Crack Capitalism by John Holloway

Author:John Holloway [Holloway, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Part VI

The Crisis of Abstract Labour

23. Abstraction is not just a past but also a present process.

* * *

We are enclosed, locked in, entrapped. Enclosed by money, locked in by violence, entrapped by the logic of the social cohesion of capitalism.

It is we ourselves who create the prison. It is the product of abstract labour. Abstract labour is the labour we perform as a result of ‘the transition to capitalism’, those centuries of historical struggle that brought about a transformation of the way in which humans act and think.

The fact that we build our own prison is a source both of hope and of profound depression. The fact that we make the world that holds us entrapped means that we can unmake it. This is why it was so important for Marx to show that the apparently eternal facts of life like money, capital, or state, are historically specific forms of social relations, moments of the way in which our activity is organised. On the other hand, if we make our own prison, then clearly there is something wrong with us. This is perhaps why critical theory is sometimes linked to a deep pessimism: we are so profoundly crippled by abstract labour and all that it implies that there seems no hope at all for radical change.

The focus on abstract labour is a great leap forward compared with the simple assumption of a unitary labour. It allows us to see that the enemy is in the first place the abstract labour that creates capital, rather than some external force, and also allows us to open up a much richer picture of capitalist domination, as we have seen. But the very richness of the picture encloses us: as we explore this process of prison-building, we become aware of its immense complexity and force. The fact that our activity is organised in a certain way (the fact that we perform abstract labour) creates a complex weave of identity, sexuality, clock-time, destruction of nature, and so on. Changing social relations cannot be reduced to changing the ownership of the means of production: it means a transformation of all aspects of our lives. The complexity of domination seems to overwhelm us.

The only way out of this dilemma is to attack time itself.

The story that we have told so far is the orthodox tale of primitive accumulation. The historic transition from feudalism to capitalism created a new organisation of human activity as abstract labour, and this brought with it a transformation of time, of sexuality, of the person, of every aspect of life. This is a past process that has created a society of identity, a one dimensional society, a society ruled by the clock. The capitalist forms of social relations will not necessarily exist for ever, but for the moment they rule.

But supposing it is not so? Supposing the past is not the past but also the present? Supposing primitive accumulation is not just a past process but also a present one? That would open the door to a very different politics and a very different theory.

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