# Anarchist Communes.



## punkkus

So are there any official Anarchist communes anymore or are they just squats?


----------



## Matt Derrick

im almost positive there are, i just don't know anything about them....


----------



## spaz1972

ive heard theres one in portland sumwhere but never seen it.


----------



## Mouse

well there's the A Ranch in florida. cool kids, but it's a small group. 
and there's a lot of "houses" in Arcadia that are kinda communal. I say "houses" in quotes cuz they usually call em the "white house" the "blue house" ect. from what I remember.
these places are all paid for so they aren't squats.


----------



## jack ransom

I've never heard a punk or an anarchist refer to anything as a "commune"

I think that term has a lot of bullshit, hippie "back the land"-lets all fuck each other and destroy our healthy group dynamic-type of connotation.

the closest thing I've heard is "intentional community". wikipedia it.

but normally kids just call it a "collective house".

and then of course there are the squats (longterm ones uncommon) and the punk houses.


----------



## blackmatter

check out the anarchist yellow pages and there are a few in the midwest detorit has the trumbullplex which is an anarchist housing collective, i remember in one of matts stories he has mentiopned it, its a pretty cool place, but detroit isnt to friendly if you dont know it and if your used to places like chicago etc. and great mass transit but its a squatters paradise for sure there tons of abandoned buildings all over the place and as well lots opf small collective houses


----------



## macks

i've been to the trumbullplex in detroit, it kicks ass as far as i can tell. sounds like the place is in a bit of disarray as far as organization but they have two houses and between them they have a theater which they put on local events/shows at. downtown detroit seemed to have more abandoned buildings than occupied buildings, and from what i heard the police officer to citizen ratio is one of the lower ones in the country.. anyhow. there's co-op housing all over the country and those are 'intentional communities' or 'collective living' or however you want to call it. 

oh and spaz, i hear the one in portland is on mississippi street and is so called the 'mississippi house'. never been there but i think i might try to find it this week.


----------



## loam

jack ransom said:


> I've never heard a punk or an anarchist refer to anything as a "commune"
> 
> I think that term has a lot of bullshit, hippie "back the land"-lets all fuck each other and destroy our healthy group dynamic-type of connotation.
> 
> the closest thing I've heard is "intentional community". wikipedia it.
> 
> but normally kids just call it a "collective house".
> 
> and then of course there are the squats (longterm ones uncommon) and the punk houses.


i've actually lived at several communes, the word being derived from community which is an important concept to squatter punks, where we had organic gardens, no rent, and everyone worked together for the common good of the group. communes started way before the commercial "revolution" of the hippies. anyone hear of the dial house in the UK? and there are MANY long term squats. you just have to know where to find them. they aren't always abandoned buildings.


----------



## jack ransom

loam said:


> jack ransom said:
> 
> 
> 
> I've never heard a punk or an anarchist refer to anything as a "commune"
> 
> I think that term has a lot of bullshit, hippie "back the land"-lets all fuck each other and destroy our healthy group dynamic-type of connotation.
> 
> the closest thing I've heard is "intentional community". wikipedia it.
> 
> but normally kids just call it a "collective house".
> 
> and then of course there are the squats (longterm ones uncommon) and the punk houses.
> 
> 
> 
> i've actually lived at several communes, the word being derived from community which is an important concept to squatter punks, where we had organic gardens, no rent, and everyone worked together for the common good of the group. communes started way before the commercial "revolution" of the hippies. anyone hear of the dial house in the UK? and there are MANY long term squats. you just have to know where to find them. they aren't always abandoned buildings.
Click to expand...



damn. I stand corrected. were these rural or urban communes? did you ever call it an intentional community or something? this is sounds pretty fuckin dope dude I'd be stoked to hear more.


----------



## byrdster7891

i think theres a few communes in phili, too.


----------



## Darwin Swift

jack ransom said:


> I think that term has a lot of bullshit, hippie "back the land"-lets all fuck each other and destroy our healthy group dynamic-type of connotation...and then of course there are the squats (longterm ones uncommon) and the punk houses.



