User:Ausmisterfrank
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ausmisterfrank - about me:
Born and educated in the United Kingdom. (BA. Literature, Essex University). Anarcho-communist. I have been influenced by Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers, the writings of Peter Kropotkin and of Colin Ward (Anarchy in Action), the anarchist collectives in the Spanish revolution, Undercurrents magazine, New Musical Express, the bands “Soft Machine” and “Gong”, the counter-culture of the early- and mid-1970s, and by the late Stephen Housego, B.A., M.A.. I am a member of the Niederkaufungen commune in Germany, one of the Kommuja network of communities, where I have now lived for 12 years. For the first eight years I worked on our organic dairy farm. For the last few months of 2007 and the start of 2008 I worked part-time in our farm dairy, making cheese, and part-time in our commune kitchen, cooking for the over 70 people who live here.
From mid-March 2008 until mid-May, I toured Italy (where I lived in the 1980s) with my austrian partner, Martina, working on organic farms in Liguria and on the Isle of Elba at Teams 4 Nature (WWOOFing), and visiting the intentional community of Bagnaia near Siena, Tuscany. (See Bagnaia - Core Principles). On returning to the commune here, I concentrated on orchard care, apple harvesting and making juice. In the winter season, 2008 -2009, I was involved in orchard landscaping (hedging etc), fruit-tree planting and further orchard work. In 2008, Martina helped at the start of the new community at Augendobl in Austria, After a further early summer visit to Teams 4 Nature on Elba with Martina, I spent Summer 2009 partly in the orchards, partly in the dairy and partly in the kitchen, and she spent the summer here in Niederkaufungen in the commune.
I am a member of the Obstmanufaktur collective here, and now work fully in the various activities connected with orchards, fruit and juice.
Martina remains based in Vienna and continues to be actively involved in the Austrian community movement - see: Austrotopia.
I am editor of our entries in the directories here at ic.org and GEN Europe, as well as author of "Somewhere over the rainbow....1986 - 2006. Twenty years of commune life, Kommune Niederkaufungen." I am also an occasional contributor to CALL. Over the years I have been a contributor to a variety of other periodicals, mostly in Great Britain, Italy and Germany. In addition, I write poetry and lyrics, and for several years sang and played drums in our commune band, "Menschliches Versagen" (Human Error).
Up to now, I have posted articles about historical communities in Germany, especially where little or no english language material is available, as well as on other communal themes, such as anarchist communities, which I think I have the experience and competence to write about. I would be very happy if other users could improve and add to the "stub" texts that I have posted. I will be adding new articles in the coming months.
As well as occasionally improving the format of my articles so that they are closer to the usual Wikipedia format, in June 2009 I started to post articles at the CounterCulture Wiki.
For the last 25 years I have been a member of various anarcho-syndicalist organisations, mostly sections of the International Workers' Association. At present I am a member of the ASN - Allgemeines Syndikat Nordhessen (anarcho-syndicalist "General Union of North-Hessen"). I am also a member of "Freies Radio Kassel", Kassel's free radio station, where, with other anarchists, we have broadcast the programme "LILI", (Libertarian Information, Local Initiatives) for the last ten years.
Frank.
External Links - Organisations:
Kommune Niederkaufungen My commune's german language homepage with one English text about the commune.
Network of German Political Communes Kommuja german language homepage with one English text about the core principles of the network.
German Anarcho-syndicalist homepage German language homepage of ASN and educat.
International Workers Association homepage IWA homepage in English and Spanish.
Freies Radio Kassel Kassel's Free Radio station homepage (German)
Co-op Ritorno alla Terra Cooperative "Return to the Earth" homepage (Italian).
Teams 4 Nature association - Elba (Italian + German)
HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed Socialist Youth Movement with urban communes and kibbutzim.
Mettanokit - The Circle Way Mettanokit is a non-profit learning center and service organization working for a more human society based on the old values of cooperation and equality and the closeness and caring found in our elder tribal societies.
External Links - Resources:
"Strange women lying on their backs in ponds handing out swords.......that's no basis for a system of government."
Dennis in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".(See Revolting Peasants link below.)
Anarcha-feminism:
- Anarcha.org (Source of some images).
- Anarcha-feminism Anarcha-feminism page with lots of good articles.
Anarchist resources
- Anarchopedia Over 4,000 articles about anarchy.
- @narchy @rchives Biographies and Texts.
- libcom. org News, reports, and lots of articles about libertarian history and politics.
- Infoshop org - Online resource of news, opinion and information. Infos in English, Spanish, Portugese, Italian, German and French.
