Situationist International was started in 1957 to oppose the commodification of the worker, and to inspire in the proletariat the will to step out of the cycle of manufactured life. It only lasted officially until 1972, yet the ideals are still prevalent among the new left.

While it lasted, it was an intellectual and highly imaginative student movement with strong Marxist influences, and located primarily in France. What made it distinct from other Marxist movements was its equilateral critique on Communism, which it declared was "state capitalism".