work {{!}} Historical Materialism |url=https://www.historicalmaterialism.org/interviews/alberto-toscano-solidarity-and-political-work |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=www.historicalmaterialism.org|date=30 April 2018 }}</ref> frameworks and neo-Marxist<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ritzer |first1=George |last2=Schubert |first2=J. Daniel |date=1991 |title=The Changing Nature of Neo-Marxist Theory: A Metatheoretical Analysis |jstor=1389516 |journal=Sociological Perspectives |volume=34 |issue=3 |pages=359–375 |doi=10.2307/1389516 |s2cid=146959219 }}</ref> analysis,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peters |first1=Michael A. |last2=Neilson |first2=David |last3=Jackson |first3=Liz |title=Post-marxism, humanism and (post)structuralism: Educational philosophy and theory |journal=Educational Philosophy and Theory |date=6 December 2022 |volume=54 |issue=14 |pages=2331–2340 |doi=10.1080/00131857.2020.1824783 |s2cid=224983298 |doi-access=free }}</ref> in response to the decline of the New Left after the protests of 1968.<ref>{{Cite web |title=post-Marxism |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100339585 |access-date=2023-04-19 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en}}</ref> In a broader sense, post-Marxism can refer to Marxists or Marxian-adjacent theories which break with the old worker's movements and socialist states entirely,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mills |first=Charles W. |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/5106 |title=Black Rights/White Wrongs: The Critique of Racial Liberalism |date=23 March 2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-024545-0 |language=en}}</ref> in a similar sense to post-leftism,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Post-Left Anarchy |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/jason-mcquinn-post-left-anarchy-leaving-the-left-behind |access-date=2024-03-23 |website=The Anarchist Library |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Platypus Affiliated Society – The Left is not a concept |url=https://platypus1917.org/2021/12/01/the-left-is-not-a-concept/ |access-date=2024-03-23 |website=platypus1917.org}}</ref> and accept that the era of mass revolution premised on the Fordist worker is potentially over.<ref>{{Citation |title=Deleuze: The Grandeur of Marx with Nick Thoburn | date=25 September 2022 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StKQhD_d64E |access-date=2024-03-23 |language=en}}</ref>