Hahaha. This speaks to me. I would love to have considered our squat in Buffalo an Anarchist Commune, also a back to the land place where maybe we did all fuck each other and destroy our healthy group dynamic but that is asking to much of our large group. Sometimes there were 20 of us, and Buffalo's punk community is notoriously patriotic, religious (ahem irish or italian scuse me) and pro work, ie even finding anarchists in that town was hard. But I can say that coming out of the project almost all of them consider themselves anarchist, strive for more anarchy or live anarchically (?) after wards which is inspiring to me as the ideological extremist of the group. Propaganda by the deed and revolutionizing everyday life blah blah it works. 

I have been to a more anarchistic commune in Pittsburg the Landslide squat and (at least when I first met them) they all had alot of politics in common and not much else and I thought I wanted somethin like that. Our house didn't have much politics in common, just good old hatin cops, hatin work, hatin rent, and wanting a mansion! Bingo. We were just DIY kids vs the state that lived communally. 

Maybe the question 'are their any anarchist communes' implies a dual tiered entry program. Are you anarchist? Can you live collectively? That sounds all fun (and enticing) but you gotta start or help build that kinda shit, and keep it smaller, otherwise go enroll in the Institute for Social Ecology or join the IWW.


----------



## Imbrium

I actually went to the Institute for Social Ecology, I find that amusing.


----------



## Spinelli

I been to trumbull the neighborhood its in is cool the locals are nice they usually complament my mowhawk or something, but the kids there have allmost allways been dicks to me. Aside from two guys who lived in the collective most were rude and pretentious(sp?). Detroit can be very scary but its not as crazy as everyone says ya just gotta avoid some areas. I like little mexico great food! But the tplex is paid for its not a squat and I think ya have to help pay the rent there or something if ya decide to move in...thats what I read in a local but I'm not 100%


----------



## Lycanhardcore

There is an anarchist commune, supposedly, in the small village of New Waterford, on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. I imagine that there would be a lot of available area for squatting there: the local coal mining industry has shut down, and people are fleeing en masse to the oil sands of Alberta. From what I can determine, there is a big house, a huge backyard, an organic community garden, a free school, and some more stuff. They are asking for more people. There are, like, two of them? Probably more than that, but not very many, anyway. Collective, vegan... It sounds like good stuff. I'd like to go check it out, at least.

It's called the Anarchist Embassy.

Cape Breton also has a Buddhist monastery, haha. I imagine that the land available to squat on that island is expansive.


----------



## Beegod Santana

I've stayed at commune-ish (almost self sufficint) houses all over the country and lived in one briefly in western mass(the house got condemmed as a fire hazard). In my experience they tend to have a life span of a year or two tops. Honestly though, I've never seen or heard of an anarchist commune that was totally self sufficint. Sure dumpstering, gardens, homebrewing and communal living is great, but they were all still ultimately reliant on the capitalist system in some way (no stores=no dumpsters). The only independent communes I've ever visted where all run by hippies (not the destroy-our-body types, really just pot smoking farmers) and pretty exclusive. The "Farm" in bumfuck TN (town name escapes me at the moment) is the most famous, TN is also home to the rainbow faires (a homosexual commune) and some farm where everyone's a member of the Church of Steel. There's also countless weed houses in nor-cal and oregon, where everyone works at growing weed and lives off the money that comes in from it. There's also a fairly big off the grid commune about an hour west of Denver, but I can't remember it's name at the moment.


----------



## Immortal dirty Squirrel

For me, it's all about the farms.
I agree that all these communal living collectives, while doing some really awesome stuff, are still ultimately dependent on this import/export crazy babylonian money system to some degree or another. Especially in Canada, where you have much shorter growing season's and being a vegan, as noble as it might be, is kinda silly. There are many, many places however, in the country, whether on squated land or land that is "payed" for where people do live 100% off the grid. Being that I have no faith in the continuation of this civilization, I would go so far as to say that this is the real deal, and these are the people who are going to survive the impending collapse.
In the words of john prine...
"move into the country, and build yerself a home"


----------



## Lycanhardcore

You know, while I understand that self-sustainability is not entirely possible in dumpster diving and shoplifting and all that, the fact is that you can't EVER be completely self-sustainable, nor should you be. Everyone relies on their interactions with the environment around them, and should adapt to that environment. Right now, the environment is capitalist excess. I strongly support changing things and ending the causes of this waste, but I think it is sustainable to exist off of the waste of urban postapocalypse: we produce no waste, and we negate at least a fraction of theirs.

