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.
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.
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 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
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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
Ballsy Adventurer
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.
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'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 said:
jack ransom 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.
Imbrium
Member
Spinelli
Well-known member
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%
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.
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.
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.
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"
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"
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.
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.
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??
All this talk about dumpster diving reminds me...... Anyone know how to incapacitate a trash compactor??
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