GRAZIANO, Valeria; MARS, Marcell; MEDAK, Tomislav
Pirate Care. Acts Against the Criminalization of Solidarity

In many places around the world, the freedom to simply care for one another is under attack by the powerful, and acts of solidarity are being made illegal. In a moment of struggle defined by the rollback of social welfare programs, the criminalisation of migration, and the right-wing clampdown on bodily autonomy, radical networks of care are fighting back. From volunteer rescue boats in the Mediterranean to underground labs for preparing gender-affirming hormones, from the sharing of copyrighted health knowledge to the provision of abortion and contraception, people are reclaiming the means to care for one another in defiance of a system that devalues and exploits the labour of care.

Against atomised despair, Pirate Care shows that fighting back isn't only about legal and legislative changes but also about organizing, direct action, and disobedient care. [publishers’ note]

“Putting the words pirate and care together already produces a spark of excitement, asking us to imagine how we are going to make the world together. A world in which what are often separate practices, and languages about practices, can come together. Where abolition, hacking, the commons, queerness and repair are connected. Where as good feminists we concern ourselves with the work and play that sustains us, in and against the empires of extraction. A most nourishing and encouraging little book.”
—McKenzie Wark

Published by Pluto Press, 2025
Essays / Politics