return to top page WHAT PRICE COMMUNE LIVING? Helen Prescott The author is the editor of 'Creative Mind', an alternative journal based on Liverpool. Fourth World Review Number 13 (1986) A huge aging stone building built in 1609, now the 'Centre de Chadenac' which apparently was a former farmhouse, provided the venue for the week. The place was not a commune but a meeting place, with large dormitories plus an outside swimming pool, all of which served the needs of the area.
The event began with a slow start as some 70 people turned up. Although most people were from France and the 'Collectif Reseau Alternatif' (CRA) network, a number of representatives from other countries arrived. However, I soon realised that I was not about to sort out my life via communal living.
In terms of the numbers and the hospitality extended, the event was successful. An endless supply of free wine that flowed day and night was welcomed by most and mid-way through the week, the number of French visitors appeared to have multiplied many-fold!
Discussion groups were formed by splitting up into four sections; external relations, internal relations, finance and alternative technologies, with the latter group being somewhat under-subscribed. One was expected to stay with one's group for the festival's duration and many people did because there was nothing else programmed.
My group spent the entire first day discussing the process by which they would have the meetings rather than the situation in hand. The external relations group spent most of the week discussing internal relations instead. Often meetings had little structure and sometimes when a structure was imposed it was shot down in flames, with people arguing and shouting very aggressively.
What did I glean from all this about the alternative scene in Europe?
Well, maybe many of my ideas had been worked out before but the occasion was depressing rather than celebratory for me. Most of the problems of society unfolded before me in the guise of the communes movement. As a survivor of the Toxteth riots, I feel you are safer in Handsworth, Brixton or Toxteth than on the average commune! And just why should a person think that...
Two participators related their bad experience of a short stay at a 'new age' commune in Paris which operated one of the famous spiritual hierarchies. People there were exploited. The situation was like normal society except that when one worked all day and night one received no pay for it! Seemingly some communes expect people to endure endless hardship by an 'all work no pay' policy. Maybe this is another challenge in life; it is not my idea of one. It is incredible but many groups like this do exist.
Exploitation is one of the main sources of worry regarding one's involvement with communal living. If this is the glorious new age, it is certainly of little use to many of us. In Britain, the so-called 'straight society' would prevent such a situation by intervening with trade unions and maybe even take strike action to prevent worker exploitation. In the alternative society, you have no redress to anyone.
Being a veteran of previous festivals, this final saga for me was not refreshing. A first-time visitor could have experienced the event in a more positive way; the occasion was intimidating and the series of bad events that befell me there only worsened matters. All the organising was done by men, all the groups were led by men and all discussions were dominated by men. What more can one say? A distinct air of chauvinism hung over the proceedings.
As it seemed impossible to take a real critical line on communes, the festival, at least, whilst I was there, remained as no more than propaganda exercise on group living. It was self-affirming and self-congratulatory; slides and videos were presented by those privileged and fortunate enough to be living in the lavish surroundings of communal housing.
Seemingly, the fact of being in a group confers a certain status that you would not have as a lonesome individual or isolated family. What exactly is isolated about a typical nuclear family these days? It begs the question of just who are YOU. Problems often multiply with group living rather than lessen. True, you can share out the responsibilities and difficulties but you have dozens more problems to share out anyway.
If small is beautiful, why is everyone in this movement trying to live in massive houses, with enormous kitchens, 300 lb cabbages and 5 weeks of laundry piling up on the floor? I think it's time we knew.
Rather than representing the simple life, communes often reflect grand scale alternativism.
Communes are frequently hotbeds for idealism and little else. How can you change the world with communal groups when they are so overtly white, male-dominated, middle class, imperialist and subscribing to an elitist life-style beyond the reach of most people? After more than 10 years of active participation in the alternative movement in Britain, all I feel that I am left with is a major lesion in my right hemisphere!
Many communes are highly impersonal structures with a shortfall in privacy and intimacy. A large proportion of groups exist in former institutions, which often were redundant buildings that nobody wanted, on offer at knock down prices. The character of the people often takes on the character of the building, which is sometimes large and unfriendly.
The difference between a huge commune and a small nuclear family can often be like the difference between a city and a village.
Other communes do offer more than just a few strong key people with dominion over a small ineffectual group. Some of course are exclusive, regardless of what they actually say. The reality is in the practice not the theory.
It must be pointed out that the communes at the festival were not representative of their countries' commune movement as a whole.
In Britain, for example, although 'Laurieston Hall' is one of the oldest and most widely known of the 'New Era' communes, it is unlike many other places. British communes are thin on the ground, with many having problems of varying intensity such as low numbers or debts.
The commune is one of the most radical ways of bringing social change and as an idea it is par excellent. However, human nature being what it is and not being as flexible as are the actual ideas about it, the communes movement will no doubt encounter many fluctuations and hostilities before it develops and is reborn as a realistic alternative alternative.
Such human failings as power, greed, caprice and selfishness are even more prevalent in the 'me' generation of our times and all too prominent in many aspects of society, including communes.
Although many people within the movement are happy with their lot, some are seeking change; others have left in a disillusioned state whilst a few outsiders cannot even begin to contemplate the possibility of this kind of lifestyle.
The festival itself: intense, disturbing and chaotic in parts, enjoyable at other times.
First the plethora of chaos.
CRA, 'Collectif Reseau Alternatif', provided the bulk of the organising and the participators. For those not familiar with the 'CRA', they are a network of about 25 groups mainly in Southern France. CRA are no ordinary network and much can be said to their credit. The groups are a home to many young people with mental problems. They were partly founded on the ideas of anti-psychiatrist David Cooper and offer help for disturbed people as an alternative to standard treatments and institutions.
The disturbed members needed constant attention during the event. One girl had three epileptic fits a day and was covered in bruises. Others would be violently sick as they made the most of the free wine. One evening, a dreadful fight broke out which one of the organisers broke up. Sitting down to breakfast the next morning, in a blood splattered shirt, he spoke with anger of how nobody would assist him in stopping the fight. One young man walked around nude all day whilst others danced on the table at meal times, but most ran about screaming, intent on disrupting everything that did not have them as the centre of all the attention.
The state pays approximately £20 per person per day for a stay up to a maximum of two years at one of the communes. Although 'CRA' may have political motives for their work and are clearly anarchists, the financial incentive is immense. As the youngsters are able to do whatever they want, whenever they want and take whatever they want, discipline is non-existent.
Hence at the festival five people had personal property stolen. On the third day £35 of mine was whisked away after my bags had been thoroughly searched and my pockets turned out. I have travelled extensively throughout Europe, including overland treks to Turkey and Morocco, yet the only time I had money stolen was at an 'alternative' festival. This was certainly alternative, theft was the last thing I had expected! Nobody's belongings were safe as hoards of unknowns drifted in and out of open dormitories rifling through bags.
The situation was too precarious and I did not want to be in a position of having to walk back to Liverpool, so I left.
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