Overview

Marxism and Social Movements is the first sustained engagement between social movement theory and Marxist approaches to collective action. The chapters collected here, by leading figures in both fields, discuss the potential for a Marxist theory of social movements; explore the developmental processes and political tensions within movements; set the question in a long historical perspective; and analyse contemporary movements against neo-liberalism and austerity. Exploring struggles on six continents over 150 years, this collection shows the power of Marxist analysis in relation not only to class politics, labour movements and revolutions but also anti-colonial and anti-racist struggles, community activism and environmental justice, indigenous struggles and anti-austerity protest. It sets a new agenda both for Marxist theory and for movement research.

Colin Barker is honorary lecturer in sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Laurence Cox, PhD (1999, Trinity College Dublin), co-directs the MA in Community Education, Equality, and Social Activism at Maynooth.

John Krinsky, PhD (2002, Columbia University), is associate professor of political science at The City College of New York.

Alf Gunvald Nilsen, PhD (2006, Bergen) is associate professor of sociology at the University of Bergen.