Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom

7. On the present force of the unredeemed past, see Walter Benjamin, especially
his 'Theses on the Philosophy of History' (194011969: 253f£.). On the
importance of memory, see also Tischler (2005a) and Matamoros (2005).
8. From the poem, Axion Esti, by Odysseus Ely tis (1959/1974: 42); quoted
by Memos (2009: 14).
9. See Bloch (1959/1986).
10. On the continuing importance of the concept of repression in the context
of present debates, that is, in spite of the structuralist and post-structuralist
attacks on the concept, see Kastner (2006).
THESIS 24
1. See Postone (1996: 144): The distinction 'does not refer to two different
sorts of labour, but to two aspects of the same labour in commodities'. And
even stronger, Marx in the 'Results of the Immediate Process of Production'
(1867/1990: 991) says 'Even though we have considered the process of
production from two distinct points of view: (1) as labour process, (2)
as valorisation process, it is nevertheless implicit that the labour process
is single and indivisible.' And yet revolution is precisely the division of
this indivisible union, the emancipation of the labour process from the
valorisation process, of doing from abstract labour.
2. See, for example, Postone who treats the relationship of abstract to useful
labour in terms of the question of productivity (1996: 287-91).
3. For a very different view, see Negri (2003: 56): 'within the totalitarian real
subsumption of society in capital, this relative independence [of use value 1
is no longer conceivable.'
4. See Federici (2004: 9), reflecting on her experience of living in Nigeria: 'I
also realised how limited is the victory that the capitalist work-discipline
has won on this planet, and how many people still see their lives in ways
radically antagonistic to the requirements of capitalist production.'
5. For a different understanding, see De Angelis (2007).
6. On difference and contradiction, see Bonnet (2009).
7. In general, we can say of Marx that the relation between form and content
is an ecstatic relation: the form contains and does not contain the content.
The content stands out-and-beyond the form, overflows.
THESIS 25
1. Frustration refers to the contradiction between what we do and what we
could do, between our actuality and our potential. But it is crucial that this
contradiction be understood as living antagonism. To divorce contradiction
from antagonism, as Postone (1996: 34, for example) does, is to fall into
the logic of the traditional Marxism that he is criticising.
2. No wonder the Marxist tradition preferred to forget Marx!
3. That is, in the years around 1968, in very many parts of the world.
4. A theme developed particularly by the anarchist tradition.
5. For a helpful discussion of the crisis of labour from different points of view,
see Exner et al. (2005).
6. This book aspires to be part of the process of asking.
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