According to Holloway, 'the nucleus of the novelty of Zapatismo is the project of changing the world without taking power' (Holloway, 2001a: 174). In a penetrating literary metaphor, the Zapatistas proclaimed that 'it is not necessary to conquer the world. It is enough to create it anew!' Holloway argues that the innovation of Zapatismo allows the left to overcome the 'state illusion', a doctrinal relic linked to a state-centred conception of revolution in which the latter was assimilated to 'the conquest of state power and the transformation of society by the state' (ibid: 174). For Holloway, the classic Marxist controversy that contrasted reform with revolution hides, despite apparent differences, a fundamental agreement regarding the state-centred character of the revolutionary process. From there, he asserts that 'the biggest contribution of the Zapatistas has been the breaking of the link between revolution and control of the state' (ibid: 174). His reasoning not only has an undeniable merit of its own--inasmuch as the problems to which he refers are of great theoretical and practical transcendence--but it also illustrates a range of concerns and theoretical approaches common to a good part of the alternative and progressive thinking of the twenty-first century. In a previous work, this author had dealt extensively with the subject (Holloway, 1997). 'The revolt of dignity'--he said on that occasion--'can not aspire to take the power of the state' given that 'the rejection of state power is simply an extension of the idea of dignity'. And he completed his argument in the following way: The revolt of dignity can only aspire to abolish the state, or more immediately, to develop alternative forms of social organisation and strengthen the (anti) power of the anti-state.... The problem of revolutionary politics, then, is not the taking of power, but the development of ways of political articulation that would oblige those who retain state office to obey the people. (Holloway, 1997: 24, my translation) Let us briefly examine the various possible objections to Holloway's assertion. In the first place, attention should be drawn to an ignored feature of fundamental importance in his exposition: that it is capitalist society itself that has increasingly adopted state-centred features. If, in classic Marxism, the relevance of the state as a social institution appears to be highlighted, this is for two good reasons. On the one hand, it is because Marxism as a social theory reproduces at the level of thought the events, processes and structures that exist in reality. It would be a major blunder if the evident 'statification' of capitalism were to pass unnoticed by Marxist theorists. On the other hand, it is because as a theory Marxism cannot--and should not--remain immune to the influence exerted over the exploited masses by the predominant form of organisation of the oppressors. This was perceived with unique clarity not only by such outstanding theorists and socialist leaders as Lenin and Gramsci, but also by intellectuals who are alien to Marxism, such as the German sociologist Georg Simmel. If capitalism increasingly stresses the state's role in the perpetuation of its conditions of domination, it would not seem reasonable for its opponents to ignore that feature in order to concentrate their efforts--both in theory as well as in practical struggles--in other areas. How to ignore the unabashed 'statification' of capitalist societies since the early 1930s? This phenomenon brought to the fore the importance of an essential feature of the capitalist state: its role as a focus where the powers--economic, political, and ideological--of the dominant classes were concentrated; its role as the organiser of capitalist domination and, simultaneously, as the principal 'disorganiser' of the subordinate classes. And even though the state has been weakened to a large degree in the peripheral countries, remaining at the mercy of the plutocracies that control the 'markets'; even in these cases it has continued to faithfully fulfil the aforementioned tasks. …