Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom

and racist habits reappear. Within our horizontal assemblies,
patterns of power emerge which are all the more disturbing
for not being regulated or perhaps even recognised. Those who
are most articulate find ways of imposing their will. In large
assemblies, it is often the groups with experience of political
militancy in the old left parties that are able to impose their line.
Within our areas of shared responsibility, the work continues
to fall on just a few people.26 Old patterns reassert themselves:
We find ourselves falling back into the same practices. It seems to be a
problem that springs from our inner lives ... It's as if there's an enduring
memory of verticality of representation, of delegation, that plays out
almost unconsciously. No matter how much we say we're autonomous,
there always comes a point where we're waiting for someone else to
act, for someone else to speak, or waiting for acceptance by another.27
New social relations are not created by decree: even groups that
put at the top of their agenda the creation of different social
relations between the members sometimes finish up with bitter
quarrels and a strong sense of disillusionment. Sometimes the
intensity of the effort to create something different is reflected
in the intense bitterness of the animosities created.
Our cracks are not pure cracks, our dignities are not pure
dignities. We try to break with capitalist society, but our break
still bears its birthmarks. However much we try to do something
different, the contradictions of capitalism reproduce themselves
within our revolt. We are not pure subjects, however rebellious
we might be. The cracks, both as spaces of liberation and as
painful ruptures, run inside us too.
These problems are probably inevitable. The purpose of the
cracks is not to create a community of saints but to establish
a different form of relations between people. They cannot be
based on purity, or on Puritanism. Any attempt to base them on
an idea of self-sacrifice is disastrous: if they are not attractive
spaces/moments, if they do not exert a magnetic attraction,
they can never become cracks, for they will not spread.28 To
some extent, these problems can be dealt with by organisational
means. Many, or perhaps most, alternative or autonomous
groups have experimented with different forms of organisation
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