I think that being vegan in Canada is entirely possible, too, if a little bit difficult. You can grow surplus food and store it for winter, of course, and with a greenhouse (unheated), you can grow crops in winter. A-frames help, too. I think that augmenting such with shoplifting and dumpster diving and such is a good idea, too.


----------



## Beegod Santana

I'm not saying that non-sustainable communes don't have merit, especially in today's world. I AM saying however than if society as we know were to collapse (no trucks, no power, no plumbing), which is what many dumpster diving punks/anarchists claim to be their ultimate goal, those city communes would be almost just as fucked as everybody else (pretty much we'd just have a small advantage over those who didn't already dumpster dive). Self sustainability IS possible, I've met a few people personally who have achieved it (meaning the outside world could collapse completely and their daily lives/methods of sustaining themselves would be unaffected) and I'll feel its a very noble and intelligent life goal, also there's always primitive survivalism. Also, just sustaining off waste is not self sustainability, thats the same as saying anybody who buys their own food is self sustaining, we cut back on waste, but still don't produce anything to help us in the future. Don't get me wrong, dumpster diving and all that is awesome, I'm a huge fan. Shoplifting I feel however just gives them more excuses to invade your privacy and lock you up, but hey, I also just don't believe in intentionally stealing except as a last resort, regardless who or what its from. I have a really hard time accepting the capitalist hypocracy that we live in and wish to see things change drasticly, but I also accept that as of the moment I'm reliant on it in one way or another. 

All this talk about dumpster diving reminds me...... Anyone know how to incapacitate a trash compactor??


----------



## Immortal dirty Squirrel

Cut the hydrolic lines...
then the things useless....


----------



## golden noodle

hood river oregon
artifacts bookstore
ask for alt housing, they might find a place.


----------



## zarathustra

Are you still in Buffalo? I live in the burbs, and have been on the road for a while and kicked it in other cities, but I was wondering if there were any squats in Buffalo worth hanging at. And I'm also thinking about my next trip, and wanted to talk to people about places to go, etc.




Darwin Swift said:


> Hahaha. This speaks to me. I would love to have considered our squat in Buffalo an Anarchist Commune, also a back to the land place where maybe we did all fuck each other and destroy our healthy group dynamic but that is asking to much of our large group. Sometimes there were 20 of us, and Buffalo's punk community is notoriously patriotic, religious (ahem irish or italian scuse me) and pro work, ie even finding anarchists in that town was hard. But I can say that coming out of the project almost all of them consider themselves anarchist, strive for more anarchy or live anarchically (?) after wards which is inspiring to me as the ideological extremist of the group. Propaganda by the deed and revolutionizing everyday life blah blah it works.
> 
> I have been to a more anarchistic commune in Pittsburg the Landslide squat and (at least when I first met them) they all had alot of politics in common and not much else and I thought I wanted somethin like that. Our house didn't have much politics in common, just good old hatin cops, hatin work, hatin rent, and wanting a mansion! Bingo. We were just DIY kids vs the state that lived communally.
> 
> Maybe the question 'are their any anarchist communes' implies a dual tiered entry program. Are you anarchist? Can you live collectively? That sounds all fun (and enticing) but you gotta start or help build that kinda shit, and keep it smaller, otherwise go enroll in the Institute for Social Ecology or join the IWW.


----------



## elokupa

loam said:


> i've actually lived at several communes, the word being derived from community which is an important concept to squatter punks, where we had organic gardens, no rent, and everyone worked together for the common good of the group. communes started way before the commercial "revolution" of the hippies. anyone hear of the dial house in the UK? and there are MANY long term squats. you just have to know where to find them. they aren't always abandoned buildings.



Dial house isnt a squat, Crass were forced to buy it to protect the house and the few remaining green belt areas. Many people think its a squat as it was an open house.

Its a kind of squat i guess tho because i heard no one is sure who owns it.

I would love to live in a farm squat...


----------



## Blackcatwob

ArrowInOre said:


> Have you ever considered living in Alaska, go far enough out in the bush and you WILL be ON YOUR OWN...Try it out. cold as fuck, but fresh trout tastes mighty good on a cold day.....



Yeah, for sure... I lived out on Kodiak island for while and it was great. You can go for any direction as far as you can go without seeing anyone... Truly the final frontier.


