Pirate utopia
Pirate utopias were described by anarchist writer Peter Lamborn Wilson in his 1995 book Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes as secret islands once used for supply purposes by pirates. In Wilson's view, these pirate enclaves were early forms of autonomous proto-anarchist societies in that they operated beyond the reach of governments and embraced unrestricted freedom.
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[edit] On the Barbary Coast
Located on the Barbary Coast (Salé, Algiers and Tunis), those pirate bases were havens for Muslim Corsairs from the 16th to the 18th century. The pirates, dubbed "Barbary pirates", ravaged European shipping operations and enslaved many thousands of captives. However, thousands of Europeans also converted to Islam, forming the "Renegados" and joining the pirate holy war. Wilson writes that these men and women were not only apostates and traitors, as they were considered in their homelands, but their voluntary betrayal of Christendom can also be thought of as a praxis of social resistance. Wilson focuses on the Pirate Republic of Salé, in 17th century Morocco, which can be considered a type of micronation with its own seaport argot known as "Franco". Like some other pirate states, it even used to pass treaties from time to time with some European countries, agreeing not to attack their fleets. Wilson/Bey's idea of Temporary Autonomous Zones developed from his historical review of pirate utopias.
[edit] List of examples
[edit] See also
- Data haven
- Cities of the Red Night, a 1981 novel by William S. Burroughs.
[edit] References
- Peter Lamborn Wilson, Pirate Utopias: Moorish Corsairs & European Renegadoes ISBN 1-57027-158-5 (Autonomedia, 1996)
- Hakim Bey, TAZ - The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism ISBN 1-57027-151-8 (Autonomedia, 2003)
- Peter Ludlow, Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias ISBN 0-262-12238-3 (2001)
[edit] External links
- Pirate Utopias - an excerpt from Bey's TAZ
- Pirate Utopias (Do or Die) - Piracy and Anarchism
