[P2P-F] How do I get support to start a new Phyle / Cooperative ?

Sun Dec 18 15:44:22 CET 2011

Thanks for asking Kevin.

I try to do so via

http://sharewiki.org/en/Leipzig_project

I have not engaged in a process via p2pfoundation in relation to phyles.
( http://p2pfoundation.net/Phyles)

I am aware of other projects going more or less in such direction, mostly
in the states, such as http://forwardfound.org/ (  Sam, Steve, ...
providing consultancy ? ) - but I do not know exactly what their current
situation is.

Regarding the Leipzig project, at some point I was interacting with Alex R.
, when he was based in Amsterdam.  He visited Leipzig twice, and visited me
when passing by Brussels twice too, providing his views.

My own current personal problem, which hinder my participation, is to get
beyond my current trapped feeling.   Business models emerge, yet being in
Brussels to bring together people and work on them is not ideal.  I
currently found a first investor, willing to invest 100 000 euros to buy a
building ( buildings are more affordable in Leipzig ) , and allowing us to
use it rent free.  I also found a number of smaller investors, willing to
buy their own flat, if we can set up the legal framework that enables to
buy a building together.

I need to work together with others who share similar intentions - and find
the ( relatively small ) amount of capital needed.  Geoteo or other
crowdfunding approaches can be used.

Unless other approaches, in the cooperative business field for example, can
be suggested ?
Regarding legal structures ? Regarding financing ?
For example, I know that Mondragon Cooperatives have its own financial
institution to support the set up of a new cooperative ?

I m not sure how it is for Las Indias

http://grupolasindias.coop/

( http://p2pfoundation.net/Las_Indias_Montevideo_Declaration )

If you are interested, some more personal details on my current context ...

/////

Personal situation :

http://sharewiki.org/en/Dante

Before coming back to Brussels 3 years ago,

I spent several years hitch hiking ( 5 in total ), living with no or little
resources - until I burned out
( http://sharewiki.org/en/Beyond_Road_Burn_Out ;
http://hitchwiki.org/en/Aimless_trajectory )

I may have spread myself out too much across europe - I know other people
living a similar lifestyle, and focusing, as I see it, by cooperating in
environments with a more dense social network from which they gain
recognition, and support.

My return to Brussels was supposed to enable the build up of a more
localized reputation for myself, and enabled me to have access to social
government benefits - which enable me to cover the rent of a small one room
flat, an internet connection, and a remaining 200 euros/month for food and
expenses.  To receive this social money, I am not supposed to get out of
Belgium, or not for more then 20 days a year, and I am supposed to keep my
address. ( hence rent a place )

In short - to develop certain projects, it may be more suitable to spend
more time in Berlin and Leipzig, but I currently lack the finances to do so
at present, unless I choose to go back in an approach I took for 5 years,
without resources, without security for shelter, without medical care
insurance, without money.

Unless... I can set up some business model from Brussels.

800 euros a month in donations ( or in the form of an investment ? ) , over
a period of one year, could support such approach )

For the moment, I found a person willing to buy a building in Leipzig (
investing 100 000 euros ) - and allow us to live in the building for free,

which can enable me and other people interested to have some kind of
permanent collective to set up next stages,

including the purchase of other buildings on a cooperative model, and using
existing solutions guaranteed by, for example, the Mithauser syndicate,

progressively enabling small scale / low capital production,
including to satisfy our own living needs ( energy production, food, etc )

evolving progressively towards consolidating a local economic network ( of
cooperatives, with their own currencies ? )

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 9:55 PM, Kevin Carson <
free.market.anticapitalist at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 5:44 PM, Michel Bauwens
> <michel at p2pfoundation.net> wrote:
>
> > we're not really in a position to give advice, as we only started very
> > recently and are working through our own growth issues,
> >
> > but we started first with a set of principles (why are we together), then
> > with a constitution (how we are going to achieve these principles
> > concretely); everything we do has to be compatible with the constitution
> and
> > inspired by the principles.
>
> I recall seeing last year your statement on hoping to build a phyle
> based on the p2p foundation community, but saw almost nothing between
> that announcement and your comment here.  Is there a link to somewhere
> that details the progress of this idea?
>
>
> --
> Kevin Carson
> Research Associate, Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
> Homebrew Industrial Revolution:  A Low-Overhead Manifesto
> http://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com
> Desktop Regulatory State:  The Countervailing Power of Super-Empowered
> Individuals http://desktopregulatorystate.wordpress.com
> Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
> http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html
>
> _______________________________________________
> P2P Foundation - Mailing list
> http://www.p2pfoundation.net
> https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.ourproject.org/pipermail/p2p-foundation/attachments/20111218/8e870535/attachment.htm 