[1] In spite of everything, Joan was able to resume his primary studies at the age of 8 in the school of the republican teacher Grau, after passing an entrance exam.

[1] As a young man, Joan Garcia worked in the wine trading house of Lluís Quer's widow, earning 5 pesetas a month, for three years.

Tired of his job as a waiter at the Hotel Jardín, he left and started working at the Las Palmeras bar-restaurant in the Boqueria market.

[2] In 1919 he first joined the Society of Waiters L'Aliança, a member of the UGT, but later participated in the formation of the Union of the Hospitality Industry, Restaurants, Cafes and Annexes which was integrated into the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT).

In 1922, he took part in the formation of the Los Solidarios direct action group which, in 1923, assassinated Cardinal Juan Soldevila y Romero in Zaragoza and General Secretary of the Sindicatos Libres Joan Laguía Lliteras in Manresa.

Garcia Oliver subsequently worked as a polisher in France, where he unsuccessfully plotted to kill Alfonso XIII and Benito Mussolini.

He promoted the formation of the National Revolutionary Committee (which was based in Badalona) and led the January 1933 insurrection, which landed him back in prison.

He participated in the IV Congress of the CNT in Zaragoza in May 1936, and anticipating the military uprising, he was part of the group that sought the supply of weapons.

[3] On 4 November 1936, the CNT decided to join the war government of Francisco Largo Caballero, with Garcia Oliver acting as the Minister of Justice.