Holloway - Crack Capitalism.pdf - Libcom

later, but if a whole series of factory occupations take place, then
the experience acquires a new dimension. We light a match: that
gives light and heat, but if a spark flies and a whole forest catches
fire, then the flame acquires a different meaning. I refuse to go to
work and instead sit in a park reading a book: this is a pleasure
that requires no justification; but if everyone else decides to do
the same thing, then capitalism will collapse.
The validity of a rupture does not depend on the future,
but being part of a movement can transform its significance.
We throw a stone at the sheet of ice that covers the lake of
possibility. The stone makes a hole in the ice, but the ice is thick,
the day is cold and soon it freezes over again. We are left with
the inspiring memory of something beautiful, we have caught
a glimpse of a possible future. We throw another stone, and
this time not only do we make a hole, but cracks shoot out in
different directions, some of them connecting up with the cracks
that radiate outwards from the hole made by a stone thrown by
someone else. If the ice is to be broken completely, then that is
the only way it can happen: by lots of people throwing stones
and by the shooting out of cracks that sometimes connect.
Revolt generates shock waves, expanding waves of antagonism.
The cracks that result are never straight, and their movement is
rarely predictable. They run along more or less invisible fault
lines, weaknesses in the structure of the ice. There is something
about the way that society is organised that means that there are
certain lines of weakness or particular fragility. The subjection of
our daily activity to the rule of money (capital), means that there
is a frustration that runs through our daily lives, an antagonism
that takes many different forms and exists as a multiplicity of
interconnected fault lines. This is the network of fault lines
that we want to touch, the cracks and potential cracks that we
want to open.
Look at a crack in the wall. At one end it is clearly visible,
at the other end it is so fine, so tiny that we have to strain our
eyes to see where it ends. But the crack extends and widens
along that fine line that we can barely see. If we focus just on
the end that is clearly visible, then we understand nothing about
the potential of the crack, about how it can extend. There is a
line of continuity between the obvious and the barely visible.
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