----------



## rebequah

The thing I like about farm squats and self sustainable communities is that it directly fights capatalism and globAlization through its taking back of the land. I think we all agree in searching to leave the restraints of capatalism we find ourselves conforming whether its affording our whiskey, stealing, food stamps, electricity etc.... So to buy a house with property to turn over and build your own world on that land and live in a way that symbiotically exists with the nature around it (not the sidewalks and sky scrapers) to create a sustainable living for yourself and loads of others is revolutionary! power to the farms!!!!!!!!! theres a website I think its called intentional communities. com, or international or something....


----------



## IBRRHOBO

Montpelier, VT has a hella collective. it's the capital of VT and only aoubt 8,000 people. Here in Knoxville there's two paid for collectives --- one is a pretty progressive group of anarchists (meaning they ACTUALLY DO SHIT as opposed to staying fucked up) and the other one is Food Not Bombs. There's also a CrimethInc. collective here.


----------



## bikegeek666

macks said:


> i've been to the trumbullplex in detroit, it kicks ass as far as i can tell. sounds like the place is in a bit of disarray as far as organization but they have two houses and between them they have a theater which they put on local events/shows at. downtown detroit seemed to have more abandoned buildings than occupied buildings, and from what i heard the police officer to citizen ratio is one of the lower ones in the country.. anyhow. there's co-op housing all over the country and those are 'intentional communities' or 'collective living' or however you want to call it.
> 
> oh and spaz, i hear the one in portland is on mississippi street and is so called the 'mississippi house'. never been there but i think i might try to find it this week.




i think it's the house black rose rents from.


----------



## macks

yeah, it's the mississippi house right next door. since that post i've been there a few times, coincidentally had a few friends live there.. but yes that's the spot!


----------



## ariel418

There used to be a Anarchist squat/household in Oakland, CA but I think it shut down. They used to have a pirate radio station in the basement too. I found out about it after doing the Berkeley Tree-sit. I was one of the first people arrested for that. I would like to find another Anarchist household in which to live. If anyone knows of a place I can go let me know. I can even contribute some money from my SSI check.


----------



## rideitlikeyoustoleit

ariel418 said:


> There used to be a Anarchist squat/household in Oakland, CA but I think it shut down. They used to have a pirate radio station in the basement too. I found out about it after doing the Berkeley Tree-sit. I was one of the first people arrested for that. I would like to find another Anarchist household in which to live. If anyone knows of a place I can go let me know. I can even contribute some money from my SSI check.



I think you are talking about the Helarity House, which to my knowledge is still around.


----------



## ariel418

Yeah, I did mean the Helarity House. :crew:


----------



## ariel418

I just found this article:

Last laugh for Hilarity House

Outside, the garden was over-grown but welcoming and the fire pit in the back yard always hosted a small, festive crowd. Inside, the walls are covered in graffiti, lined with art, and crammed with obscure objects and overflowing bookshelves.

Hilarity, a Victorian house off MLK Blvd in Berkeley, was a home and community center for Bay Area non-conformists and counter-culture individuals. But on Feb. 15, the windows of the North Oakland communal house were boarded up as it faced the verdict of a civil law suit that might be the end of its wild, 18 year history.

In 2004, Oakland resident Pradjete Pal filed a civil suit when he bought the house at a foreclosure auction and found it inhabited-by a group who refused to leave.

A strong dedication to keeping the house free and in the hands of the community led the Hilarity Collective to file a rare and difficult Reverse Possession case. their hope is that this case will give the Collective legal ownership of the house on the grounds that they were openly and notoriously living there for a number of years while maintaining and fixing the property.

"We feel like this is a place worth fighting for and our intentions for it are good," said an eight-year Hilarity resident, Robert Eggplant. "Pradjete Pal is not serious about owning it, he bought it to sell, but this is a home."

While the Oakland Civil Court decides whether the Hilarity Collective is the rightful owner of the property, the house should be- according to the law-in legal possession limbo. This would allow the Collective to maintain residency, which hey did for three years. However, residents said court pressures eventually led to a break down within the Collective and residents have been slowly moving out since October.

Just five months ago Hilarity was thriving with some of the Bay's most colorful sub-culture and active community members. Resource center, library, radio station, squatter pad, musical jam space, art studio, bike shop and so much more; Hilarity's open door policy made the house a community center as well as a safe haven for travelers of all kinds.