- Major Attempts at Utopias in History (Trivia Library.com) Some of the more famous historical communities. A couple more "Utopian" articles can be found at the main Trivia Library home page, and, of course, lots and lots of Trivia.
- CounterCulture Wiki With information about the wider background to the community movement.
- Freegan Info Strategies for Sustainable Living Beyond Capitalism.
- Anarchosyndicalism.net International english language anarchosyndicalist website, with Directory of Organisations and large collection of images.
External Links - Music:
Cocos Lovers A folk music collective from Deal, Kent (UK).
Gabriella Kapfer (Songbird) Gabriella weaves meditative sounds with cello, gongs, hand-crafted singing bowls and voice. (UK)
Ian Harris A composer and video film maker. (UK)
Ariella Uliano An Italiam singer and musician who has lived for many years in Britain.(UK)
Gong Still going strong, Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Miquette Giraudy and their band of floating anarchists..........
Etexts:
- Design your own Utopia A pamphlet by Chaz Bufe with Libby Hubbard, See Sharp Press.
- List of anarchist communities in Wikipedia Rather more information than the @narchopedia article.
- Utopian socialism in French Wikipedia More detailed than the English Wikipedia article, with information about libertarian socialist communities. An english language article which appears to be based on the french Wikipedia article can be found at [1], however, it reads like a text which has been put through "Babelfish" and then typed backwards by an absinthe drinker!!!!
- Collectives in Spain by Gaston Leval Published by Freedom Press in 1945, this is an an abridged version of the first part of "Social Reconstruction in Spain", Leval's pamphlet from 1938.
- Italian Partisan Republics (Italian) Just as anti-fascists and anarchists in Spain organised autonomous structures after Franco's coup, so the italian anti-fascist movement organised autonomous republics in 1944.
- AIC "Kuzbass" The Siberian Autonomous Industrial Colony (AIC) "Kuzbass" was an international colony of workers (many IWW members) in Siberia between 1922 and 1926.
- Science with a Human Face The "Undercurrents" magazine manifesto.
- News from Nowhere by William Morris The complete text of this great Utopian Romance.
- Revolting Peasants (Monty Python) at infoshop.org The anarcho-syndicalist commune in the Holy Grail film showing the violence inherent in the system !
Middle East Information - Links list
A sort of explanation and disclaimer:
Like many other people in intentional communities, I have been horrified by both the annihilationist anti-semitism expressed in the Hamas Charter and by a number of Islamic leaders and countries, and by the scale of violence perpetrated on the Palestinians of Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces and the apartheid situation in the occupied West Bank. I have also been disappointed by much of the reporting about the Middle East in the liberal, left and main-stream media, and by the “black and white” thinking behind it where one side is good, the other bad. I don’t believe it is that simple. Therefore, I have put together this list of groups which are, in different ways, attempting to promote human and civil rights in the area, which promote forms of non-violent resistance, and which are trying to promote understanding and reconcilliation between the peoples of the region. I am not directly involved with any of the groups, but have met members of one or two of them. The opinions and views expressed on the websites are not necessarily my views of the situation. Please use this list as a resource to find out more. Comments can be made on the discussion page.
Libertarian, Non-Violent and Feminist Organisations:
Anarchists Against The Wall [2]
International Solidarity Movement [3]
Holy Land Trust [4]
Black Laundry [5]
Coalition of women for a Just Peace [6]
Women in Black [7]
New Profile [8]
Bat Shalom [9]
Machsom Watch [10]
Yesh Gvul (Conscientious Objectors) [11]
Gush Shalom [12]
Media:
International Middle East Media Center [13]
The Palestine News Network [14]
WAFA - Palestine News Agency [15]
Ma'an News [16]
Indymedia – Israel [17]
Alternative Information Centre [18]
Jerusalem Media & Communications Center [19]
Haaretz [20]
Civil Rights – Sites with Links Lists:
B’Tselem - Israeli I.C. Human Rights Occupied Territories [21]
Hamoked - Centre for the Defence of the Individual [22]
Gisha – Legal centre for Freedom of Movement [23]
Community:
International Communities Desk [24]
Kibbutzim [25]
Kibbutz Lotan [26]
Yad Yaari – Kibbutz Arzi Documentation Centre [27]
Arab – Jewish Peace and Education Projects:
Neve Shalom – Wahat Al-Salam (Peace Oasis) [28]
N.S. – W.A.S. Peace School [29]
Givat Haviva Institute ( inc. Center for Peace) [30]
G.H.I. – “Face to Face” Program [31]
Hand in Hand – Bilingual Arab – Jewish Schools [32]
Bustan – Sustainable Community Action for Land & People [33]
NGOs:
Palestinian NGO Network [34]
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (Jerusalem) [35]
