Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom

In the first case, it is clearly value at work. Value, the peculiar
social synthesis of capitalism, that which holds capitalist society
together, imposes itself on the cake-baker through the operation
of the market. In the second case, that of activities not directly
subject to the market, like studying philosophy, the same social
synthesis is imposed ever more directly through processes of
constant measurement that mimic the operation of the market.
'rhe (direct or indirect) imposition of abstract labour is supported
where necessary by overt force, as in the case of the community
garden or the water supply of our earlier examples. In all cases,
there is a subordination (or attempted subordination) of our
activity to the rules and rhythms of a social totality that neither
we nor anyone else controls.
Abstraction of doing into labour and socialisation are indistinguishable
under capitalism. Abstraction is the formation of
a social cohesion or social synthesis in such a way that the flow
of determination is turned against us. As our activity becomes
socialised, we lose control over it and the imposition of an
alien control becomes stronger. Abstraction-socialisation is the
reversal of the flow of determination. The formation of the social
totality is at the same time the loss of social determination. No
adding of formally democratic structures can alter this fact.
The struggle of doing is the struggle to maintain the momentum
of the flow of determination.
3. THE TOTALITY CANNOT BE SEIZED FROM ABOVE.
The clash of the flow and counter-flow of determination
confronts us with a dilemma. The pushing from below confronts
obstacles that express the force of the social totality. This
very confrontation invites us to make a leap, to try to control
that totality.
This is the standpoint of traditional Marxism. The traditional
communist argument presents the alternative to capitalism not as
breaking the social synthesis but as constructing an alternative
social synthesis. One sort of totality must be replaced by another,
based of course not on money and capital, but on popular
planning. The struggle concentrates on the overthrow of one
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