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 that is an antidote to the schism between Marxian and anarchist approaches. It is an approach that seeks to dispense with the self-obsessive theorising which has seen contemporary political movements dilute