"All types of people were welcome there," said Hannah Forsberg, a Mills College sophomore who used to go to punk shows at the house. "I met travelers from across the U.S., activists from Mexico, anarchists, artists, tons of musicians. I'm sad to see it get shut down."

Fennet Williams, an environmentalist, anti-capitalist commune member, purchased Hilarity in the early 1990s. His vision was to create what he called an "urban green space" where the residents would exchange community work like gardening and home improvement for rent. When Williams' vision turned to reality and the house filled with like-minded individuals, he left.

Yet Williams still remained the lawful owner, however, he neglected to pay taxes on the property and those who lived in the house were not aware of this. After a few years, Hilarity faced foreclosure because of unpaid taxes. Eggplant said he was an active participant in the household's Collective when the first foreclosure took place.

"By that point the house was a central part of the Berkeley community," said Eggplant. "So when the foreclosure happened and the house went up for auction, we organized and we rallied. The house went up for auction several times but we were able to hold it off."

Years went by and Hilarity stayed afloat- no rent, no taxes, open doors and plenty of creative free space. But it was a constant push-and-pull struggle to be a lawless community in a land of laws, so when the house went up for auction for the last time in 2004- despite impressive efforts to stop it-it was sold. Four years later, Hilarity is only just closing its doors.

As of Feb. 15, all the residents had left, but the remaining artifacts of one of the Bay Area's most unique sub-cultured haven still wait to be hauled away while the final verdict is decided in Oakland Civil Court.

"That is the nature of this house," said Eggplant. "Hilarity has come this far, I don't think its story is over yet."


----------



## IBRRHOBO

if the court hasn't rendered a decision ANYONE could file a motion called an "INTERVENER" and attach to the case. they could file it "IN FORMA PAUPERIS" and not pay any filing fees. that would give the person legal right to occupy pending either a) summary judgment on (if one was filed) the temporary injunction, and b) final verdict. in the event that the final judgment is unfavorable one could continue appealling through the CA state supreme, the U.S. District Court, the U.S. Appellate Court and ultimately petiion for a Writ of Certiorari w/the U.S. Supreme Court. long story short, u could occupy the dwelling for an EXTENDED period of time as u have a justicible cause of action and it would take an EXTENDED period of time to run its course thru the system.


----------



## soymilkshakes

I was at Hellarity in October, they're still kicking ass in court it seems.


----------



## macks

yeah, as of summer more people had moved back in and were working on things in the house a lot. and I think that reverse posession in the article should be adverse posession right? sounds like a mills student wrote that for the student paper or something..


----------



## finn

Hellarity is definitely doing the court thing, a friend of mine, Lostetta, is helping it along, and it sounds like it's doing well so far. Still needs a bit of work, but still better than anyone could have expected.


----------



## maus

"commune" = exactly what?

com⋅mune
/ˈkɒmyun/ [kom-yoon]
–noun
1. a small group of persons living together, sharing possessions, work, income, etc., and often pursuing unconventional lifestyles.
2. a close-knit community of people who share common interests.
(several irrelevant definitions)

Origin:
1785–95; < F < ML commūna (fem.), alter. of L commūne community, state, orig. neut. of commūnis common

Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary


----------



## ben-david

i've also heard of a place in Portland called the Pink House, know nothing about it though other then that my friends sister lives there...


----------



## hkbenj

ben-david said:


> i've also heard of a place in Portland called the Pink House, know nothing about it though other then that my friends sister lives there...




the pink house is a great place. i ended up there one night over the summer and its home to some of the sweetest, most energetic and talented anarchist kids ive ever met. its pretty deep in southeast from what i can remember.


----------



## Anarchist Embassy

Greetings Comrades!:crew:

I just wanted to inform all interested about your Embassy in Cape Breton/northern nova scotia. It is currently a house that provides shelter, skills, and potential self employment as artist so that anyone in need can survive capitalism with dignity in tact. We have the house, tools/supplies, and outlets to make things happen. Yeah there is mainly 2 people that run the embassy, but the community is the entire anarchist population of earth. Currently we are trying to achieve our main goal of obtaining land to defend ourselves better if the shit hits the fan in peak oil crises or 2012 or whatever armagadon might occur. In doing so, we are trying to sell the house. If the house does not sell then we will try to obtain land some how. We are always up for joining with other if anyone wants to try to create a robin hood camp in the forest, but with just two people it can get pretty lonely. We do have plenty of friends on the island with vast acreage, but none share the anarchist understanding and vision of total freedom. If anyone is interested in the island and squatting here, just ask. We have been here for three years only and have done extensive research on the issue. There are lots of abandon buildings in the urban area, but there is a recent bylaw passed that says the owners have to fix them or bulldoze them. There are tons of abandon acreages and old houses with trees growing through them. Anyway contact me if you need more info. Email [email protected]

goodluck and long live the struggle as long as it need livin


----------



## sharks77

macks said:


