Posted on 08/08/2007 6:51:27 PM PDT by jawz
RALEIGH - The living arrangement has a name, The Mayview Collective, which conjures '60s-era images of backyard chickens and overgrown vegetable patches. Living in a duplex with three bedrooms on each side, members of the Collective kick in $325 per month toward rent, utilities and a reserve fund for household expenses. Not long ago, they bought a vacuum cleaner. The back side of the home includes a kitchen where volunteers cook meals for the homeless and a space where more volunteers help people fix their bicycles.
Within walking distance of Cameron Village, the people who live here carry a different worldview than their neighbors. Their relationships -- with one another and the community -- seem to carry the influence of a prior generation.
But don't call them hippies. By and large, members of this group identify themselves as anarchists.
"By definition, anarchy is 'rule by no one,' " says Emily Tokarski, a Mayview member. "The basic idea is that people know what they need better than the white males in power."
It's not difficult to see, though, how the duplex, with its multicolored shutters, gives a certain impression, and how neighbors have come to assume the hippie-ness of the folks who live there.
Plus, they do have backyard chickens and overgrown vegetable patches.
The Mayview Collective is just one facet of a larger nonprofit organization, ACRe, or Action for Community in Raleigh.
Founded in 2005, ACRe aims to be a center for progressive and radical activity in Raleigh. On its Web site, the organization describes itself thusly: "ACRe blurs the line between public and private space making activism not something we do in our spare time, but some1thing that we live."
To that end, there are six bedrooms available for rent as part of the Mayview Collective, named for the street on which it stands. The lower level of the home is devoted, in large part, to community activities.
Volunteers for Food Not Bombs, an international movement that prepares food that might otherwise go to waste, cook in the back kitchen on Sundays and hand out meals in Moore Square.
The group 1304 Bikes holds open bike workshops where riders can come to fix their bicycles, with help from volunteers and a room full of tools. There is a room devoted to the "American Waste Distro," where visitors can pick up pamphlets devoted to ending Selective Service and guerrilla gardening, or buy a CD from a band that shares similar politics.
A perfect fit
Tokarski, 22, moved into the home around the beginning of the year, after finishing college in Michigan. She came to Raleigh to work with AmeriCorps, found out about the Mayview Collective through Craigslist, and still remembers what she thought when she first saw the ad: "Man, that sounds perfect."
Tokarski, who studied photography and philosophy, wanted to live in a home committed to social and environmental justice. In broad terms, that means "working against oppression of all forms -- sexism, racism, classism."
She describes herself as an anarchist, although not everyone involved with the goings-on at 2419 Mayview does. In particular, the folks who work on the bikes seem less politically motivated.
Anarchy is not about chaos, Tokarski says. Rather, it emphasizes smaller communities and "providing for each other without having to depend on corporations."
Even with that definition, anarchy is complicated. See the answer given by 17-year-old Ryan Moore, when asked to describe his political leanings.
"Anarchist syndicalism."
He doesn't live in the home but runs the Distro (short for "distribution"). When asked to explain a little more about this political philosophy, he began answering the question with one of his own.
"Do you have any basic understanding of the Spanish Civil War?" Ideas into action
On a recent Sunday afternoon, with young people busily preparing food in the kitchen and others working on bikes, the house had a busy hum about it. Chickens rooted through the compost pile. Kids circled on newly repaired bicycles.
In a room in the back of the house set aside for community activities, where rock bands play and a young women's group meets to discuss alternatives to tampons, one of ACRe's founders, Attila Nemecz, spoke about the philosophy behind helping to start the organization.
The idea really sprouted from his time as a student at N.C. State, where Nemecz, now 27, worked with progressive organizations. He and some friends were looking for a way to organize outside the university structure, and ACRe is the result.
For Nemecz, his anarchist beliefs are put to work via ACRe. The idea? "Instead of asking others and waiting for results, take direct action to get results you want to see in the world."
It seems directly influenced by the Summer of Love generation, and in some ways, it is. But "we look at what the hippies did and try to avoid some of that," he says.
Drugs and free love are not part of the philosophy. This is not a tune in, turn on, drop out, kind of thing. "Here, it's about making activism a way of life," he says. "It's more about the communities you make and less about whether you buy something made out of hemp or tofu."
The ACRe homestead sticks out within its neighborhood. On Sunday afternoons, it's not uncommon for more than 20 people to attend the various activities, bringing the cars and noise that come with a gathering of that size.
Louise Fisher, 72, understands how young people would be attracted to a back-to-basics lifestyle. Still, "I wish they did a better job of keeping up their front yard," she says.
"I know it obviously doesn't bother them, but it does bother the neighborhood."
Fisher, who has lived in her home more than 40 years, can see their front yard from hers, which is lush and trim and neat. By contrast, the ACRe front yard features a large vegetable garden, which appears to have seen better days.
The garden is weeded on occasion, but in large part is left to grow naturally, Tokarski says.
In essence, it, too, is ruled by no one.
Well isn't that special!
Kind of gives the phrase “roll your own” a new meaning now, doesn’t it?
When someone decides that s/he doesn’t feel like doing any cleaning and that living like a pig in a (wait for it) pigsty is just fine, *then* we’ll see how long this lasts.
They don’t call them *dirty* hippies for nothing.
You wrote:
“Anarchists”, my butt. More like “parasites”.
Make that “self-congratulatory parasites” and I’m on board with you.
OMG...
Look on their web page under PROJECTS. They have a “radical women’s health collective” called...
...are you ready for this?....
The COOCH Collective.
I kid you not.
from their website...
Because food is a RIGHT, not a privilege! Because there is enough food for everyone to eat! Because SCARCITY is a patriarchal LIE! Because a woman should not have to use her body to get a meal, or have a place to sleep! Because when we are hungry or homeless we have the RIGHT to get what we need by panning, busking or squatting! Because POVERTY is a form of VIOLENCE not necessary or natural! Because capitalism makes food a source of profit and not a source of nutrition! Because food grows on trees! Because we need COMMUNITY NOT CONTROL! Because we need HOMES NOT JAILS! Because we need...
FOOD NOT BOMBS!
“The Cooch Care Collective is a radical women’s health collective. Our goal is to educate girls and women so that they can take charge of their own menstrual health instead of relying on corporations. Our focus is on alternative menstrual care, environmental impacts, and changing society’s attitude towards the menstrual cycle. We sell handmade cloth pads, as well as giving workshops to educate people and teach them how to make their own pads.”
Bizarre.
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