Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom

y condemning reformism, by using l ang uag that only the
initiated understand, by the use of violen c in ., w'y that
alienates many people.14 Rather than creating shot") divisions
(between the guerrilla leader and the housewi f a Ion on a
Saturday night, for example), we need to find ways of IWlking
visible and strengthening these lines of contin u i ty tha t ar'
often so submerged. This is the point of talking of 1"[1 'ks: 1'0
understand our multiple rebellions and alternative I' a ions ns
being connected by invisible or almost-invisible (and ra pid ly
shifting) fault lines in society.
The notion of the crack, unlike Bey's idea of the TAZ, k . 'J1s
alive the perspective of a total transformation of society. Whil .
each rebellion has its own validity and requires no justifi ation
in terms of its contribution to the future Revolution, it remains
true that the existence of capitalism is a constant attack on
the possibility of determining our own lives. Although a crack
should not be seen as a means to an end, there is always an
insufficiency about it, an incompleteness, a restlessness. A cracl
is not a step on the path to Revolution, but it is an opening
outwards. It is a lighthouse of dignity shining into a dark night,
a radio transmitter broadcasting rebellion to who knows whom.
It is never entirely closed, even when it is violently suppressed.
The Paris Commune lives on, despite the slaughter of so many
of its participants: an inspiration, an unredeemed debt. 1968
lives on too, a taste of freedom that becomes a craving. So many
past struggles that are not past, but hang in the air, vibrations
of unfulfilled hopes, promises of a possible future. So many
unfinished experiments in what the world could be.
There is a drive outwards from these cracks. They are centr S
of transgression, radiating waves of rebellion, not according to
some pre-determined model (for these do not work) but always
experimentally, creatively. Our cracks are not self-conta in ·d
spaces but rebellions that recognise one another, feel affi nil'i 'S,
reach out for each other. The need to get rid of capitalism, th '
need for a lasting and radical transformation of society is more
urgent than ever, but the only way of achieving this is through
the recognition, creation, expansion and multiplication h 'I"
and now of all sorts of cracks in the structure of domination.
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