Pluto Press

As myths of progress and modernisation collapse in the relentless polycrisis of our time, how do we strengthen other plots—in community, practice and struggle? How do we come together as movements for earthcar? his book weaves stories, proposals, and analyses around a key domain of living reproduction in crisis: agriculture. Looking at peasant, indigenous, and transecofeminist practices, it formulates another plot on how we want to sustain life collectively—beyond progress, plantation, and patriarchy. Recovering and repurposing old and new technologies, and breaking down the division between rural and urban, the ground is made fertile for growing other futures. Alongside writers like Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler, this work of radical political theory raises critical questions about technology and storytelling, as matters of care and community.

Psychoanalysis is having a resurgence in popularity—but it is not helping patients navigate the harm of modern-day capitalism. Instead, it continues to enforce oppressive structures, state power, and reactionary politics. Practising psychoanalytic clinician Lara Sheehi creates a thrilling argument for how seizing the means of psychoanalysis can transform it into one of many tools in service of revolution, showing how psychoanalysis can help unpack how psychological and emotional processes are mobilized by political power, capitalism, the state, oppression, and even genocide. Arguing for a new, liberatory psychoanalysis, she calls for us to harness its radical power from the clinic to the streets.

At a time when trans rights are under attack across Britain and beyond, Deviants and Trailblazers arrives as a powerful antidote, uncovering a rich, overlooked history. Spanning from the first legal gender changes in 1944 and the devastating Corbett v. Corbett ruling in 1970, to the groundbreaking Gender Recognition Act of 2004 and the ongoing battle for reform today, this is a gripping chronicle of resistance and radical change. Far from being a recent invention or a niche concern, legal recognition of trans identities has been a demand of trans communities for generations. Rebecca Jane Morgan shows how that fight emerged, evolved, and was sustained by grassroots organising, court battles, and an unwavering demand by the trans community to be recognised by the very systems that so often try to erase them. In a moment defined by pseudoscience, moral panic, and political backlash, this authoritative and readable account of the movement to date offers clarity, context, and hope.

Football has always been so much more than the billionaire buyers and seven-figure signing fees. With the women's game now more popular than ever, one thing is clear: when it comes to football, only half the story is usually told. Would the Lionesses ever have roared without the Munitionettes? If you look beyond the men in suits at FIFA and the corporate World Cup, you'll find a history unparalleled in the world of sport. From England, France and Germany to Palestine, South Africa and Brazil, A People's History of Football reveals how the 'beautiful game' has been a powerful instrument of emancipation for workers, feminists, anti-colonialist activists, young people and protesters around the world. This entertaining history from below is beautifully rendered by award-winning illustrator Lelio Bonaccorso, bringing players from history to life in vivid colour. From the game's unruly feudal origins right up to the present day, immerse yourself in the stories of professionals and amateurs alike, and feel the powerful force of a game that is as generous as it is subversive.

'A remarkable story' - Arun Kundnani, author of The Muslims are Coming!In 2003, 23-year-old Uzair Paracha was arrested by the US government and branded a terrorist. A Pakistani man living in New York, he was accused of providing 'material support' to al-Qaeda - a vague, catch-all charge invented in the chaotic aftermath of 9/11. He was offered a plea deal but refused, knowing he was innocent. What followed was a nightmare: years in solitary confinement, a trial built on fear instead of facts, and a justice system determined to make an example of someone who they thought looked the part. Uzair’s case wasn’t an anomaly: it was the blueprint. The Man Who Refused to Plead Guilty is more than one man’s story: it’s a stark reflection of the path the US chose after 9/11. A path that reached for demonisation before understanding, punishment before truth. Uzair Paracha’s experience lays bare the human cost of a vengeful nation, how a heart filled with principle can find some small semblance of justice.

Our society is breaking down. Fascists are winning elections, economic inequality is rampant, and the climate crisis is at its tipping point. It feels like the amount of work needed to overcome these injustices is too much to handle. But what if there is a way to lower the threshold to action? Who will free us if not ourselve? n Radical Justice, international human rights lawyer Nani Jansen Reventlow shows how we can build a fundamentally different future with our own hands. We all have our own spheres of influence, and each of us can be the revolution.  Taking inspiration from the deep well of anti-racist and social activist writers such as Olúf?´mi O. Táíwo and Angela Davis, each chapter offers tips on how to learn, reflect and act in a society where we are told we are powerless. Including advice on strategic litigation, reclaiming our digital rights, reparations demands, climate activism and much more, the information in these pages is indispensable to the struggle for radical justice.

