Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom

1" (11,1" 111 ill gi vi ng 'xci usive emphasis to territoriality simply
1H'l llllSl' it mny have the effect of excluding the many, many
p,'opl ' who are 'Hdent rebels but who do not have any strong
Ilid s with a territory that is on the brink of rebellion. Rebel­
I iOIlSIl 'ss then can easily become diverted into solidarity: since
MlIlli ·h or Edinburgh or New York or wherever I happen to
live is not about to declare itself an autonomous, anti-capitalist
'i t y, I shall go and give my support to those territories where
I' X 'iring things are happening, I shall go and spend three months
ill a Zapatista community. This may well be a real help to the
/,apatistas and may help to construct an international movement,
hilt, it evades the central question of how we assume, wherever
W' live, the responsibility of breaking with capital here and now.
There is no reason, however, why we should think of cracks
only in terms of spatial ruptures. The struggle to de-commodify
n certa in type of activity and subject it to popular control can be
rhought of in similar terms: here too there is a struggle to remove
:111 area of activity from the workings of capitalism and organise
it along different lines. Thus, for example, the Coordinadora
de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida (Coordinator of the Defence
of Water and Life) which fought to stop the privatisation of
water in Cochabamba claimed that they had opened 'a crack
in the neoliberal model ruling in Latin America and the world'l
(C 'cerra 2004: 19). There are important struggles going on all
ov I' the world to remove areas such as water, natural resources,
·tiucation, health care, communication, software2 and music
from the workings of capitalism. All of these can be seen as
Mrempts to create no-go areas, to cut off an area and put up
signs all around it saying 'capital, keep out!'3 These struggles
arise in many forms: as popular revolts against the privatisation
of wa ter (as in Cochabamba), as student strikes against the
introduction of fees or the privatisation of universities (as in
(;1" c , Mexico City, Buenos Aires), as the organisation of
:dtcrnative radio stations which seek to establish a different
typ ' of communication (crucial in the uprising in Oaxaca, but
of growing importance all over the world), as the creation of
sch()ols as centres for learning dignity and rebellion (by the MST
ill Brn,il or th Zapatistas in Chiapas), as the installation of
IWoPIt" s kitch ns (allas papulares) in the streets of Buenos Aires,
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