Currently reading: Pirate Care by Valeria Graziano 📚

These days, being kind to the wrong people could land you in jail. What’s up with that?

I’ve written about how two-word phrases are a great way of getting your message across. Now here’s one that really intrigued me: Pirate Care.

That’s the title of a new book from Pluto Press, and as soon as you hear it you get an idea of what its about:

  • around the world, caring for others has been criminalised by shameless lawmakers
  • in defiance, people are doing it anyway; care is a political practice of solidarity (that’s why the right tries to attack it)
  • we need to challenge another, sinister two-word phrase: organised abandonment.

As politicians ramp up their twisted theatre of cruelty to grotesque levels, care from the bottom up is ever more urgent. Because those wrong people who don’t deserve to be cared for? Next year, or even next month, that’ll be you.

Read the book from Pluto Press, listen to an interview with the authors and commons activist David Bollier, and check out the syllabus and project that the book grew out of.

Or just put on your pirate hat and take action.

Auto-generated description: Cover of the book Pirate Care, featuring authors Valeria Graziano, Marcell Mars, and Tomislav Medak, with the subtitle Acts Against the Criminalization of Solidarity.

📖 Graziano, V., M. Mars and T. Medak. Pirate Care: Acts Against the Criminalization of Solidarity. Vagabonds Series, v. 7. London: Pluto Press, 2025. ISBN: 9780745349800