The term "post-Marxism" first appeared in Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe's theoretical work ''Hegemony and Socialist Strategy'' (1985).<ref name="McKenna 2014">{{cite journal |last1=McKenna |first1=Tony |title=Against Post-Marxism: How Post-Marxism Annuls Class-Based Historicism and the Possibility of Revolutionary Praxis |journal=International Critical Thought |date=3 April 2014 |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=142–159 |doi=10.1080/21598282.2014.906538 |s2cid=144911344 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1515/9781474473637-104 |chapter=Ernesto Laclau (1935-), Chantal Mouffe (1948-) and Post-Marxism |title=Introducing Literary Theories |year=2019 |last1=Bowman |first1=Paul |pages=799–809 |isbn=978-1-4744-7363-7 |s2cid=246928968 }}</ref> Post-Marxism is a wide category not well-defined, containing the work of Laclau and Mouffe<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.7312/columbia/9780231143943.003.0008 |chapter=Introduction |title=Adventures of the Symbolic |year=2013 |last1=Breckman |first1=Warren |pages=1–23 |isbn=978-0-231-14394-3 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis |title=The Turn to the Political: Post-Marxism and Marx's Critique of Politics |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6m44x67k |publisher=UC Berkeley |date=2012 |language=en |first=Timothy David |last=Fisken}}</ref> on the one hand, and some strands of autonomism and open Marxism,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 March 2017 |title=Post-Marxism |url=https://marx200.org/en/marxism-think-one-two-many-marxes/post-marxism |access-date=2023-05-16 |website=MARX 200 |language=en}}</ref> post-structuralism,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barrow |first1=Clyde W. |title=Critical Theories of the State: Marxist, Neomarxist, Postmarxist |date=1993 |publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press |isbn=978-0-299-13713-7 }}{{page needed|date=May 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jones |first=A. |date=1999 |title=Dialectics and difference: against Harvey's dialectical 'post-Marxism' |url=http://phg.sagepub.com/ |journal=Progress in Human Geography |language=en |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=529–555 |doi=10.1191/030913299676750977|s2cid=58943873 }}</ref> cultural studies,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tunderman |first1=Simon |title=Post-Marxist reflections on the value of our time. Value theory and the (in)compatibility of discourse theory and the critique of political economy |journal=Critical Discourse Studies |date=2 November 2021 |volume=18 |issue=6 |pages=655–670 |doi=10.1080/17405904.2020.1829664 |s2cid=225142057 |doi-access=free }}</ref> ex-Marxists<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Richard G |last2=Doel |first2=Marcus A |date=April 2001 |title=Baudrillard Unwound: The Duplicity of Post-Marxism and Deconstruction |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/d226t |journal=Environment and Planning D: Society and Space |language=en |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=137–159 |doi=10.1068/d226t |bibcode=2001EnPlD..19..137S |s2cid=147199071 |issn=0263-7758|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and Deleuzian-inspired<ref>{{Cite web |last=thewastedworld |date=22 February 2020 |title=Underground Intensities: The Gothic Marxism of Deleuze and Guattari |url=https://thewastedworld.com/2020/02/22/gothic-deleuze/ |access-date=2023-05-16 |website=The Wasted World |language=en}}</ref> 'politics of difference'<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1017/CBO9781139165419.005 |chapter=The Politics of Difference |title=Gilles Deleuze |year=2005 |pages=114–153 |isbn=978-0-521-84309-6 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1163/ej.9789004145986.i-813.149 |chapter=Chapter Twenty-Eight. Marxism expatriated: Alain Badiou's turn |title=Critical Companion to Contemporary Marxism |year=2008 |last1=Toscano |first1=Alberto |pages=529–548 |isbn=978-90-474-2360-7 }}</ref> on the other.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Samanci |first=Helene |date=2012 |title=Political Ontology of post-Marxism |url=https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/8623/Samanci_H_MPhil_Final.pdf?sequence=1 |type=Masters |publisher=Queen Mary, University of London}}</ref>{{bsn|date=August 2025|reason=Per WP:SCHOLARSHIP master thesis are not usually considered generally reliable}} Recent overviews of post-Marxism are provided by Ernesto Screpanti,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Screpanti |first=Ernesto |author-link=Ernesto Screpanti |date=2000 |title=The postmodern crisis in economics and the revolution against modernism |journal=Rethinking Marxism: A Journal of Economics, Culture & Society |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=87–111 |doi=10.1080/08935690009358993 |s2cid=145419981}}</ref> Göran Therborn,<ref>{{cite book |last=Therborn |first=Göran |title=From Marxism to Post-Marxism |date=2008 |publisher=Verso Books |location=London |pages=208 |author-link=Göran Therborn}}</ref> and Gregory Meyerson.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Meyerson |first1=Gregory |last2=San Juan |first2=E. Jr. |date=2009 |title=Post-Marxism as Compromise Formation |journal=Cultural Logic: Journal of Marxist Theory & Practice |volume=16 |doi=10.14288/clogic.v16i0.191554 }}</ref> Prominent post-Marxist journals include ''New Formations'',<ref>{{Cite web |title=New Formations: About |url=https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/newformations/page/about/ |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=Lawrence Wishart |language=en-GB}}</ref> ''Constellations'',<ref>{{Cite web |title=Constellations Journal – About |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/14678675/homepage/productinformation.html}}</ref> ''Endnotes'',<ref>{{Cite web |last=Endnotes |title=Endnotes |url=http://endnotes.org.uk/ |access-date=2023-05-24 |website=endnotes.org.uk}}</ref> ''Crisis and Critique''<ref>{{Cite web |title=About us – CRISIS AND CRITIQUE |url=https://www.crisiscritique.org/about-us |access-date=2023-06-23 |website=www.crisiscritique.org}}</ref> and ''Arena''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About Arena – Arena |url=https://arena.org.au/about |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=arena.org.au |language=en-AU}}</ref>

