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John Holloway | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Holloway in 2011 | |
| Born | 1947 (age 77–78) |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Sociology |
| Institutions | University of Edinburgh |
| Thesis | Harmonisation and Co-ordination of Social Security in the European Communities (1975) |
| Doctoral advisors | John David Bawden Mitchell Henry Drucker |
| Doctoral students | Allin Cottrel|de |
John Holloway (born 1947) is an IrishMarxistlawyer,sociologist andphilosopher, whose work is closely associated with theZapatista movement in Mexico, his home since 1991. It has also been taken up by someintellectuals associated with thepiqueteros inArgentina; theAbahlali baseMjondolo movement in South Africa and theAnti-Globalization Movement in Europe and North America.[clarification needed] He is currently a professor at the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at theAutonomous University of Puebla.[1]
During the 1970s, Holloway was an influential member of theConference of Socialist Economists, particularly in his support of an approach to the state as a social form constituted ultimately byclass struggle between capital and theworking class.[2] This approach was developed primarily through the critical appropriation of aspects of the Germanstate derivation debate of the early 1970s, in particular the work of Joachim Hirsch, and led him andSol Picciotto to publish "State and Capital: AMarxist Debate",[3] an anthology of texts from the German debate with a critical introduction. Thisconception of state, social form andclass struggle, within the Conference ofSocialistEconomists developed current that ultimately gave rise to theOpen Marxism school of thought in which Holloway remained a significant participant. This current rejects both traditionalMarxist ideas ofstate monopoly capitalism andstructuralist innovations such asPoulantzas'Althusserian state theory and theRegulation school,[4] and affirms the centrality of the class relation between capital and working class, as a struggle.
His 2002 book,Change the World Without Taking Power, has been much debated in Marxist,anarchist andanti-capitalist circles, and contends that the possibility of revolution resides not in the seizure of state apparatuses, but in day-to-day acts of abject refusal ofcapitalist society – so-called 'anti-power', or 'the scream' as he puts it. Holloway'sthesis has been analysed by thinkers likeTariq Ali andSlavoj Žižek. Critics and supporters alike consider Holloway broadlyAutonomist in outlook, and his work is often compared and contrasted with that of figures such asAntonio Negri, although the two have their disagreements.
His 2010 bookCrack Capitalism carries on with the political ideas developed inChange the World Without Taking Power. Holloway sees the problem ofpolitical activism, in terms of people struggling “in-and-against” the system, as one of continuing to perpetuate capitalism through their commitment to abstract labour. He argues that from the Marxist stand-point of “two-fold nature of labour” orabstract labour and concrete labour, thatanti-capitalist struggles should be about concrete doing against labour, and not a struggle of labour against capital.
Holloway also originally contributed to and produced a forward for the influentialIn and Against the State, updated in 2021 to reflect on the Corbyn movement.
ComposerReynaldo Young acknowledges in the performance notes of his piece "ay'tik" thatChange the World Without Taking Power is the "theoretical source which the strategic principles of this score came from."[5] Both Holloway and the composer attended the world premiere of the piece, which took place on 26 July 2002 inBretton Hall, West Yorkshire.[6]
