Flirting with value critique: Remarks on John Holloway’s Crack Capitalism

Abstract

While acknowledging John Holloway’s important contributions to a critical understanding of human liberation, this article questions the validity of his sharp distinction between ‘labour’ and ‘doing’, which lies at the heart of Crack Capitalism. In this book, ‘doing’ takes the form of labour’s Absolute Other. Marx, however, rightly insisted on the transcendental significance of labour. Undoubtedly, capitalist relations determine the labour process in many ways. Nevertheless, labour contains an emancipatory potential which is essential to both individual and collective forms of liberation. In giving up this insight, developed by Marx, Holloway risks losing the capacity to analyse social conflicts and contradictions arising from and within the labour process.