A Commune in the North

From Doncopolitan
September 26, 2025

Forgive me comrades, for I have sinned. It has been over a year since my last confession.

Some of the obstacles which have kept me from writing more regularly have been personal issues around mental health, then there is the sheer amount of work involved with building an ambitious anarchist project in the belly of the beast, but in the main my absence has been due to to the commune-wide process of transitioning from years of individualistic, neoliberal conditioning to a more collectivist mindset and lifestyle.

If you are reading Freedom then I think it is safe to assume that you are, in the very least, sympathetic to the idea of revolutionary social change. I myself was radicalised by the British state when it sent its police and army to my hometown to attack the people I loved during the miner’s strike, and by the similar aggression it inflicted upon my friends in the traveller community who had been building a visible, accessible and potentially successful alternative to the capitalist yolk. Like many on the left, I have been involved with seemingly diverse struggles for most of my life. From class warfare to animal liberation, ecological resistance to land justice, sex and gender freedoms to opposing white supremacy, but no matter how diverse the problems seem, the solution remains the same. Total liberation from authoritarianism, militarism, capitalism, colonialism, fascism, anthropocentrism and patriarchy. One thing I came to realise is that, as well as being clear about what we are against, we must also create living illustrations of what we are for. Without the building of egalitarian, ecological, anti-oppressive, collectivist and joyous alternative ways of living in the world, we remain prone to division, alienation and bandwagon chasing. As Lorenzo Kom’Boa Ervin describes this in his wonderfully accessible introduction to anarchism (a publication which is equally important for decentralising anarchist philosophy from an overarching white, western perspective), Anarchism and the Black Revolution (Pluto Press, 2021):

"Anarchist-Communists believe the ‘personal is political and the political is personal,’ meaning that one cannot divorce one’s political life from one’s personal life."

Hence, our personal lives must mirror our political beliefs. It is not enough to take an active stand to oppose tyranny, to be an effective anarchist we must also strive to make each aspect of our daily lives an illustration of possibility. A lack of material wealth and resources might keep our communities in economic hardship, but it is a lack of hope and the possibility of change which keeps them from taking back what’s theirs. For me, helping to build a commune in the working class area where I live was an important step towards creating a visible prototype for change.

So why, when we actively take the first step to live more consciously and collectively in this late-capitalist dystopia, do so many of us find it such a struggle to adapt?

First and foremost, as our friends in the Kurdistan Freedom Movement will happily attest, those of us socialised in the norms and values of the domineering (but minority) Western world have arguably the most colonised minds on the planet. The various nation states that we have had the hapless fortune of being born into may have colonised other people’s lands (starting with our own), but they could only do so by first utterly enslaving the bodies and minds of large swathes of the common people in colonising countries (this is an obvious simplification, despite the history which the oppressor should have you believe, there was resistance from the oppressed in those countries every step of the way). Political education and activism may help to free up our minds on an intellectual level, but the extent of our conditioning only becomes truly apparent when we take steps to live outside of the system that we claim to oppose. (And let me be perfectly frank, following the logic of the ‘personal is political and the political is personal,’ if you claim to be an anti-capitalist, the very least you can do is attempt to build ways in which you can stop living under capitalism).

We are a naturally social animal which has found itself successfully compartmentalised by the intentionally anti-social (and anti-socialist…) development of consumerism, individualism, the nuclear family, rabbit-hutch housing, status, isms, greed, envy and hierarchy. In more recent decades, things like social media, algorithmic tribalism, identity politics and the general paranoia created by anxiety culture have divided us even further. This has led to a crisis of poor socialisation.

The housing crisis exacerbates the problem further still. More and more people are living with their parents well into their 30s due to unaffordable housing. Traditional ‘student digs’ (which were often in poorer areas so there was sometimes scope for radical engagement with marginalised working class communities) have been replaced by giant student sky-ghettoes, so that students need never mingle with the wider population. Both the capitalist-created housing crisis (which could be solved overnight through the decriminalising of residential squatting and a mass boycott of Airbnb) and the lowering of living standards through exorbitant rent hikes can, in part, be alleviated though the (re)development of the radical housing co-operative movement (I would recommend a visit to radicalroutes.org.uk if you haven’t already looked into co-operative living). But even here there are very real problems where the future of a housing co-op can be threatened by individuals who lack the skills to live communally and who would rather risk the complete failure of the co-op than either find a less collective housing solution for themselves, or do the internal work necessary to live collectively. I understand that this statement may sound a little harsh in a world where people are scarred by the numerous traumas of living under capitalism, patriarchy and white supremacy, but if we are serious about building transformative cultures which defy the norm, then it is essential that we learn to live more socially. This does not exclude people like myself who struggle with the feeling that the world can be a bit too ‘peopley’ at times. It is simply a recognition that real change is going to require a level of compromise from individuals, as well as care from the collectives.

