The Proletariat Reloaded

The idea of the proletariat has been in decline in political theory in the last few decades, but resurgent in practice for brief periods when events inspire collective political action. Against the relegation of the proletariat seen in post-Marxist and even some anarchist thought, Alain Badiou’s theory of the subject and event has helped to resurrect the proletariat, in theory at least. At the same time, through postanarchist theory we can see a number of points of convergence between Badiou’s thought and poststructuralist thought, ultimately leading us to a post-event theory which is an antidote to the schism between Marxian and anarchist approaches. It is an approach which seeks to dispense with the self-obsessive theorising which has seen contemporary political movements dilute their meaning, and instead focuses minds on the truth of contemporary events. Jon Mazzalini carefully reconstructs the development of Badiou’s thought and thus makes the mature Badiou — certainly one of the most influential living philosophers — wholly comprehensible. Still more importantly, Mazzalini offers a highly original reading of Badiou, contending that his work unwittingly shares much ground with postanarchism, and in particular with the writings of Saul Newman. This is a fascinating approach, which is of great interest both to those who are new to Badiou or postanarchism, and to those who are more familiar with either system of thought. Mazzalini convincingly and with great clarity places the whole of his own argument in the context of progressive struggles of the early twenty-first century, and thus makes this book of real relevance to lived political experiences.