On the possibility that the revolution that will end capitalism might fail to usher in communism

This article argues that further development of John Holloway’s approach in Change the World without Taking Power and Crack Capitalism needs to address two objections: first, some of the tendencies and practices described by Holloway as ‘screams’ and ‘cracks’ may contribute to the emergence of communism (that is, universal human emancipation), but may not cause the demise of capitalism; second, some practices that are (subjectively or objectively) anti-capitalist may not be emancipatory but, to the contrary, reactionary. The need is suggested to take reactionary forms of anti-capitalism, especially fascism, stronger into account. It is proposed to distinguish two dimensions of the negation of capitalism, namely in the sense of, on the one hand, revolution that ends capitalism, and, on the other hand, revolution that ushers in communism, in order to be able to keep both dimensions in sight simultaneously.