== History == Post-Marxism first originated in the late 1970s, and several trends and events of that period influenced its development.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hunter |first1=Allen |title=Post-Marxism and the New Social Movements |journal=Theory and Society |date=1988 |volume=17 |issue=6 |pages=885–900 |doi=10.1007/BF00161731 |jstor=657793 |s2cid=147229586 }}</ref> The weakness of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc paradigm became evident after the so called "secret speech" and the following invasion of Hungary, which split the radical left irreparably.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Black |first=Ian |date=21 October 2006 |title=How Soviet tanks crushed dreams of British communists |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/oct/21/politics.past |access-date=2023-07-15 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Marxism from then on faced a crisis of credibility, resulting in various developments in Marxist theory, particularly neo-Marxism, which theorised against much of the Eastern Bloc.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kecskemeti |first=Paul |date=March 1959 |title=Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis. By Herbert Marcuse. (New York: Columbia University Press. 1958. Pp. 271. $4.50.) |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/soviet-marxism-a-critical-analysis-by-herbert-marcuse-new-york-columbia-university-press-1958-pp-271-450/EEC2D47B91C24E57455B5F075EA03A4E |journal=American Political Science Review |language=en |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=187–189 |doi=10.2307/1951737 |jstor=1951737 |s2cid=151999515 |issn=1537-5943|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This happened concurrently with the occurrence internationally of the strikes and occupations of 1968, the rise of Maoist theory, and the proliferation of commercial television and later information technologies which covered in its broadcasts the Vietnam War.

Post-Marxism, although with its roots in this New Left and the consequent post-structural moment in France,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Anderman |first1=Nicholas |last2=Hicks |first2=Zachary |date=1 June 2023 |title=The Pot Still Boils |journal=Qui Parle |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=1–39 |doi=10.1215/10418385-10427926 |s2cid=259414199 |issn=1041-8385|doi-access=free }}</ref> has its real genesis in reaction to the hegemony of neoliberalism, and defeat of the Left in such events as the UK miners' strike. Ernesto Laclau argued that a Marxism for the neoliberal conjuncture required a fundamental reworking, to address the failures of both.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Laclau |first=Ernesto |author-link=Ernesto Laclau |date=1987 |title=Post-Marxism without apologies |journal=New Left Review |volume=2 |issue=I/166 |pages=79–106 |article-number=817 |doi=10.64590/yb0 |url=https://newleftreview.org/issues/i166/articles/ernesto-laclau-chantal-mouffe-post-marxism-without-apologies}}</ref> Subsequently, Laclau and Mouffe address the proliferation of "new subject positions" by locating their analysis on a non-essentialist framework.

Simultaneously, revolutionaries in Italy, known as Operaismo, and later autonomists,<ref>{{Citation |last=Bratich |first=Jack Zeljko |title=Post-Marx beyond Post-Marx: Autonomism and Discourse Theory |date=2011 |url=https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230343511_7 |work=Discourse Theory and Critical Media Politics |pages=154–177 |editor-last=Dahlberg |editor-first=Lincoln |access-date=2023-07-26 |place=London |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |language=en |doi=10.1057/9780230343511_7 |isbn=978-0-230-34351-1 |editor2-last=Phelan |editor2-first=Sean|url-access=subscription }}</ref> began to theorise against the conservative Italian Communist Party,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thoburn |first1=Nicholas |title=Deleuze, Marx and Politics |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-45783-0}}{{page needed|date=May 2023}}</ref> focusing much more on labour, gender and the later works of Marx. In France, radicals such as Félix Guattari redefined old Lacanian models of desire and subjectivity, which had often been tied to the communist project, bringing Nietzsche into conversation with Marx.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Falzon |first1=John |title=Communists Like Us |date=2017 |publisher=Apollo Books |isbn=978-1-74258-941-1 }}{{page needed|date=May 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Harrison |first1=Oliver |title=Revolutionary Subjectivity in Post-Marxist Thought: Laclau, Negri, Badiou |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-06333-9 }}{{page needed|date=May 2023}}</ref> In the Eastern Bloc, the ''Budapest School''<ref>{{Citation |last=Dorahy |first=J. F. |title=The Budapest School: Beyond Marxism |date=21 January 2019 |url=https://brill.com/display/title/54562 |work=The Budapest School |access-date=2023-06-21 |publisher=Brill |language=en |isbn=978-90-04-39598-5}}</ref> began reinterpreting Marx, building on the work of the Praxis School before them.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Heller |first1=Agnes |last2=Tormey |first2=Simon |date=1999 |title=Agnes Heller: Post-Marxism and the ethics of modernity |url=https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/interview/agnes-heller-post-marxism-and-the-ethics-of-modernity |journal=Radical Philosophy |language=en-GB |issue=94 |issn=0300-211X}}</ref> In West Germany, theorists reinterpreted Marx's works entirely from a Hegelian dialectical perspective.

