Confessions of a Communard: The rocky road to collective change

From Doncopolitan

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.

DIY in Doncaster

From Freedom News UK

A Commune in the North (ACitN — pronounced “a kitten”) is building upon the work of the anarchist-led Bentley Urban Farm to crate new ways to meet essential needs, for both the commune and the wider local community, in order to show that capitalism isn’t the only game in town.

Confessions of a communard: All-in for the revolution

From Freedom News UK

One of the most common statements I hear from people who spend time at Bentley Urban Farm, the anarchist-led ‘upcycled market garden’ project just north of Doncaster, is: “I wish I could live like this every day.”

Commune or Die - a gift from Banned in Braille magazine

About ten years ago I got interested in co-ops and nearly ended up living in one. It seemed an obvious way of putting my ideals into action. The word 'commune' was out of fashion, but that was essentially what I was looking for, as a green anarchist-leftie seeking more independence from the capitalist and state system. A commune / co-op can create a space outside of the official economy, fostering a certain amount of self sufficiency, mutual aid and security. Resources and work can be shared between people who trust each other, and land and ‘businesses’ can be owned collectively without the usual financial risk or commitments.

Who do the passionate communards work for?

via Anarquía, translation by Anarchist News

"I will then become a worker: such is the idea that stops me, when the mad rages push me towards the battle of Paris - where, however, so many workers continue to die while I write to you! Work now, never again." 1 Rimbaud

Since 1871 - the year in which the "accursed poet" wrote this letter - it was not necessary to be a "seer" to see the obvious: the masses of workers who fought on the barricades in Paris continued to work. That "wildcat strike" in front of the Versailles authority was, in turn, a new job that produced new obligations and condemned them to perpetuate work in saecula saeculorum. Such deep reflection, in the midst of a necromancing trance, probably prompted Rimbaud to question: who were the passionate communards working for? prophesying a system of domination based on direct democracy as the axis of political-social management, which ensured the permanence of authority and continuity of work.

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