John Holloway was born in Ireland in 1947. He studied law and political science on the University of Edinburgh. In his professional career, he has focused on sociology and radical philosophy. He lives in Mexico since 1991. Presently, he is a professor at the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Autonomous University of Puebla.

He is going to deliver a lecture titled The Rage Against the Rule of Money at the MayDay Festival.

John Holloway became one of the most respected theorists of the Zapatista movement of the south-Mexican state of Chiapas, but his thoughts also resonate within the alter-globalization movement, Argentina’s Piqueteros or the movement of the residents of slums in the South Africa, Abahlali baseMjondolo. He is influenced mainly by the critical reading of Karl Marx, by autonomism and by the Frankfurt School of critical theory – mainly Theodor Adorno. More on his ideas in the article John Holloway: Change the World Without Taking Power.

He is a member of the editorial board of journals such as Chiapas or Bajo el Volcán and he is the author of a whole range of books and articles focusing on the critique of capitalism and on the search for alternatives. His best-known book that has been translated to many languages is a study on the contemporary concepts of revolution and mainly on revolution in the Zapatista Chiapas, Change the World without Taking Power (2002). His latest book, Crack Capitalism, was published last year. With his university colleagues Fernando Matamoros and Sergio Tischler he forms a strong autorship trio that has published a number of interesting books such as Negativity and Revolution: Adorno and Political Activism (2008) or Pensar a contrapelo: Movimientos sociales y reflexión crítica (2010).