Compromise is something we have already struggled with at A Commune in the North (ACitN). It is a hard truth that, while we are in this pioneering phase and still small in number, too many individual needs pulling in too many differing directions can seriously disrupt the direction and wider purpose of the commune. One of the reasons for the intended scale of the commune (between 100 and 200 people) is to be able to absorb and give due care to diverse individual needs, but right now internal differences of vision and intention are enough to slow progress. We have begun to address the tension between individualist conditioning and the need for collective living in a number of ways.

Firstly there is the practical act of coming together at certain points in time to help build physical unity. After experimenting with a number of routines designed to get us working together more effectively, we found that making sure that we come together at certain times of the day was the most positive way of building affinity even while we were working on different jobs for the rest of the day. From 9am til 10am every weekday we work collectively doing essential chores before going into a quick meeting at 10am where we talk about what we’re doing throughout the day and highlight where we might need help. Then, in the evening before tea (or ‘dinner’ as they call it in the south), we come together again to reflect upon the day. On Thursday evenings we have a FINT (Female, intersex, non-binary and Trans) meeting where non-male identifiers come together to elaborate and/or address issues without the patriarchal restrictions common to mixed gender meetings. This is followed by either a Feelings or Feedback meeting. On Fridays we have an evening of celebration when we start with food around the fire circle at the farm where we each give appreciation for the events and people who have inspired us through the week and talk about what we have done to further the aims and principles of the commune. We then talk about local, national and international historic events, followed by a story (either a folk story relevant to the time of year or a story from our own lives) and then a song. We round things off with a dance (we’ve even been attending the local Morris Dancing rehearsals to steal some moves).

The harder work, in my opinion, has been addressing the psychological transformations required for collective living. The Feelings and Feedback meetings go some way to addressing some of the individual needs of the people who have made the commune their home, and have certainly helped interpersonal relationships, but they have their limitations when it comes to encouraging a more collective mindset. We have been learning about a number of psychotherapy techniques such as Internal Family Systems and co-councilling, and they have had beneficial effects regarding individual mental health struggles. Likewise the commune has a commitment to providing counseling for people who are struggling (this has been a literal life-saver with regard to my personal issues over the last year). But there also needs to be some focus on deconditioning when it comes to the internalised neoliberal norms, values and mores which create obstacles to collective living and cause many of the individual traumas and mental health problems we are trying to address. As bell hooks observed in her 1999 publication all about love: New Visions (Harper, 1999):

"I am often struck by the dangerous narcissism fostered by spiritual rhetoric that pays so much attention to individual self-improvement and so little to the practice of love within the context of community."

The rise of authoritarianism across the political spectrum is aided by the entrenchment of the capitalist bastardisation of individualism (which should more aptly be termed ‘compartmentalism’ because it is specifically designed to break us down into individual units so that capitalism can sell more shit). If individualism is not paired with social responsibility, as it is within anarchist philosophy, then it encourages entitlement and division. For anarchists individual creativity, personal responsibility and self-expression are valuable insomuch as they benefit and enrich wider society. Likewise a society which does not tolerate such attributes is prone to dictatorship. For all its talk of individualism, neoliberalism was one such dictatorship long before the cracks revealed its true fascist face.

The noticeable difference between an anarchist perspective on individualism is that it sees the social value of finding a balance between meeting individual needs and those of others. Or, as Lorenzo Kom’Boa Ervin puts it in Anarchism and the Black Revolution:

"When not deformed by corrupt social institutions and practices, the interdependence and solidarity of human beings results in individuals who are responsible both for themselves and to the society that makes their well-being and cultural development possible. Therefore, we seek to replace the state and capitalism with a network of voluntary alliances embracing all of social life: production, consumption, health, culture, recreation, and other areas. In this way, all groups and associations reap the benefits of unity while expanding the range of their freedom [...]

Anarchist-Communists recognize people are capable of determining their own needs and making necessary arrangements to satisfy those needs, provided they have free access to social resources. Since it is always a political decision whether those resources are to be freely provided to all. Anarchist-Communists believe in the credo of ‘from each according to (their) means, to each according to their needs.’ This assures that all will be fed, clothed and housed as normal social practice[.]"

The trick to learning to live collectively is learning to live in a way which recognises that every decision we make has social consequences. Our actions have an impact on other beings, human and non-human alike, and so we must be mindful of the ripples our actions might create. In a commune this means being aware of the needs of both the commune and our fellow communards and, where necessary, learning to compromise for the wider good. In fact, if you don’t learn to bend, then it is likely that you will break.

Luckily, despite the globalisation of neoliberal values, there remain pockets of hope in the world which can provide valuable lessons for those wishing to live communally. Thanks to the Kurdistan Freedom Movement (KFM) there are currently some 5 million people in Rojava (Northeast Syria) living under the commune-based system of Democratic Confederalism. Sakine Cansiz, Kurdish şehîd (martyr) and arguably the woman who ensured that the PKK took feminism seriously, said that:

"The greatest achievement of this revolution is the work on developing the socialist personality."

