Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom

We are ordinary people: If we think we are special, distinct
from the masses who are happily integrated into the capitalist
system, we immediately exclude the possibility of radical change.
The contrary is true: to be revolutionary is the most ordinary
thing in the world, it is simply part of living in capitalist society.
We all do, and we all do against labour. In one way or another,
we push against the determination of our lives by forces we do
not control, or at least dream of doing so, or regret not doing
so. If revolution is the revolt of doing against labour, then the
issue is not to bring revolutionary consciousness to the masses,
but to develop the sensitivity to recognise the revolts that exist
everywhere, and to find ways of touching them, resonating with
them, drawing them out, ways of participating in the thawing
and confluence of that which is frozen.
Our strength lies in our ordinariness. Those groups that
think that having a pure dogma and perhaps good weapons
and military discipline is the best self-defence could not be more
mistaken. The best defence (whether we are a guerrilla group
or a social centre in a squatted building) is to blend in with our
neighbours: not just as intelligent tactics, but because the mutual
resonance of ordinary rebelliousnesses is the only possible basis
for a communising revolution.
Do it ourselves:5 This is perhaps the core of the revolt of
doing against labour. We assume our own responsibility here
and now and do it ourselves. It makes little sense to blame
our political leaders as they take us into war or promote the
capitalist progress that is destroying life on earth: if there is to
be any blame, we should blame ourselves for thinking of them
as our leaders or representatives. Out with the lot of them! iQue
se vayan todos! We are the only ones that can now stop human
self-annihilation: the responsibility is ours. This has long been
the argument of radical ecological movements, for example: it
is up to us to live in a different way, to change our ecological
footprint, to develop a different relationship with the other
forms of life. Certainly this pushing-beyond to a different way
of living must be understood not just as personal choice but as
a pushing-against the capitalist organisation of our activity that
is destroying the world (as being anti-capitalist, in other words),
but the central point is crucial: anti-capitalism is assuming our
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