Refusing the terms of non-existence,breaking their constraints: John Holloway,cracking capitalism and the meaning of revolution today

Abstract

This essay seeks to contribute to theorizing the (anti) politics of refusal of the material and abstract limitations imposed by the non-existence of life under capitalism, with special reference to the work of John Holloway, and his recent concept of ‘the crack’, the radical confluence of resistant subjectivity and a radically different mode-of-doing. The essay seeks to conceptualize a negative ontology, the standpoint of critique and resistant subjectivity, negativity toward the given, the existent and ‘that which is’. The essay attempts to show that in this active ‘doing’ – what Marx identified as ‘species-being’ (Gattungswesen) or creative human essence – human beings choose to do other than what is demanded by money and power, which is itself the re-appropriation of doing. The essay seeks to be one such contribution in that direction.

Keywords

negative ontology re-appropriation of doing resistant subjectivity revolution social rebellion

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Afshar

Bennett

Lewis

Miller

O’Connell

Robertson

Parkinson

(2011) ‘It Was a War, and We Had the Police Scared’. Video. 5 December. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2011/dec/05/reading-riots-video .

Bauman

(2000) Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity.

BBC News (2011) Further riots in London as violence spreads across England. 9 August. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14450248 .

Benjamin

(1999 [1940]) Theses on the philosophy of history. In: Illuminations (trans. Arendt

). London: Pimlico, 253–264.

Claussen

(2008) Adorno: One Last Genius. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Cœurderoy

(1854–1855) Days of Exile. Available at: http://robertgraham.wordpress.com/ernest-coeurderoy-citizen-of-the-world/ .

Davis

(2006) Planet of Slums. London: Verso.

Davis

(2011) Spring confronts winter (Editorial). New Left Review 72. Available at: http://newleftreview.org/?page=article&view=2923 .

De Mattis

(n.d.) What is communisation? Sic 1. Available at: http://libcom.org/library/what-communisation .

10.

Dodd

(2011) Police face years of public disorder, former Met chief warns. Guardian, 6 December. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/06/police-years-public-disorder-warns .

11.

Dodd

Davies

(2011) London riots escalate as police battle for control. Guardian, 9 August. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/08/london-riots-escalate-police-battle .

12.

Frolich

(2010 [1939]) Rosa Luxemburg: Ideas in Action. Chicago: Haymarket.

13.

Fukuyama

(1989) The End of History? Available at: http://www.wesjones.com/eoh.htm .

14.

Fukuyama

(1993) The End of History and the Last Man. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

15.

Gabbatt

Townsend

O’Carroll

(2011) ‘“Occupy” anti-capitalism protests spread around the world. Guardian, 15 October. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/16/occupy-protests-europe-london-assange .

16.

Garland

(2011) Simulating events as they happen: Media spectacle, ideology, and readymade boogeymen. Presentation for discussion, UCL London, 16 August 2011, Theme 3: Language and the media. Available at: http://fu-berlin.academia.edu/ChristianGarland/Papers/1143145/Simulating_events_as_they_happen_media_spectacleideology_and_readymade_boogeymen .

17.

Harper

(2011) Riots in the UK: Echoes of the Past and a Glimpse of the Future. 10 August. Available at: http://www.relativeautonomy.com/2/archives/08-2011/1.html.

18.

Harvey

(1991) The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. Oxford/New York: Blackwell.

19.

Holland

(1998) Spinoza and Marx. Cultural Logic 2(1). Available at: http://clogic.eserver.org/2-1/holland.html .

20.

Holloway

(2002a) Going in the Wrong Direction or Mephistopheles: Not Saint Francis of Assisi. Available at: http://libcom.org/library/going-in-the-wrong-direction-or-mephistopheles-not-saint-francis-of-assisi

21.

Holloway

(2002b) Change the World without Taking Power. Available at: http://libcom.org/library/change-world-without-taking-power-john-holloway .

22.

Holloway

(2010) Crack Capitalism. London: Pluto.

23.

Jackson

Jeffery

(2011) Pendleton: A Political Sociology. Urban Unrest, Social Resentment and Justice, Centre for URBan Research, University of York, 22–23 September. Available at: http://uclan.academia.edu/WilliamJackson/Talks/61050/Pendleton_A_Political_Sociology .

24.

Jones

Taylor

Matthew

Quinn

(2011) London riots spread south of Thames. Guardian, 8 August. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/08/london-riots-spread-second-night .

25.

Kingsley

Gabbatt

(2011) Occupy: We are the world. Guardian, 30 November. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/30/occupy-movement-we-are-world .

26.

Kingsnorth

(2004) One No, Many Yeses: A Journey to the Heart of the Global Resistance Movement. New York: Free Press.

27.

Lewis

Newburn

Taylor

Ball

(2011a) Rioters say anger with police fuelled summer unrest (Guardian–LSE study). Guardian, 5 December. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/05/anger-police-fuelled-riots-study .

28.

Lewis

Newburn

Ball

Taylor

(2011b) English rioters warn of more to come. Guardian, 5 December. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/05/more-english-riots-to-come .

29.

Marx

(2005 [1867]) Capital Volume One, Part I: Commodities and Money, Chapter One: Commodities. Available at: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch01.htm .

30.

Marx

(2009 [1843]) A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: Introduction. Available at: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm .

31.

Negri

(1991) The Savage Anomaly. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

32.

Notes from Nowhere (2003) We are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise of Global Anti-Capitalism. London: Verso.

33.

Pilger

(2011) Damn or fear it, the truth is that it’s an insurrection. New Statesman, 18 August. Available at: http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2011/08/pilger-police-british-young .

34.

Power

(2011) There is a context to London’s riots that can’t be ignored. Guardian, 8 August. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/08/context-london-riots .

35.

Prasad

(2011) English riots were ‘a sort of revenge’ against the police. Guardian, 5 December. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/05/riots-revenge-against-police .

36.

Reis

(2011) The August 2011 Riots in Britain, 23 August 2011. Available at: http://www.revoltagainstplenty.com/index.php/recent/1-recent/183-ricardo-reis.html .

37.

Smith

(2011a) General strike brings Greece to a standstill as public sector closes down. Guardian, 5 October 2011. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/05/general-strike-in-greece .

38.

Smith

(2011b) Greece erupts as police clash with thousands marching on parliament. Guardian, 19 October. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/19/athens-police-clash-marching-parliament .

39.

Taylor

(2011) Mark Duggan family accuse police of operating a ‘shoot to kill’ policy. Guardian, 8 September. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/07/mark-duggan-family-police .

40.

Tremlett

(2011a) Madrid protesters force police to retreat in clashes over treatment of immigrants. Guardian, 18 July. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/18/madrid-protesters-police-treatment-immigrants .

41.

Tremlett

(2011b) Portugal paralysed by strike over cuts. Guardian, 24 November. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/24/portugal-general-strike-austerity-bailout .

42.

Tronti

(1965) The Strategy of Refusal. Available at: http://libcom.org/library/strategy-refusal-mario-tronti .

43.

Vasagar

(2011) Mark Duggan did not shoot at police, says IPCC. Guardian, 9 August. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/09/mark-duggan-police-ipcc .

44.

Wainwright

Clifton

Beal

Shepherd

(2011a) Lockdown in London, while trouble flares in Nottingham and Manchester. Guardian, 9 August. Availabe at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/09/riots-salford-wolverhampton-west-bromwich .

45.

Wainwright

Clifton

Beal

Shepherd

(2011b) Nottingham police station firebombed as violence hits more UK cities. Guardian, 10 August 2011. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/10/nottingham-police-station-firebomb-arrests .