That quote is cited in Worth Fighting For: bringing the Rojava revolution home by Jenni Keasden and Natalia Szarek (Active Distribution, 2023). The quote appears in chapter 3, Belonging. Written by Keasden, this chapter alone holds valuable lessons for those wishing to build a collective future (in fact, I’m planning to print it and share it with my fellow communards for a forthcoming Feedback meeting). In it Keasden says:

"Change (which Octavia Butler calls the only lasting truth) is at least in part driven by decision, by choices. Social change is a long, uphill struggle. When we start to look more closely at history, beyond the glamorous moments of intensity, we can see that meaningful social change never comes about without some people completely committed to that change, taking the decisions to work for it, with everything they have, way before they know what the outcome of their work will be.

Shape change and you shape God’, Butler goes on. Meaning, change is everything. It flows from the smallest level to the biggest and our task is (and always should be) to take responsibility for the changes we make. It’s a hell of a task of course. Do we think we’re up for it? That’s exactly why the Kurdistan Freedom Movement puts so much emphasis on developing ourselves."

Beyond a common enemy, there are not perfect parallels between the Kurdish situation and that of people on the Isles (I will use the less colonial term ‘the Isles’ to refer to people currently living in Britain). Whereas the KFM began life as a classically Marxist/Maoist national liberation struggle with relatively well defined (albeit oppressed) cultural and militaristic boundaries, the collapse of working class solidarity and the entrenchment of capitalist, consumerist and nationalist fictions mean that we in the Isles will have to focus on building new and perhaps unique cultural bonds at the same time as opposing the worse of the toxic culture which has been imposed upon us. It would be naive to think that a truly effective alternative to the neoliberal yolk would not face at least the same levels of violence and oppression that the mining and traveller communities faced back in the 1980s. Indeed, given the rise of authoritarianism and fascism, it would be prudent to plan for the level of violence which the Kurds have struggled against for decades. But we will not become anything like an effective alternative to capitalism if we do not first endeavour to (re)build genuine solidarity in the Isles.

Whilst Reform, the flag-shaggers and the conspiracy theorists all seem to have gained traction due to a general air of unrest, the left have struggled to turn the dissatisfaction of the people into a potential for change. But change is exactly what a majority of working class people want. Our local council is now two-thirds Reform, and while there is undeniably a minority who are outright bigots, many of the people you talk to say things like: "Well, we need a change don’t we? None of the others have helped us." This is a pretty logical position for people who still believe in representative democracy. These communities have been politically abandoned for decades and the left has largely failed to act in solidarity with them. Indeed, talking from a class perspective, solidarity itself seems an increasingly rare commodity these days. I have been responding to people in my community with the same message. That nobody is coming to help us, and if you want change you have to do things for yourself. But with widespread paternalism, a lack of confidence and hope, and no visible alternatives, this message will not hit home. We have to walk the talk if we want people to follow us.

I remain forever what the Palestinian writer and politician, Emile Habibi, described as a ‘pessoptimist’, and as such I believe that reactionary times like ours are almost inevitable, but history teaches us that they can also bear the seed of real revolutionary change. Hope is hard to maintain in moments such as these, but change will come. However, it must first be imagined, be seen, be experienced, be experimented with. This is why I believe that those of us hungry for change must learn to live collectively. Or, better still, communally. We’re called ‘A’ Commune in the North because we don’t want to be ‘The’ Commune in the North. We want there to be many communes all over the north and throughout the Isles. I’m not going to sugar coat it for you, learning to live collectively will be hard. But it is absolutely necessary if we want an anarchist future. If you want to join ACitN in Bentley that would be great (just get in touch via the website below), but even if Donny or the north is not on your radar, I would encourage you to explore living collectively in whatever way you can (and send us some tips while you’re at it).

All power to the imagination.
All power to the communes.
All power to everyday people.

Warren Draper is an artist, writer, urban farmer and anarcho-communard living in A Commune in the North, just outside Doncaster. To support their ambitious project or find out more about what they do visit www.acommuneinthenorth.org.uk

Comments

I am Makhno (not verified) Fri, 10/03/2025 - 12:35

I have only two questions for this comrade:
1. Are anarchists allowed to have any private thoughts, private expressions, and private relationships that are not subject to the scrutiny of the group?
2. Do all political actions and positions have to be taken personally, so that they are taken as a reflection of the person holding them?

anon (not verified) Sat, 10/04/2025 - 11:47

In reply to by I am Makhno (not verified)

Now look... we've been trying to establish Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism for two decades now within and along with neolib society as Dual Power to the White cis heteronormatibity where the individual "mind" s replaced by "care" and the collective hivemind, so it's a long process and you may express your thoughts outside of our Safe Spaces but we will not comment on these. If any facial, corporeal or visual expression of singular though is being expressed within our FIRE CIDER!!! revolutionary spaces in may be exposed to peer review & accountability process for the next few years 'til you decide to identify as Trans or non-male identity (and start talking in a raspy grandma voice), the only identities now being recognized as Beings within our utopia, thank you.

lumpy (not verified) Mon, 10/06/2025 - 13:41

ha! "flag shaggers". i'm stealing that from the tool library and i won't return it!

also i signed it out with some other dude's name

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