INTELLECTUALS & IDEAS
John Holloway shares his thoughts on the COVID-19 pandemic, social movements challenging the logic of capital, communal power against hierarchy and more.
John Holloway is one of the staunchest critical thinkers against the capitalist system of our time. Inspired by anti-capitalist social movements like the Zapatistas, his writings focus on new forms of struggle against — and ways of moving beyond — the power of global capital. Holloway’s work is widely read and discussed by libertarian leftist and anarchist groups. Influenced by Ernest Bloch’s Principle of Hope and Theodor W. Adorno’s power of negativity and non-identity politics, Holloway offers us possibilities and an alternative imagination to negate the existing capitalist order and start building democratic, non-hierarchical, and communal ways of life and organization.
In the following interview, Holloway reflects on the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts, which he sees as inextricably entangled with the ecological crisis caused by capitalism. In addressing this crisis, he rejects state-centered approaches and instead places his hope on democratic grassroots social movements to guide us out of the pandemic and through the climate crisis. In addition, the interview explores political and philosophical influences that have underpinned Holloway’s thinking. To conclude, Holloway generously shares his thoughts, support, and critical solidarity with the Kurdish Freedom Movement and Abdullah Öcalan’s writings.
— Cihad Hammy