Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom

impossible) to separate the doing of on p I", on from th ' doing
of others. If the movement of thi social flow of doing is l10t
consciously shaped, then it will always app ar as on l' t l' l'lll1l
constraint: an external constraint, usually expr 'ss I ill til . (01'111
of money, that makes a mockery of our 'free el f- I 't 'J'l11ill llioll',
The only real self-determination would be th io l 'O llt 1'01 of'
the social flow of doing and, since the social fl w of loillg L
a global flow, this necessarily means world communism, th It
is, a form of organisation in which the people of th - wOl'ld
would actively determine the flow of doing in the worlel, POI' till'
moment, this is hard even to imagine. It is a question now not of
complete self-determination but a constant drive towards s -If
determination, a self-determination that can only be unci rstood
as a social process.
To speak of the cracks as pushes towards self-determinatioJ1
would make little sense if that were not reflected in their int rnol
organisation. The crack is in the first place a break with capitalist
social relations. There is no model to be applied, but ther is
a fundamental principle of asymmetry in relation to capitalist
social relations. If capital is the negation of self-determination,
then the push towards self-determination or autonomy must
be fundamentally different in its forms of organisation. If ou I'
struggle is not asymmetrical to capital in its forms, then it simply
reproduces capitalist social relations, whatever its content.3
Cracks, then, are explorations in asymmetry, explorations in
the anti-politics of dignity,4 Dignity is the immediate affirmation
of negated subjectivity, the assertion, against a world that treats
us as objects and denies our capacity to determine our own
lives, that we are subjects capable and worthy of deciding for
ourselves. Dignity in this sense means not only the assertion of
our own dignity but also implies the recognition of the dignity of
others. Central to the crack is the idea that mutual recognition
does not have to wait till the end of history, but that W ' '11l
already make a start on it now, by combating constantly t1w
negation of our mutual recognition as persons. Where apitl1lisl11
treats people as means to an end, or as abstractions, or as Al'OlIPS
which can be labelled, the push towards mutual I' ogni(ioll
means the refusal to accept sexism, racism, ag ism (lnd :til
those other practices which treat people not as p opl ' 1)(11' (IS
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