I know this question will sound silly to some, but suppose a group of people in a low key third world country decide to make their own commune. They work together to build up farming and industry purely based on their own need, and slowly expand to accomodate their needs.
I understand Communes are viewed as ineffective, but a commune like this would be meant to grow, not just remain isolated. It would inspire communes in other areas, and it would aim to expand.
I see a couple of issues with this:
- not all countries can do this. For example, Palestinians living in Palestine will suffer trying to do this. But most countries can, right?
- it will only benefit the tiny group of people within proximity to the commune. But the commune can 1) expand and 2) inspire communes in other locations
- some needs are hard for a small commune to make, such as computer chip manufacturing, and other things they will need to get from the non commune world
But still, I can't see this as less than a good step forward?
There's a commune like this in Denmark, very historical, called Christiania. Due to some legal loophole the grounds of an old barracks in the center of Copenhagen were not under the jurisdiction of any government and so people started moving in and occupying the grounds. In their first years they drove out the LGBT community from the grounds, and then were plagued with gang violence for the next 30 years. Their economy relied entirely on selling weed to clueless tourists. Also lots of "no photo" signs everywhere.
Starting in 2012 Christiania started buying up the property because of gang violence, and part of the deal to do that was that they had to build low-income housing. This also put an end to the effective commune, as it is now administered by a foundation that exists under Danish law. Though they've been relying on city services such as water, electricity and waste management since 1994.