In the UK, Stuart Hall<ref>{{Cite web |title=On the Front Lines of the Populism Wars |url=https://jacobin.com/2018/06/for-a-left-populism-mouffe-review |access-date=2023-05-15 |website=jacobin.com |language=en-US}}</ref> engaged with post-structuralist theorists while working for ''Marxism Today,'' especially in relation to race and identity.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Stuart |last2=Morley |first2=David |last3=Chen |first3=Kuan-Hsing |chapter=Post-marxism |title=Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies |date=1996 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-08803-9 |doi=10.4324/9780203993262 |s2cid=238049370 }}</ref> John Holloway began to forge a new path between Althusserian structural Marxism and instrumentalist theorists of monopoly capitalism. In the US, Michael Hardt collaborated with Antonio Negri to produce ''Empire'' at the turn of the century, widely recognised as a consolidation and re-affirmation of post-Marxism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Browning |first=Gary K. |date=June 2005 |title=A globalist ideology of post-Marxism? Hardt and Negri's Empire |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13698230500108876 |journal=Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy |language=en |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=193–208 |doi=10.1080/13698230500108876 |s2cid=143556108 |issn=1369-8230|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Harry Cleaver produced innovative readings of Capital, alongside Moishe Postone who reaffirmed Marx's central concepts.

Post-Marxism also has different connotations within radical feminist theory. The way Catharine MacKinnon uses the term post-Marxism is not based on post-structuralism. She says "feminism worthy of the name absorbs and moves beyond marxist methodology",<ref>{{Citation |last=Mackinnon |first=Catharine |title=Toward a Feminist Theory of the State |date=19 February 1998 |work=Feminisms |pages=351–357 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192892706.003.0060 |access-date=2024-03-19 |publisher=Oxford University PressNew York, NY |doi=10.1093/oso/9780192892706.003.0060 |isbn=978-0-19-289270-6|url-access=subscription }}</ref> meaning that Marxism is not to be left behind but built on.

Currently, figures in the US, UK, and Europe continue to produce work in the post-Marxist tradition, particularly Nancy Fraser, Alain Badiou, Jeremy Gilbert and Étienne Balibar. This theory is often very different from that produced by Laclau and Mouffe, and much of the Left has turned against the Post-Marxist turn.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2kqx0x4 |title=Reflections on Post-Marxism: Laclau and Mouffe's Project of Radical Democracy in the 21st Century |date=2022 |publisher=Bristol University Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctv2kqx0x4 |jstor=j.ctv2kqx0x4 |isbn=978-1-5292-2183-1 |edition=1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Colpani |first=Gianmaria |date=April 2022 |title=Two Theories of Hegemony: Stuart Hall and Ernesto Laclau in Conversation |journal=Political Theory |language=en |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=221–246 |doi=10.1177/00905917211019392 |s2cid=236367670 |issn=0090-5917|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Despite being born in Latin America and the Eastern Bloc, post-Marxism is largely produced by theorists of the Global North, as the following criticisms reveal. Aside from perhaps Spivak, there are no notable theorists of the Global South<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Corbridge |first=Stuart |date=1 May 1990 |title=Post-Marxism and development studies: Beyond the impasse |url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0305-750X%2890%2990014-O |journal=World Development |language=en |volume=18 |issue=5 |pages=623–639 |doi=10.1016/0305-750X(90)90014-O |issn=0305-750X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> who are within the post-Marxist tradition,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sanyal |first=Kalyan K. |date=March 1996 |title=Postmarxism and the Third World: A Critical Response to the Radical Democratic Agenda |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08935699608685481 |journal=Rethinking Marxism |language=en |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=126–133 |doi=10.1080/08935699608685481 |issn=0893-5696|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and the radical movements of the Global South largely remain within the 'Old Left' tradition.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Saravanamuttu |first=Johan |date=1995 |title=Post-Marxism: Implications for Political Theory and Practice |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41056902 |journal=Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=45–64 |jstor=41056902 |issn=0217-9520}}</ref> Several reasons relating to political geography and level of academisation are given as explanations. There is some debate however as to whether Cedric Robinson was a post-Marxist.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Haider |first=Asad |date=13 February 2017 |title=The Shadow of the Plantation |url=https://viewpointmag.com/2017/02/12/the-shadow-of-the-plantation/ |access-date=2023-08-09 |website=Viewpoint Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>