There is no silver bullet for the climate crisis—but that hasn’t stopped people searching. Seizing its chance, the nuclear power industry wants us to believe that theirs is the only technical fix for our deliverance. The public, politicians and the media have been easily swayed. This should come as no surprise. After all, the pro-nuclear PR campaign is richly funded and has an army of lobbyists sowing myths while the industry reaps the rewards of taxpayer-funded subsidies. No To Nuclear calls the industry's bluff. Blasting aside its claims to be safe and green, Linda Pentz Gunter makes the irresistible case that nuclear power is too slow, too expensive, too dangerous and too integrally connected to the nuclear weapons complex, to serve as a rational energy choice. The book also delves into the lives of Indigenous peoples and communities of colour, who have been harmed the most by the nuclear sector, and questions whether the way we devalue nature and the environment is costing us the chance of a genuinely just energy transition.

'A sweeping tour-de-force of investigative journalism' - Time magazine'Epic ... the definitive text of the war' - New York Times'As a many-layered portrait of revolution it is a triumph... never less than compelling' - The SpectatorIn 2011, in a city in northern Syria, a small group of men and women began a movement that overthrew a brutal dictatorship. For the next eighteen months, many of the citizens of Manbij carried out one of the most remarkable experiments in democracy in modern times. Days of Love and Rage details the powerfully intimate narratives of the men and women who led this struggle, and who experienced the highs of camaraderie and the lows of betrayal. Among them: a pair of best friends torn apart by political polarization, a mother who stands up to male dominance, and a worker who risks everything for the dream of equality. Anand Gopal immerses you in the world of a single city in the throes of revolution, and lays bare the danger that inequality poses to democracy. But this book transcends the particulars of one terrible conflict to tell the broader story of rising authoritarianism in our times. Days of Love and Rage has the force, sweep and artistry of a great novel, and is ultimately a story of our enduring human need for dignity and hope.

'A damning reminder that the ghosts of empire are not distant – they are living, breathing and, in some cases, still collecting rent' - The Observer'Eloquently reminds us that history is never truly past' - The New Yorker'A family story straight out of Game of Thrones' - Alex Renton, authorWhile the British landed gentry profited from chattel slavery in the West Indies, the Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax family of Dorset pioneered it. This is the story of the British Empire and slavery told through one family’s grotesque history, and how its legacy is alive and well today.

It’s 1 am in central Gaza, and emergency physician Salman Khalid is jolted awake by a text message that simply says, 'mass casualty.' As part of a three-member team providing care at al-Aqsa Hospital, he rushes to the scene, where he is greeted by a heartbreaking sight—a family of five siblings, all under 18, suffering from horrific injuries after their tent in a designated humanitarian zone was bombed while they slept. This despairing reality is a daily occurrence in Gaza, where innocent civilians suffer under the violence of settler colonialism. In Gaza: A Doctor’s Diary, Salman Khalid offers a poignant and deeply personal journal of his month-long volunteer mission in Gaza. Over the course of September 2024, he captures the stark realities of life in a war zone, revealing the harrowing conditions faced by patients and medical professionals alike. With unflinching honesty, he reflects on the trauma, tragedy, resilience, and humanity that persist amid destruction and violence. This firsthand account of the brutality of the genocide in Gaza invites readers to witness the power of compassion in the face of unimaginable horror. All profits from the book will be donated to Humanity Auxilium, an American and Canadian NGO that is one of 25 organisations worldwide that have paired with the WHO to get people and supplies into Gaza.

As the world grapples with the escalating climate crisis, ecosystems are collapsing, and the planet’s future hangs in the balance. For centuries, our legal systems have treated nature as something to be owned and exploited, but a bold new movement is challenging this paradigm. In The Forest Fights Back, Jessica den Outer explores a groundbreaking global movement—Rights of Nature—taking on the legal system to recognise the rights of rivers, forests, and mountains to exist, flourish, and sustain their ecological balance. From the fight for the Whanganui River in New Zealand to the battle for Spain’s Mar Menor lagoon, den Outer highlights the campaigns led by grassroots communities, telling stories of determination and legal ingenuity. This movement goes beyond law - it represents a cultural shift that could reshape how we live, think, co-exist and advocate for nature.