> and I think that reverse posession in the article should be adverse posession right? sounds like a mills student wrote that for the student paper or something..



yeah, thats what i was thinking. hah


----------



## RebeccaSoup

jack ransom said:


> I've never heard a punk or an anarchist refer to anything as a "commune"
> 
> I think that term has a lot of bullshit, hippie "back the land"-lets all fuck each other and destroy our healthy group dynamic-type of connotation.



Ditto on the hippie shit but that's where I draw the line. i am of the opinion that sex shouldnt/doesnt interfere in group dynamic when dealing with mature accountable adults.



Immortal dirty Squirrel said:


> For me, it's all about the farms.
> I agree that all these communal living collectives, while doing some really awesome stuff, are still ultimately dependent on this import/export crazy babylonian money system to some degree or another. Especially in Canada, where you have much shorter growing season's and being a vegan, as noble as it might be, is kinda silly. There are many, many places however, in the country, whether on squated land or land that is "payed" for where people do live 100% off the grid. Being that I have no faith in the continuation of this civilization, I would go so far as to say that this is the real deal, and these are the people who are going to survive the impending collapse.
> In the words of john prine...
> "move into the country, and build yerself a home"



Babylonian? thats some rainbow bullshit right there.

amen on everything else.



elokupa said:


> Dial house isnt a squat, Crass were forced to buy it to protect the house and the few remaining green belt areas. Many people think its a squat as it was an open house.
> 
> I would love to live in a farm squat...



If everyone would love so much to make these things happen, why are so few people getting off thier asses and doing it? As much pitch as Ive seen do down on booze I know I could have some land in no time.. Build with cob, use crop interspersing.. And what do you get? a lot of bullshit, hippie "back the land"-lets all fuck each other and destroy our healthy group dynamic-type of stuff.


----------



## kai

check out the eastern seaboard in the united states for intentional communities!! I know there's tons of them, especially around Tennessee, virginia and north carolina. The only name I can drop off the top of my head is "the farm" but I also know there is a queer intentional community in tennessee I believe it is called mount pleasant or something along those lines. Also Arizona (tuscon area) is home to some eco-villages where you can play with frilly dilly hippies off the grid all day. In Canada there's a blossoming community on Vancouver Island (although i'm skeptical of the way they run after reading their website). For living off the grid in canada you could check out lesquite island in BC which is accessible only by foot ferry and the whole island has no utilities (totally off the grid). There's also supposedly an eco-village on the sunshine coast in bc and most definately I have heard of some in washington. 

Do people still really doubt the existance of these places??


----------



## Angela

Eco-villages are only for wealthy hippies that sold out long time ago. They are essentially housing developments for hippies. No offense to anyone on here that lives at one but these are very exclusive kinds of places where you have to have alot of money in order to buy into one. Their like eco-condos. And most of the ones I know about don't seem to be very sustainable in that they are not self supporting, they rely heavily on their members incomes from commuting to outside jobs or savings accounts. I don't know if it's right or not but I tend to think of these the same way I think of conservative folks living in gated communities.


----------



## kai

yeah i looked at one and it said to be a member you have to pay 5000 for a share and own 10 shares to be a member. I thought that it was inclusive to that one. Bullshit hippy enterprise where everyone speaks of community, love and inter-dependance so long as you have the money, also the one on vancouver island is partially funded by the government which is not a direction i'm interested in living in.


----------



## DFA

helarity is still live and well, as far as I know.

There are a handfull of this communal living spaces in the bay area, but these "farm squats" really interest me....


