France: In Ardèche, a self -managed community Longo Maï took root

< IMG Loading = "Lazy" SRSC = "/Sites/Default/Files/Styles/Medium/2025-03/Tractor.png ? Itok = 25popcm0" Width = "1207" Height = "691" Alt = "Tractor" Class = "Lazyload Img-Fluid Image-Style-Max-300x1300 "SRC ="/Sites/Default/Files/Styles/Max_1300x1300/Public/2025-03/Tractor.png ? Itok = ZZM8QWPX "/> Ksiazek/AFP < P > In a forest of Pins d'Ardèche, in the south-east of France, the Thunder horse, a powerful trait of the North, tows freshly slaughtered trunks which ensure the income of the Longo Maï community of Treyna, one of the rare of the 1970s neo-rural movement to have survived. & nbsp;

< p > here no hierarchy, no wage earning, no individual property: the community, at the heart of a conflict with hunters who will be judged on Thursday, developed a real forestry company without giving up its values anti -capitalists. & nbsp;

< P >In addition to the training of trainees, its thirty members use a large plot of Douglas pines and have their own sawmill, where they cut beams and plates before selling them. The community saw it correctly. & Amp; nbsp;

< P > “We are forced to speak of figures because it is the language that people understand, but that is not what interests us”, says Manuel Merlhiot, historical member of TreynaS. & Amp; nbsp;

Sylvestre is like their political commitment, he argues: “making other proposals, viable, against the industrial system”. & nbsp;

< p > its members are also in love with “freedom”, explains Charlie Baumann, 25 years old. Raised in another community, he arrived here after a first wage earning experience. “It does not suit me at all. Obey someone …” & nbsp;

< P >< Strong > – Cavale – & nbsp; 62 > 62 > 62 > 62 ~ 62The community of Trynas was founded in the wake of the protest movement of May-1968 in the isolated town of Chanéac by Pierre Conty, the father of Manuel Merlhiot. In 1977, this anarchist peasant sprayed a bank and killed three people in his run. & Amp; nbsp;

< P > The community condemns the acts of its founder – which neither she nor manual never had any news – and joined at the end of the 1980s the network of cooperatives Longo Maï, (“that it lasts long” Provençal), known for their pacifism. & nbsp;

< P > The original community, founded in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (French Alps), knows at its beginnings of stormy relationships with the State, in particular because it welcomes refugees and deserters of the world integer. & nbsp;

< P >Things normalize over time. And when other self -managed communities fail, the network is long -term thanks to “successes that the communities each won in their specialty”, underlines Marc Ollivier, retired CNRS researcher and friendly observer of Longo Maï. & Amp; nbsp;

< P > It now has a dozen communities in France, Germany, Ukraine, about 200 people, including treesy. & Amp; nbsp;

< P > On this hill of Ardèche, they live in houses of stone and wood, which belong to a foundation. In the kitchen, meals are prepared and taken together. On this day of Bolognese pasta, the meat comes from the farm, the vegetable salad. & Amp; nbsp;

< P >< Strong >– – & nbsp;

< P >“We are not very different from normal families, but more numerous,” smiles Sandra Belhache. “There are 36 ways to live life in collective,” explains the forties. Here, it is possible to have personal effects but “the money we harvest by our activities is on an account used by everyone”. & Amp; nbsp;

< P > All are found for meetings, make decisions by consensus, debate News. & nbsp;

< P > For Marc Ollivier, this is the other factor of the longevity of Longo Maï: its “operating conditions”, a direct and participative democracy, “fascinate young people”. & nbsp;

< P > Smiling that it is not always easy to bend there, but all accept the outcome of the debates. & nbsp;

< p > “We must rub shoulders if we want to get out of it”, assures Emmanuelle, 61 years old including 45 in Longo Maï, proud to have created “open places with many meetings, of exchanges “. & nbsp;

< P >Despite these successes, the crimes of the founder of the premises and the alternative lifestyle of its occupants still arouse misunderstandings, which broke out publicly in December 2023 when Manuel Merlhiot killed seven hunting dogs entered on the property. & Amp; nbsp;

< p > prosecuted The pig pigs. & nbsp;

< p > but the diffusion of photos of the slaughtered animals aroused a “torrent of threats and acts of intimidation” against the community which, in turn, complaint. & nbsp;

< P > hunters against community members: the prosecution decided to judge the two camps on the same day, and the trial will be held on Thursday at Privas. & Amp; nbsp;

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