This Spanish-language edition of Maurizio Atzeni’s study brings renewed attention to a now well-established contribution to the study of labour conflict and workers’ collective action. Based on his doctoral research, the book examines mobilisation processes among workers at the Fiat and Renault automotive plants in Córdoba during the late 1990s, a period marked by the consolidation of neoliberal restructuring in Argentina. Its translation by Eduvim, in the very region of Cordoba where the fieldwork was conducted, is particularly welcome, not only for accessibility but also for its continued relevance to debates on labour, organisation, and resistance.
The central concern guiding the book is deceptively simple: under what conditions do workers mobilise? Atzeni approaches this question through a revision of mobilisation theories from a Marxist industrial relations framework that places emphasis on the labour process and the structural contradictions inherent in capitalist production.
The volume is organised into five chapters, followed by a conclusion and a methodological appendix. The opening chapter surveys key theoretical approaches to the study of labour conflict. The second chapter offers a critical engagement with John Kelly’s mobilisation theory, particularly its emphasis on perceived injustice as a trigger for collective action. From this critique, Atzeni develops his own analytical framework, which rests on three interrelated premises: the rejection of individualist and subjectivist explanations, a return to the objective dynamics of the labour process and the centrality of solidarity rooted in cooperation. The third chapter situates the case studies within their historical context, drawing extensively on workers’ testimonies. The fourth chapter provides a comparative analysis of the two plants, distinguishing between what the author describes as a ‘spontaneous takeover’ at Fiat and a ‘union-led takeover’ at Renault. The fifth chapter offers a detailed reconstruction of the conflict at Fiat, before the conclusion draws together the broader implications of the study, defining collective action as a key process in the constitution of working-class power.
One of the book’s most significant contributions lies in its insistence on the workplace as the primary site of analysis. In contrast to approaches that privilege institutional arenas or formal union activity, Atzeni directs attention to the shop floor, where the contradictions between capital and labour are most immediately experienced. It is here that surplus value is produced, but also where forms of interaction among workers may give rise to collective organisation capable of contesting managerial authority.
While Argentina has a tradition of workplace-centred research (linked to the history of shop-floor unionism), this perspective has not predominated in labour studies more broadly. Atzeni’s work therefore intervenes in a field where workplace struggles, particularly those led by rank-and-file workers outside or even against union leadership, are often underrepresented both in academic analysis and official statistics. By focusing on these dynamics, the book illuminates forms of mobilisation that are frequently obscured, while also offering a corrective to accounts that equate collective action exclusively with institutionalised union activity.
The timing of the research further enhances its analytical value. The empirical focus on the 1990s situates the study within a period when dominant narratives in Argentina often portrayed factories as declining or marginal spaces of struggle, with attention shifting instead to forms of protest outside the workplace. Atzeni’s findings challenge this view by documenting significant episodes of resistance within industrial settings, particularly in response to labour flexibilisation policies implemented during Menem’s administration. At the same time, the research emerged at a moment when broader claims about the ‘end of work’ and the declining centrality of the working class were losing traction. In this sense, the book can be read as part of a broader reorientation in labour studies that gained momentum after the 2001 crisis, reaffirming the continued relevance of working-class analysis.
A second notable strength is the book’s methodological approach, particularly its reliance on in-depth interviews conducted with workers in the early 2000s. These testimonies are not treated merely as illustrative material but play a constitutive role in shaping the analysis. They inform the formulation of research questions, guide the identification of key dimensions of conflict and provide insight into the internal dynamics of mobilisation. The inclusion of an appendix featuring an extended interview excerpt is especially valuable, offering readers rare access to the lived experience of workplace struggle and to a setting that is typically difficult to access for researchers.
Through these accounts, workers themselves articulate key elements of the analysis, including the role of union leadership, the legacy of the last military dictatorship and the broader socio-political context in which the conflicts unfolded. This dialogical engagement between empirical material and theoretical reflection strengthens the book’s contribution, allowing it to move beyond descriptive narrative towards a more grounded explanation of collective action.
A third important feature is the author’s effort to extend the analysis beyond the specificity of the cases studied. This is evident, first, in the sustained engagement with theoretical debates, particularly the critique of Kelly’s mobilisation theory. Atzeni’s rejection of ‘injustice’ as a primary explanatory factor rests on the view that it privileges subjective perceptions at the expense of structural conditions. Instead, he advances an account centred on the objective contradictions of the labour process and the solidaristic relations generated through cooperation. Second, the book consistently situates the case studies within a broader historical framework, demonstrating how localised conflicts are shaped by wider economic and political transformations.
The book also raises questions that invite further discussion. One concerns the distinction drawn between ‘non-activated’ and ‘activated’ solidarity, which may sit uneasily with the argument that solidarity is an inherent product of the cooperative nature of capitalist production. By focusing attention on the processual character of solidarity, it becomes possible to say that solidarity and injustice could be understood as complementary dimensions of mobilisation processes, with perceptions of injustice contributing to the activation of solidaristic ties. Even recognising the centrality of the contradictions inherent in the labour process, I also argue that it is important to incorporate political forms of organization into explanations of workers’ mobilisation. A ‘sense of injustice’ may provide further insight into processes of solidarity-building and add an additional layer of complexity to these explanations.
Finally, the book invites reflection on the new challenges arising from the current labour crisis and the proliferation of fragmented and decentralised forms of work – such as platform labour, subcontracting and remote employment – for working-class mobilisation. While the cooperative dimension of labour persists, the workplace as a privileged site of solidarity derived from cooperative production is called into question in some cases. In this regard, Atzeni’s research challenges us to continue reflecting on the conditions of workers’ mobilisation when the cooperative dimension of the labour process – as a force for building solidarity – is weakened.
In sum, Acción colectiva, movilización y solidaridad en la Fiat y Renault de Córdoba remains a significant and timely contribution to the study of labour and collective action. Its republication in Spanish broadens its accessibility and reinforces its relevance for contemporary debates. By foregrounding the labour process and the workplace, and by grounding its analysis in rich empirical material, the book offers a compelling framework for understanding workers’ mobilisation. At the same time, it opens productive avenues for further theoretical and empirical inquiry into the changing dynamics of labour conflict in Latin America and beyond.
