Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom

or - and this amounts to the same thing - as subjects reduced
to the status of mere abstractions.
A political organisation which focuses its action upon the state
inevitably reproduces these characteristics of the state as a form
of relations. To gain influence within the state or to capture what
appears to be control over the state, the organisation must adopt
those forms of behaving and thinking which are characteristic
of the state. Thus, political parties, however left-wing or indeed
'revolutionary', are characterised by hierarchical structures and
tend to adopt certain forms of language and behaviour which
dovetail with those of the state. The external relation to society
is reproduced in the concept of the 'masses' - a quantity of
undifferentiated, abstract atoms, with limited capacities and in
need of leadership.
These left-wing parties may well be anti-capitalist in their
intentions, but in their forms of organisation and action they tend
to reproduce the objectification of the person which is the core of
capitalist social relations. This is not a politics of dignity, because
it does not start out from the recognition of the creative power
of the oppressed subject. On the other hand, the commitment
to radical change is often very genuine. This commitment is
understood as the struggle for the liberation of the people - the
'people' being seen as an external other. Revolution through the
eyes of the state or a state-centred organisation can only be a
revolution on behalf of others, for the benefit of the people, not
a revolution by the people themselves. This is not a politics of
dignity, but a politics of poverty, not a politics of dialogue, but
a politics of monologue (as reflected, for example, in the length
of the speeches of political leaders). people are understood not
as doers, but as victimsY poor people.
The attractiveness of this conception should not be underestimated.
It starts from the genuine perception of a world
of terrible, appalling poverty and humiliation and sets out to
resolve this problem by constructing a revolution on behalf of the
victims of capitalism, for which the appropriate organisational
form is certainly the state. There is no doubt that, even within the
world capitalist system, much can be done to allevia_te poverty
and its effects. A headline in this morning's paper18 tells me that
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