Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom

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Cracks are explorations in
an anti-politics of dignity.
:1':1 'ks are explorations-creations of a world that does not yet
t'xisl'. W walk over the threshold into a counter-world in which
t'xploration is indistinguishable from creation: the only paths
nr ' those which we make by walking.!
What is important in the crack or counter-world is not the
what but the how: 'no, we shall do not what money bids us
do , we shall do what we consider necessary or desirable.' The
'wh:lt' in both cases is without content, the important thing
is I'he way in which the decision is taken, whether as external
illlposition or constraint, or as the attempt to decide for ourselves
wh:1t we should do. The crack is simply a push towards self­
(it-t 'rlllination. This obviously precludes a pre-determination
of I'h contents of the cracks, since the whole point is that the
pcople involved determine the contents. The detailed description
of utopias may be stimulating, but, if taken seriously as a model
for how society should be organised, they immediately become
opprcssive.2 Perhaps the most that we can say about the contents
of I h cracks is what can be gleaned from the struggles that
:llrt':1 Iy exist and, as we have seen, these struggles cover a huge
rn JIg . of clifferent activities.
Ib th r than talk of the contents of the cracks, we should focus
Oil I h • how. In general terms, the content is simply an empty
,'0111 'nt to be filled in a certain way: by self-determination. But
willi I do '$ self-cletermination mean and how is it organised?
SOll1e of the examples mentioned (reading a book in the park,
/',l Ill1g 10 gHden in the allotment) point us towards individual
I (,II 1il-1l'l"Il1illation ('freedom' in a liberal sense). This experience
III Illdividlld 'hoice should not be dismissed lightly, but it is
, 1" 11 1' Ihlll il docs not take us very far, simply because whatever
WI' .III iN P" I"( Or :1 s()(;ial flow of doing in which it is difficult (or
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