Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom

some of sociology, and we want to devote a lot of time to reading
Capital. But we soon come up against an obstacle: Marx is not
included in our degree courses, and the pressures of the degree
leave us little time for anything else.
Together with the other people of our town, we seize control
of the water supply and throw out the private company that has
been given a concession by the state. The state sends in the army
to repress our action, but the solidarity of the townspeople is so
great that we force the army out after various days of struggle.
We take all our decisions in popular assemblies involving all
those who are participating in the struggle.1
In each of these cases, there is an outward push towards
self-determination. In each case, the push comes up against
obstacles: lack of money, armed force, lack of control over the
necessary ingredients. There is an outward flow of doing towards
self-determination which comes up against the various manifestations
of a totality that we do not control. We try to find ways
of flowing around or moving beyond the obstacles.
z. DOING REVERSES THE FLOW OF DETERMINATION.
We have seen already what abstraction does to doing. I enjoy
baking cakes and decide to make a living by selling them. Soon
I find that the market is measuring my cakes, determining the
price at which I can sell them and therefore determining the
speed at which I must work in order to survive. At some point,
there is a change in the flow of determination. At the beginning, I
determine my activity; after some time, I realise that my activity is
being determined by an alien force over which I have no control.
I enjoy reading Hegel and Marx and Bloch and Adorno. I
decide to study philosophy at the university. Soon I find that
these authors are generally not included in philosophy degrees,
but that, even if they are, I have to read them in a certain way
and at a certain rhythm. My studying is measured by exams,
which determine the content and the speed at which I must
work in order to pass. Here too, there is a reversal in the flow
of determination: the activity which I at first determine becomes
converted into a labour imposed by an alien force.
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