Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom

The council is not only something that ari 's in I' 'voitHiollnry
ilu:ltions. The sort of relationship that it i at th ' bns of th '
v()ullcil is profoundly rooted in everyday stru rgl " rhnl is to say,
ill 'veryday life. We go out for a meal with a rroup of' fl'i 'ntis
.Illd we take the decision on where to go th rough a dis 'ussioll
I hat aims to respect everyone's preferences. This sort of d 'cisioll
Illaking is just an integral part of ordinary life. We think of il ns
friendship or comradeship. Comradeship is of cour a 'Oil ' 'pt
with deep and strong roots in the whole communist, '0 'inlisl ,
anarchist and anti-capitalist tradition: a pivotal concept, y 't Oil '
t hat is often subordinated or lost sight of. In accounts of truggl 'S
ngainst capital, comradeship is often given a subordinate pia ' '.
Thus, one might say, 'In the great miners' strike in Britain, th '
miners struggled against the closure of the pits and in the pro S5
a great sense of comradeship was built up.' Comradeship, in
other words, is seen as a by-product of the struggle. But, if
you listen to the participants, the emphasis is often different:
what they stress as the most important part of the experience is
the sense of comradeship and community that was established
among the strikers, and its loss as the strike was broken and the
communities divided. Indeed, any strike generates new relations
of friendship and solidarity and gives the strikers the practical
experience of a world without bosses: the creation of a world
of different social relations goes beyond what was foreseen at
the outbreak of the conflict.
The centrality of the quality of social relationships
(comradeship, in other words) is not new, but in recent years it
has acquired a new recognition. Attention has shifted from the
instrumental goal of taking power to the present creation or
strengthening of social relations incompatible with capitalism.
Dignity has become a central concept. 'Amorosity' (amorosidad)
is another word sometimes used to express the relations being
created in these struggles. The relations generated are relations
of love that give the movement force and permit the participant
to overcome and respect their disagreements. This is not
easy, as one piquetero points out: 'It is hard. Just imagine in
a neighbourhood in La Matanza, hard men who have to go
through violent situations with a high level of machismo, it
is not easy to talk of amorosity, or to practise it' (Sitrin 2005:
41