Since 2020, we have seen a huge increase in the demand for charitable food aid, due to multiple political and economic crises. Initially seen as an emergency measure, corporate-backed food aid programs are now entrenched 'solutions' to hunger. But who really benefits from the? ayleigh Garthwaite travelled across Britain, North America and Europe, working with food banks, co-ops, urban farms and food justice organisations. She documents the limitations of these programs, and how institutionalising charitable food aid absolves governments of their responsibility to ensure that people have a right to food. As hunger and inequality continue to rise within advanced capitalist countries, this issue is more urgent than ever. Kayleigh Garthwaite proposes radical key policies for governments and explores alternative community-led responses grounded in solidarity, not charity, to end the need for food aid before the indignity of food banks becomes completely normalised.

Rent, or unearned income, is a pervasive concept in contemporary economics. Economists of all stripes see today's global economy as riddled with harmful rents, but most deny these are intrinsic to capitalism, and insist they can be eliminated with the right policies. It begs the question, why is rent theory so critical of the present but so optimistic about the futur? n Mother of Capital, Matthew Costa delves into the intellectual and social history of rent to solve this puzzle. Centring rent as the engine of capitalism's historical emergence in medieval Europe, he offers a groundbreaking, systematic history of rent and rent theory. The book also traces the history of resistance to rent from below, and unearths a neglected body of critical rent theory. Weaving complex strands of social and intellectual history into a vivid, lively, and original explanation of how the society we live in came to be, Costa makes a bold intervention into contemporary debates about the origins and future of capitalism, the nature of social change, and of history itself.

'Superb … A vivid account of one of the most compelling lives in modern revolutionary history' - Maurice Casey, author of Hotel LuxIdeological schisms have always been a feature of the left, but for much of the early twentieth century they could be deadly. Few revolutionary figures managed to chart such a unique course through the turbulent currents of anarchism and Bolshevism as Victor Serge. Today, thanks to his classic memoirs and novels, Serge is esteemed by most segments of the left. But who was this man, who led such a thrilling life on the frontlines of history? An anarchist? A Bolshevik? A Trotskyist? Or did he evolve into something else entirel? n this vivid account of the life, work and political evolution of Victor Serge, Mitchell Abidor rescues his subject, with all his contradictions, from the constraints of any single label. Examining the lacunae and errors in his memoirs, the hidden Serge is ultimately revealed for what he was: an unruly revolutionary of both great courage and contradictions.

'One of the major interventions of the decade' - Sophie Lewis, author of Abolish the Family'An astonishing achievement written with the propulsiveness of a novel' - Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the Fox'A fierce and luminous revelation' - Anne Boyer, poet and author of The UndyingWhat does it feel like to experience your body cleaving into two while public discussion of reproductive healthcare centers around the viability line: the fantasized moment when a fetus could feasibly be extracted from a uterus? What happens to the psychology of parents who spend years scrolling through photographs of children crushed in war while babies sleep beside them, indistinguishable from the dead children in expression and bodily habi? mma Heaney addresses these questions, situated between the particular historical moments of her pregnancies and the transhistorical continuities of sensations, emotions, socialities, and conceptual provocations that have long accompanied gestation. She focuses on the embodied realities that are mystified in the sentimentalization of motherhood, a political process that enables the material abandonment of those who do the labor of gestation and care, as well as of children. As a result, gestation is revealed as a process against cisness, wage work, and the death cult of war.

'A compelling critique of bourgeois society and women's oppression - a critique that not only advances theory, but also engages deeply with the historical and political conditions of social transformation' - Melda Yaman, Istanbul UniversityLise Vogel is a unique voice in feminist theory. This book collects her best essays, opening a window into the last half-century of US socialist feminism. A trailblazer in the 1970s, Vogel planted the seeds for contemporary Social Reproduction Theory with her 'unitary theory' of capitalist exploitation and the oppression of women. Along with others, she challenged established views within the academy and movement by insisting that Marxist theory can accommodate not only class, but also race and gender. Today, her work is more popular than ever, inspiring socialist feminists to develop inclusive liberatory ideas for the next generation. Selected from five decades of Vogel's work, including long out-of-print material, this volume is a crucial resource for readers interested in the intellectual history of Marxist feminism and twentieth-century activism.