Mediterranea: Thinking Through a Political Invention in Tumultous Times. A Conversation

This conversation takes stock of a unique political experiment: Mediterranea. This “non-governmental action” led by a left- leaning platform in Italy, which crystallised around a civilian monitoring and rescue ship, is one of the most recent and innovative initiatives deployed against the deaths of migrants at sea, in support of their freedom to move, and in defiance of the drastic policies deployed by the Italian government during Matteo Salvini’s term as Minister of the Interior. One year after Mediterranea’s ship, the Mare Jonio, set sail on its first mission in October 2018, this conversation unpacks the key orientations of the project, and assesses the project’s achievements and the challenges it faces. The conversation focuses on several core themes, which include: the imperative to rethink and repoliticise humanitarian action; the hybrid political form of the platform; the question of the human as both a trope of humanitarian reason, but also a radical demand in the face of dehumanisation; the connection between intervening at sea and across multiple scales on firm land; and finally the radical politics of the law enacted by Mediterranea that we could think of as a form of strategic transgression.