Despite this, the Zapatistas have been a large source of inspiration for many post-Marxists.<ref>{{Cite web |title=As should be clear to even the most casual observer on the left, the Chiapas rebellion has become a kind of paradigm for the p |url=http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/modernism/holloway.htm |access-date=2023-07-26 |website=www.columbia.edu}}</ref>

== Criticism == Post-Marxism has been criticised from both the left and the right wings of Marxism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=el-Ojeili |first=Chamsy |date=May 2010 |title=Post-Marxist Trajectories: Diagnosis, Criticism, Utopia |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-682X.2010.00330.x |journal=Sociological Inquiry |language=en |volume=80 |issue=2 |pages=261–282 |doi=10.1111/j.1475-682X.2010.00330.x|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Nick Thoburn has criticised Laclau's post-Marxism (and its relationship to Eurocommunism) as essentially a rightward shift to social democracy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thoburn |first1=Nicholas |title=Deleuze, Marx and Politics |date=2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-45783-0 }}{{page needed|date=May 2023}}</ref> Ernest Mandel<ref>{{Cite web |title=From Stalinism to Eurocommunism |url=https://www.versobooks.com/products/1067-from-stalinism-to-eurocommunism |access-date=2023-05-15 |website=Verso |language=en}}</ref> and Sivanandan<ref>{{Cite web |title=All That Melts into Air is Solid: The Hokum of New Times (Part 2) |url=https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/3083-all-that-melts-into-air-is-solid-the-hokum-of-new-times-part-2 |access-date=2023-05-15 |website=Verso |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author=AH |date=19 August 2022 |title=The Long Crisis of British Marxism in the Shadow of Thatcher |url=https://redfightback.org/the-long-crisis-of-british-marxism-in-the-shadow-of-thatcher/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221130013617/https://redfightback.org/the-long-crisis-of-british-marxism-in-the-shadow-of-thatcher/ |archive-date=2022-11-30 |website=Red Fightback |url-status=dead }}</ref> make this same point. Richard Wolff also claims that Laclau's formulation of post-Marxism is a step backward.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wolff |first1=Richard D. |last2=Cullenberg |first2=Stephen |date=1986 |title=Marxism and Post-Marxism |jstor=466496 |journal=Social Text |issue=15 |pages=126–135 |doi=10.2307/466496 }}</ref> Oliver Eagleton (son of Terry Eagleton) claims that Mouffe's 'radical democracy' has an inherent conservative nature.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Eagleton |first=Oliver |date=29 November 2022 |title=What Chantal Mouffe gets wrong |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2022/11/what-chantal-mouffe-gets-wrong |access-date=2023-05-15 |website=New Statesman |language=en-US}}</ref>

Other Marxists have criticised autonomist Marxism or post-''operaismo'', a form of post-Marxism, of having a theoretically weak understanding of value in capitalist economies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Critiquing Capitalism Today: New Ways to Read Marx |url=https://www.frederickharrypitts.com/critiquing-capitalism-today-new-ways-to-read-marx |access-date=2023-12-10 |website=Frederick Harry Pitts |language=en-US}}</ref> It has also been criticised by other Marxists for being anti-humanist / anti–Hegelian dialectical.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Going in the Wrong Direction – John Holloway |url=https://johnholloway.com.mx/2011/07/30/going-in-the-wrong-direction/ |access-date=2023-12-10 |language=es}}</ref>

Post-Marxism of all stripes has also been criticised for downplaying or ignoring the role of race, neocolonialism, and Eurocentrism.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schueller |first1=Malini Johar |title=DECOLONIZING GLOBAL THEORIES TODAY: Hardt and Negri, Agamben, Butler |journal=Interventions |date=July 2009 |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=235–254 |doi=10.1080/13698010903053303 |s2cid=142580442 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Amin |first=Samir |others=Topics: Globalization Imperialism Marxism Places: Global Syria Ukraine |date=1 November 2014 |title=Monthly Review {{!}} Contra Hardt and Negri |url=https://monthlyreview.org/2014/11/01/contra-hardt-and-negri/ |access-date=2023-05-15 |website=Monthly Review |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gray |first1=Neil |last2=Clare |first2=Nick |date=October 2022 |title=From autonomous to autonomist geographies |journal=Progress in Human Geography |language=en |volume=46 |issue=5 |pages=1185–1206 |doi=10.1177/03091325221114347 |issn=0309-1325|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Connel |first=Raewyn |date=2012 |title=The Poet of Autonomy: Antonio Negri as a Social Theorist |url=https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.2383/36905 |journal=Sociologica |issue=1/2012 |doi=10.2383/36905 |s2cid=143095498 |issn=1971-8853}}</ref>

