This journey just continues to be full of surprises and possibilities beyond anything I could imagine.
In the spring, I was riveted to stories from Greece of the referendum, Syriza’s resistance (and later capitulation) to imposed austerity and especially of the solidarity economy that was emerging. In the summer, I walked the European Peace Walk from Bratislava through Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia to Trieste Italy. In many ways, I did not feel like this experience was for me, and yet I felt strongly that I needed to be there for some unknown reason. It was in Vienna prior to the trip that I first began hearing about the “refugee crisis” and to pay attention to it. In August, I attended a gathering in Ireland on the Art of Communing which was a conversation about post-capitalist economic models based upon communities caring for themselves and each other. Later, I experienced some of the vibrancy of the communing community among the anarchist and artist communities in Ireland.
In September, I returned to the Balkans, arrived in Prague with the intention of doing something to support the migration of people from war-torn counties to Europe. I had no idea what this would involve or where it would lead but what I am discovering is that it is weaving together strands from all of my earlier experiences since spring. First it led to work at the Hauptbahnhof in Vienna where one of my responsibilities was dispensing personal hygiene products and, in the process, learning about the uneven availability of donated products and the demand for certain items that were frequently not available.
From Vienna, I moved to Belgrade where I joined my friend, Jenny, in sorting clothes and preparing them to be distributed at places of need. In the process, I learned a lot about the need for warm clothes as summer was just coming to a close and again about the inappropriateness and inadequacy of many donations. After a few days, I had the opportunity to join Gregory Vink in visiting the frostlines in Presevo where we immediately experienced the demand for warm clothes and blankets. The next day, Jenny and I moved our operations to Presevo where I worked for 21 straight days serving a never-ending flow of people – people who were cold and totally unprepared for rain; families with infants and children, some without shoes, families without money for bus fare.
As I shared what I was witnessing in Presevo, I suddenly found myself with thousands of dollars of funding contributed by generous and trusting friends from around the world. And, as the money accumulated, I began feeling the responsibility of fulfilling the trust place in me by wisely spending this money. This created some stress for me, especially as I assessed spending opportunities only to find most of them being covered with other funds. What I began to notice is that there was a lot of money being spent and much of it was being spent impulsively to staunch the immediate needs without good coordination and without thoughts of sustainability and environmental consequences. It pained me to hand out cheap raincoats in the pouring rain in the morning and then spend the afternoon picking up the muddy, discarded and torn coats from the mud and sending them to the landfills. Yet, I also knew that this environmental folly was saving people’s lives.
While in Presevo, I also had the opportunity to observe the struggle between anarchy and authority. I witnessed this in the struggle to find order and to develop a coordinated volunteer system and I saw it mirrored in my internal struggle between desire for control and resistance of authority and domination. I was left with lots of questions about anarchy and whether it was the positive contributor to emergent self-organizing process that I had thought or was it only a resistance to any attempts to create order. Lots of lingering questions, too, about my own personal relationship to power and control.
When I left Presevo, I still had much of the donated money and a strong commitment to spending it wisely in ways that would benefit the people seeking refuge. So, when I learned about an innovative plan to create super-tarp ponchos, I decided to travel to Greece to learn more about them and to assess whether this would be a good investment for some of my funds. What I discovered here was so much more than super-tarps.
Currently, I am being hosted by the developer of the super-tarps. He is a very intelligent and thoughtful anarchist who has given me so much more insight and perspective on this way of thinking and acting. He has also been active in the solidarity economy for many years and has a deep understanding alternatives to capitalism and some specific plans for building alternative community-based systems – tangible applications of concepts from communing. He is also giving me an inside and close-up view of how Greeks are struggling to cope with austerity and the collapsed economy here. What I have found is that super-tarps are only the tip of the iceberg in bringing together the needs of those on the migration route with the resources and opportunities of worker collectives in Greece and elsewhere in the Balkans. What if the needs of the migration could be source locally, employing those needing jobs in this region? What if durable products (ponchos, body warmers, cots, etc.) could be developed that would be worth holding onto beyond the end of a rainstorm? What if a collaborative network could be established of volunteers, aid organizations, donors, local manufacturers and supplies and the the people in need?
Today my host and I went shopping for the supplies to build a proto-type of one of his ideas. On the way, we got lost and ended up at a factory. As I discovered, it is rather famous (the subject of a documentary film and a place visited by luminaries such as Naomi Klein) because when the local company was downsized and its assets were liquidated by an acquiring predatory company, the workers occupyed the factory and created a worker-owned cooperative. Under this new self-managing system, the company changed from making toxic chemical products to producing a new line of affordable ecological cleaning products and has managed to maintain full employment and solidarity wages (barely more than subsistence level so far).
So, today we found ourselves sitting with three of the worker/managers of the factory discussing the possibilities of a collaboration in which they would produce a line of hygiene products specifically for “refugees”, open-source designed by volunteer chemist and funded by international volunteers. This would allow a steady and reliable supply of appropriate products to be purchased by donors and distributed where needed (remember my experience in Vienna?) while providing work for a worker-owned company in Greece.
Within a half hour of sitting in the warmth of the autumn sun on a loading dock drinking Greek coffee, we had an invitation to meet with the entire worker assembly on Monday to present the idea and to explore possible next steps. Just imagine, the opportunity to experience first-hand a cutting edge Greek company working in the solidarity economy and to be exploring a potential win/win collaboration that could benefit Greece and the people seeking refuge… Wow!! Suddenly, it felt like a beautiful tapestry was emerging from the many strands of the past months and, while I have no idea what I bring to this, it feels like I am right where I am meant to be, sensing what wants to happen and how I might be able to contribute.
I continue to feel incredibly blessed to be on this journey, meeting amazing people and witnessing some of the stories of a new paradigm that is emerging, seeing beautiful parts of the world, learning so much and being able to contribute in small, but hopefully meaningful ways. Tomorrow the adventure continues with a visit to Idomeni, where the migration route crosses the Greek border. Immense gratitude!
Follow