The Old Man from Scene 24
31st January 2012, 04:18
I'm developing an idea that would link various organizations, such as farms/credit unions/co-op businesses, to a central system that provides 'public' services to people. It follows the idea of slowly bringing production power to the proletariat. All organizations that feed to the center should be democratically run. The center would be where people who are members of one of the organizations receive living needs. Services would include food, housing, transportation, etc.
The point of this idea is that there are already non-profit services for almost everything, but they are mostly isolated from each other. I think that if they were united to form a central organization, while still being independent and self-managing, the power of all of them could make a greater change than when they are each alone. It could make life in a co-op easier, when a variety of services are at one's fingertips.
I'm wondering if people could post co-ops/unions/etc that they know of here, so I can document them.
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I will add to this post whenever I find some ~
Housing:
Emma Goldman Finishing School (http://egfs.org/index.html) - Seattle, Washington
http://egfs.org/index.html
From Official Website:
"We are a household of writers, teachers, activists, dancers, gardeners, anarchists, nurses, students, musicians, nannies, bartenders, social workers, and revolutionaries who share a lot more resources than many people are used to. This takes high level of commitmentto the community, but it also is a really efficient way to live. By sharing meals, for example, we get great home cooked food almost every night without the work of shopping and cooking (unless we want that to be our job!). This efficiency allows us to have incredibly active lives outside the community."
Alpha Farm (http://members.pioneer.net/%7Ealpha/index.htm) – Western Oregon
http://members.pioneer.net/~alpha/index.htm (http://members.pioneer.net/%7Ealpha/index.htm)
From Official Website:
“Alpha Farm is an intentional community of people who have chosen to live and work together to share a more harmonious way of living. At our home in rural western Oregon, we live the largely self-reliant style of a close-knit expanded family; we average 15 to 20 people, including singles, couples and families, and have ranged in age from infants to elderly.”
Cascadia Commons (http://www.cascadiacommons.com/) – Portland, Oregon
http://www.cascadiacommons.com/
From Official Website:
“Cascadia Commons Cohousing is a community of 26 homes and a common house located in a pleasant suburb six miles southwest of the center of Portland, Oregon. We were self-developed over the period beginning with our incorporation as an LLC in 1995 (after a couple of years as a talking group). Construction was completed in 2001. We continue to develop as an evolving community. We occupy 2.9 acres of land, of which approximately half is legally designated wetlands and wetlands buffer that is required to be maintained in a natural state. Our homes are a mix of renovated townhouses, and newly constructed flats and townhouses.”
Credit Unions:
I cannot find any credit union that looks "legit & trustworthy". Perhaps this is something that should be in the hands of the center itself.
Open Source Goods:
Openmoko (http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Main_Page) - Mobile Phones
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Main_Page
From Official Website:
"Openmoko is a project dedicated to delivering mobile phones with an open source software stack. Openmoko was earlier more directly associated with Openmoko Inc, but is nowadays a gathering of people with the shared goal of "Free The Phone". Distributors are currently selling updated versions of the Openmoko Inc's phone released in 2008, Neo FreeRunner, to advanced users, while the software stack for FreeRunner and future free phones is being developed by the community."
The point of this idea is that there are already non-profit services for almost everything, but they are mostly isolated from each other. I think that if they were united to form a central organization, while still being independent and self-managing, the power of all of them could make a greater change than when they are each alone. It could make life in a co-op easier, when a variety of services are at one's fingertips.
I'm wondering if people could post co-ops/unions/etc that they know of here, so I can document them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I will add to this post whenever I find some ~
Housing:
Emma Goldman Finishing School (http://egfs.org/index.html) - Seattle, Washington
http://egfs.org/index.html
From Official Website:
"We are a household of writers, teachers, activists, dancers, gardeners, anarchists, nurses, students, musicians, nannies, bartenders, social workers, and revolutionaries who share a lot more resources than many people are used to. This takes high level of commitmentto the community, but it also is a really efficient way to live. By sharing meals, for example, we get great home cooked food almost every night without the work of shopping and cooking (unless we want that to be our job!). This efficiency allows us to have incredibly active lives outside the community."
Alpha Farm (http://members.pioneer.net/%7Ealpha/index.htm) – Western Oregon
http://members.pioneer.net/~alpha/index.htm (http://members.pioneer.net/%7Ealpha/index.htm)
From Official Website:
“Alpha Farm is an intentional community of people who have chosen to live and work together to share a more harmonious way of living. At our home in rural western Oregon, we live the largely self-reliant style of a close-knit expanded family; we average 15 to 20 people, including singles, couples and families, and have ranged in age from infants to elderly.”
Cascadia Commons (http://www.cascadiacommons.com/) – Portland, Oregon
http://www.cascadiacommons.com/
From Official Website:
“Cascadia Commons Cohousing is a community of 26 homes and a common house located in a pleasant suburb six miles southwest of the center of Portland, Oregon. We were self-developed over the period beginning with our incorporation as an LLC in 1995 (after a couple of years as a talking group). Construction was completed in 2001. We continue to develop as an evolving community. We occupy 2.9 acres of land, of which approximately half is legally designated wetlands and wetlands buffer that is required to be maintained in a natural state. Our homes are a mix of renovated townhouses, and newly constructed flats and townhouses.”
Credit Unions:
I cannot find any credit union that looks "legit & trustworthy". Perhaps this is something that should be in the hands of the center itself.
Open Source Goods:
Openmoko (http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Main_Page) - Mobile Phones
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Main_Page
From Official Website:
"Openmoko is a project dedicated to delivering mobile phones with an open source software stack. Openmoko was earlier more directly associated with Openmoko Inc, but is nowadays a gathering of people with the shared goal of "Free The Phone". Distributors are currently selling updated versions of the Openmoko Inc's phone released in 2008, Neo FreeRunner, to advanced users, while the software stack for FreeRunner and future free phones is being developed by the community."