Post-Marxism as a term is also seen as being too imprecise, often used as an insult<ref>{{Cite web |title=Open Marxism 1: Dialectics and History {{!}} libcom.org |url=https://libcom.org/article/open-marxism-1-dialectics-and-history |access-date=2023-12-26 |website=libcom.org |language=en}}</ref> or a straw man. Besides Laclau and Mouffe, very few Marxists describe themselves as post-Marxists, regardless of their own affinities with post-structuralist theories or their reinterpretation of Marx.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 March 2017 |title="Re-engagement with Marx" since the 1960s |url=https://marx200.org/en/marxism-think-one-two-many-marxes/re-engagement-marx-1960s |access-date=2023-12-26 |website=MARX 200 |language=en}}</ref> There is also much disagreement between post-Marxists on fundamental questions of strategy and philosophy (Hegel or Spinoza, for example); some forward a left-populism, others a complete rejection of organised politics, and others a new Leninist vanguard.

== People == {{Div col|colwidth=15em}} * Alain Badiou<ref>{{Cite web |date=20 May 2019 |title=Psychoanalysis in Post-Marxism: The Case of Alain Badiou – No Subject – Encyclopedia of Psychoanalysis – Encyclopedia of Lacanian Psychoanalysis |url=https://nosubject.com/Psychoanalysis_in_Post-Marxism:_The_Case_of_Alain_Badiou |access-date=2023-05-15 |website=No Subject – Encyclopedia of Psychoanalysis |language=en}}</ref> * Étienne Balibar<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=Post-Marxism After Althusser: A Critique of the Alternatives |url=https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/21 |publisher=University of Massachusetts Amherst |date=2009 |language=en |first=Ceren |last=Ozselcuk}}</ref> * Jodi Dean<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=Janell |title=Repoliticizing the Left |journal=The Minnesota Review |date=1 November 2013 |volume=2013 |issue=81 |pages=79–101 |doi=10.1215/00265667-2332174 |s2cid=144465252 }}</ref> * Gilles Deleuze<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gilbert |first=Jeremy |date=1 September 2009 |title=Deleuzian politics? A survey and some suggestions |url=https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/newformations/vol-2009-issue-68/abstract-8450/ |journal=New Formations |language=en-GB |volume=2009 |issue=68}}</ref> * Antony Easthope<ref>{{cite book | url=https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367351977 | doi=10.4324/9780367351977 | title=British Post-Structuralism | date=2019 | last1=Easthope | first1=Antony | isbn=978-0-367-35197-7 | s2cid=242893313 }}</ref> * Jeremy Gilbert<ref>{{Cite web |title=CV |url=https://www.jeremygilbert.org/cv |access-date=2023-05-15 |website=website |language=en}}</ref> * Mark Fisher<ref>url=https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.1790615</ref> * Nancy Fraser<ref>{{Cite book |chapter=Fraser, Recognition and Redistribution |doi=10.1057/9780230501522_8 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230501522_8 |title=Critical and Post-Critical Political Economy |year=2006 |last1=Browning |first1=Gary |last2=Kilmister |first2=Andrew |pages=149–168 |isbn=978-1-349-42765-9 }}</ref> * Félix Guattari<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peters |first1=Michael A |title=Poststructuralism and the Post-Marxist Critique of Knowledge Capitalism: A Personal Account |journal=Review of Contemporary Philosophy |date=2022 |volume=21 |pages=21–37 |id={{ProQuest|2727237244}} |doi=10.22381/RCP2120222 }}</ref> * Stuart Hall<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bowman |first=Paul |title=Post-Marxism Versus Cultural Studies: Theory, Politics and Intervention |date=2007 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-1762-3 |jstor=10.3366/j.ctt1r27t5 }}{{page needed|date=May 2023}}</ref> * Michael Hardt<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hardt |url=http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/modernism/hardt_negri.htm |access-date=2023-05-15 |website=www.columbia.edu}}</ref> * Agnes Heller<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/interview/agnes-heller-post-marxism-and-the-ethics-of-modernity |title=Agnes Heller: Post-Marxism and the ethics of modernity |journal=Radical Philosophy |date=1999 |issue=94 |last1=Heller |first1=Agnes |last2=Tormey |first2=Simon }}</ref> * John Holloway<ref>{{cite journal |last1=el-Ojeili |first1=Chamsy |title=Book Review: John Holloway, Hope in Hopeless Times |journal=Journal of Classical Sociology |date=22 December 2022 |pages=1468795X2211447 |doi=10.1177/1468795X221144725 |s2cid=255034329 }}</ref> * Fredric Jameson<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/english/theory/marxism/modules/jamesonideology.html |title=Introduction to Fredric Jameson, Module on Ideology}}</ref> * Ernesto Laclau<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Laclau |first1=Ernesto |author1-link=Ernesto