[17][18] Post-Marxism is a wide category not well-defined, containing the work of Laclau and Mouffe[19][20] on the one hand, and some strands of autonomism and open Marxism,[21] post-structuralism,[22][23] cultural studies,[24] ex-Marxists[25] and Deleuzian-inspired[26] 'politics of difference'[27][28] on the other.
[38] 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.
[40] 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.
Simultaneously, revolutionaries in Italy, known as Operaismo, and later autonomists,[43] began to theorise against the conservative Italian Communist Party,[44] 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.
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.
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.
[74] 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.