----------



## bote

hellarity has a newish chicken hutch and bunkbeds and stuff, and people doing things. The term "commune" implies some sort of hierarchy to me, or at least an established way of doing things (even if it turns out to be just a front/excuse for the old free love thing). 
I've seen people organize like this where it works well, but personally, I prefer leaving everything more undefined. If no one takes responsibility, the ship can go down fast, but if things work out well just by following their natural course, you get the satisfaction of seeing shit work just fine with no rules + you know you're with good people.


----------



## XVIII

there was a place here (boise,ID) called the blue house that was running for a while. the house itself got cleared out and remodeled but i've been told the group of kids that started it kept it going and have started a new house. I have no idea where it is but if its anything like the last place its probably pretty cool.


----------



## Turtles

Collective A-Go-Go and Forbes St. Co-op in Worcester mass


----------



## wartomods

i just get the fuck away from it, comunes is a bad word, and fuck community, if i want to work for a group well i just go ahead and work for our whole society.
Mind i am all for capitalist system.


----------



## Johnny Lightspeed

boing collective in SLC is a pretty cool place. they say the upstairs (where they'll let you sleep) is a drug free zone but the first thing I saw was a syringe laying on a coffee table. maybe someone was diabetic or something I dunno


----------



## wildboy860

does anybody know anyhting about "hippie hill" in Tennessee? I'm invited to go there this month, but wanna kno more about it too.


----------



## that0nekid

Mouse said:


> well there's the A Ranch in florida. cool kids, but it's a small group.
> and there's a lot of "houses" in Arcadia that are kinda communal. I say "houses" in quotes cuz they usually call em the "white house" the "blue house" ect. from what I remember.
> these places are all paid for so they aren't squats.



Do you know a way I could find either of these?


----------



## JoshyWashy

in columbia, MO theres a place called the diva haus. they all pitch in on different things for the house, they compost, they do other hippy stuff. they dont call themselves hippies or like to be called hippies though. my friend was somewhat vague, but something about hippies being middle class and not actually doing shit. the people there volunteer and stuff around the community.


----------



## Nelco

*bump*


----------



## rideitlikeyoustoleit

Hellarity is still alive, but the legal situation is sketchy. We lost our court case last year, and appealed it, and lost again, so we are up for an ejection, which is like eviction but for squatters.


----------



## kodykerouac

rideitlikeyoustoleit said:


> Hellarity is still alive, but the legal situation is sketchy. We lost our court case last year, and appealed it, and lost again, so we are up for an ejection, which is like eviction but for squatters.



could you tell me where hilarity is? i'm trying to find a warmer spot to stay for a night that isnt occupy oakland. thanks!


----------



## Rancho

Any collective houses in Cali?


----------



## Rancho

Near Anaheim sorry should've added that


----------



## Earth

Glad somebody resurrected this, as it was good to hear the two words "Dial House" again.
Penny Rimbaud writes about that place extensively in his book (which I have, but the title escapes me)

Someone mentioned that since everybody loves this way of living, how come so few of these places actually exist...
Vaild question, and from what I've seen with me own experiences - it's because they require work by all involved
or else it fails. Work is a bad word, people hear it and run as fast as they can - be it in the eco movement, wildlife
rescue, and - gasp - even squatting...

We've (I found out I'm included now too) got a major complex legally rented (well, part of it anyway - but we treat the abandoned sections as if they were ours too) and am in the process of setting up an analog tape based recording studio / art space - and the only way it works is with all of us pitching in either with physical work or $$$

Meetings are held on a regular basis, and the whole operation is treated as a full time investment into something that has the potential to really grow into something big.

Anyone who thinks squats / communes are strictly for doing drugs / drinking / and just being lazy either ain't living in one - or ain't gonna be living in one for long....

Even the Spahn Ranch ran like a well oiled machine - everybody knew what needed to be done at all times...

But, to me - Dial House set the gold standard...

Come to think of it, think I'll see if I can get in contact with Penny through either Steve (Ignorant) or the CONFLICT people just to see how he's doing....

Great thread, again glad somebody got it going again.

In fact, I like the old threads here better than the new ones....
Kinda like a time machine almost.....


----------



## Rancho

zarathustra said:


> Are you still in Buffalo? I live in the burbs, and have been on the road for a while and kicked it in other cities, but I was wondering if there were any squats in Buffalo worth hanging at. And I'm also thinking about my next trip, and wanted to talk to people about places to go, etc.


Baby I'm from there n at this point ain't nothin there but squats


----------