Laclau |last2=Mouffe |first2=Chantal |author2-link=Chantal Mouffe |date=1987 |title=Post-Marxism without apologies |url=https://newleftreview.org/issues/i166/articles/ernesto-laclau-chantal-mouffe-post-marxism-without-apologies |journal=New Left Review|volume=2 |issue=I/166 |pages=79–106 |article-number=817 |doi=10.64590/yb0 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Acha |first=Omar |date=12 November 2019 |title=From Marxist to Post-Marxist Populism: Ernesto Laclau's Trajectory within the National Left and Beyond |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/28/1/article-p183_6.xml |journal=Historical Materialism |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=183–214 |doi=10.1163/1569206X-00001311 |s2cid=213293433 |issn=1465-4466|url-access=subscription }}</ref> * Chantal Mouffe<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mouffe |first=Chantal |author-link=Chantal Mouffe |date=June 1995 |title=Post-Marxism: Democracy and Identity |journal=Environment and Planning D: Society and Space |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=259–265 |doi=10.1068/d130259 |bibcode=1995EnPlD..13..259M |s2cid=144784412 }}</ref> * Nicos Mouzelis<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mouzelis |first=Nicos P. |date=1990 |title=Post-Marxist Alternatives |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-349-12978-2 |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-12978-2|isbn=978-0-333-57815-5 }}</ref> * Antonio Negri<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harrison |first1=Oliver |title=Revolutionary Subjectivity in Post-Marxist Thought: Laclau, Negri, Badiou |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-06333-9 }}{{page needed|date=May 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Browning |first1=Gary K. |title=A globalist ideology of post-Marxism? Hardt and Negri's Empire |journal=Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy |date=June 2005 |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=193–208 |doi=10.1080/13698230500108876 |s2cid=143556108 }}</ref> * Aletta Norval<ref>{{Cite web |title=Deconstructing Apartheid Discourse |url=https://www.versobooks.com/products/1540-deconstructing-apartheid-discourse |access-date=2023-05-25 |website=Verso |language=en}}</ref> * Moishe Postone<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/657915 | jstor=657915 | last1=Feenberg | first1=Andrew | title=Reviewed work: Time, Labor, and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx's Critical Theory, Moishe Postone | journal=Theory and Society | date=1996 | volume=25 | issue=4 | pages=607–611 }}</ref> * Jacques Rancière<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.4324/9780415249126-DD3595-1 |chapter=Rancière, Jacques (1940–) |title=Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy |year=2016 |last1=Davis |first1=Oliver |isbn=978-0-415-25069-6 }}</ref><ref>url=https://doi.org/10.5840/philtoday2020107352</ref> * Richard G. Smith<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Richard G |last2=Doel |first2=Marcus A |date=April 2001 |title=Baudrillard Unwound: The Duplicity of Post-Marxism and Deconstruction |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/d226t |journal=Environment and Planning D: Society and Space |language=en |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=137–159 |doi=10.1068/d226t |bibcode=2001EnPlD..19..137S |s2cid=147199071 |issn=0263-7758|url-access=subscription }}</ref> * Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (contested)<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/QRJ-D-17-00052/full/html |title=The complexity of Spivak's project: a Marxist interpretation|date=2018 |doi=10.1108/QRJ-D-17-00052 |last1=Scatamburlo-d'Annibale |first1=Valerie |last2=McLaren |first2=Peter |last3=Monzó |first3=Lilia |journal=Qualitative Research Journal |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=144–156 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> * Nick Thoburn<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gilbert |first=Jeremy |date=1 September 2009 |title=Deleuzian politics? A survey and some suggestions |url=https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/newformations/vol-2009-issue-68/abstract-8450/ |journal=New Formations |language=en-GB |volume=2009 |issue=68}}</ref> * Slavoj Žižek<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hennessy |first=James |date=9 June 2022 |title=Jordan Peterson and 'Kung Fu Panda': How Did Slavoj Žižek Go Mainstream? |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/jordan-peterson-and-kung-fu-panda-how-did-slavoj-zizek-go-mainstream/ |access-date=2023-05-24 |website=Vice |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Slavoj Zizek |url=https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745320717/slavoj-zizek |access-date=2023-05-24 |website=Pluto Press |language=en-US}}</ref> {{Div col end}}

== References == {{reflist|22em}}

== Further reading == * Badiou, Alain; Macey, D; Corcoran, S. (2015). ''The communist hypothesis''. London: Verso. * {{cite book |last1=Butler |first1=Judith |author1-link=Judith Butler |last2=Laclau |first2=Ernesto |author2-link=Ernesto Laclau |last3=Žižek |first3=Slavoj |author3-link=Slavoj Žižek |title=Contingency, Hegemony, Universality: Contemporary Dialogues on the Left |date=2000}} * Callinicos, A., Kouvélakis, E. and Pradella, L. (2021). ''Routledge Handbook of Marxism and Post-Marxism''. New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group. * Dean, J. (2018). ''Communist Horizon.'' Verso. * {{cite book |last=Derrida |first=Jacques |author-link=Jacques Derrida |title=Specters of Marx |date=1993}} * Fisher, M. (2009). ''Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?'' Winchester: Zero Books. * {{cite book |last=Galfarsoro |first=Imanol |date=2012 |chapter=(Post)Marxismoa, kultura eta eragiletasuna: Ibilbide historiko labur bat |language=eu |trans-chapter=(Post) Marxism, Culture and Effectiveness: A Brief Historical Journey |editor-first=Alaitz |editor-last=Aizpuru |title=Euskal Herriko pentsamenduaren gida |trans-title=A guide to thinking in the Basque Country |location=Bilbo |publisher=UEU |isbn=978-84-8438-435-9}} * {{cite book |last1=Hardt |first1=Michael |author-link1=Michael Hardt |last2=Negri |first2=Antonio |author-link2=Antonio Negri |title=Empire |date=2000}} Harvard. * Holloway, J. (2019). ''Change the world without taking power : the meaning of revolution today''. London Pluto Press. * {{cite book |last1=Laclau |first1=Ernesto |author-link1=Ernesto Laclau |last2=Mouffe |first2=Chantal |author-link2=Chantal Mouffe |title=Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics |date=1985}} * {{cite book |last=Sim |first=Stuart |date=2002 |title=Post-Marxism: An Intellectual History |publisher=Routledge |series=Routledge studies in social and political thought |location=New York; London |isbn=0-203-18616-8}} * Thoburn, Nick (2003). ''Deleuze, Marx, and Politics''. Routledge * {{cite book |last1=Tormey |first1=Simon |last2=Townshend |first2=Jules |date=2006 |title=Key Thinkers from Critical Theory to Post-Marxism |publisher=Pine Forge Press}} * {{cite book |last=Žižek |first=Slavoj |author-link=Slavoj Žižek |title=The Sublime Object of Ideology |date=1989}}

== External links == {{wikiquote}} * Kurz, Robert (1995). [http://www.trend.infopartisan.net/trd1103/t101103.html ''Postmarxismus und Arbeitsfetisch'']. ''Krisis''. No. 17 {{in lang|de}}, * Marchart, Oliver (1998). [https://web.archive.org/web/20160521095526/http://sammelpunkt.philo.at:8080/65/1/postm.htm ''Beantwortung der Frage: Was heißt Post-Marxismus?'']. Eintrag für Vladimir Malachov, Vadim Filatov: ''Sovremennaja zapadnaja filosofia'', Moscow {{in lang|de}}.

Category:Critical theory Category:Eponymous political ideologies Category:Marxist schools of thought Category:Social theories