Mutual aid is a foundational element of Anarchism, but it is often difficult to translate theory into meaningful action while surviving the hellscape of late stage capitalism. Still, up and down the land there are a variety of practical examples from Food not Bombs stands, to Community Toolsheds, and Infoshops. Free Shops often go under the radar, but can be a vital link for many. If you go down to Boscome in Bournemouth on a Friday, outside Costa, you’ll find the Boscome Free Shop, week in, week out, being there, making their community better. We wanted to know more so asked them not only why, but how they do this and how can others looking to find a way to make their anarchism practical start their own.
I dunno. From my experience in doing similar stuff for the first time I learned something else. Long story short, the things I imagined or feared etc, had nothing to do with what happened in reality. And doing the project felt great also because it opened the door to new kinds of interactions with other people.
I’m not trying to be lovey-dovey or something. With time, challenges emerged, some tough, some easy and badly handled, you name it! But what you describe reminded me of some of my “fears” before starting a project for the first time, this is why I thought of mentioning the above.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m trying to figure out how exaclty to deploy gift economy - I’ve gave away some bread and booze to neighbours, some returned with similar gifts, but I’m just looking for a path to bigger network. And competing money-free with exactly same stuff going on - thrift stores where people just rent shelves for pennies to sell their junk for pennies, in a sort of sick but rewarding game - sounds disruptive not in a good sense, but in a bad one. Maybe if I could just somehow put emphasis on information exchange instead of stupid petty cash exchange, and probably also cook something in place…
It’s also worth noting that while resellers can be annoying they can also fit a useful role in a network whose job is to keep stuff out of the landfill. When I’m giving away something nice through Buy Nothing I might prioritize people who also give stuff away, or at least seem to participate in good faith but there’s been times when I had acquired some niche ewaste normal people don’t need that I was happy to give it to a guy who would almost definitely sell it on ebay because that was the only likely way it’d find a home (and if it nets a retired guy in town $20 that seems okay).
At the Swap Shop where I sometimes help out, we can’t afford to be as choosey, but volunteers generally know who the resellers are and when they show up. We often put new or nice stuff out throughout the whole time we’re open rather than just upfront so other folks have a chance to get it, and often set things aside for specific people when we know they’re looking for something. We also have a limit on how many items people can take per week.
Generally it’s less of a problem than it probably sounds like. Some volunteers get annoyed by people taking tons of stuff, but I’ve seen the piles of stuff that still goes into the waste stream because we don’t have room for it.
In the end of the day I think it’s a bit of a headspace thing - the worry/anger that someone will game the system can make you miss the sheer amount of good it can do even with a few jerks in the mix.
Hmm I’m not totally sure that it is something you exactly find first and deploy after. Of course there are a tone of things to read, discuss etc but I have the impression that you find some parameters and then it’s a trial and error process. Maybe.
Sometimes there are already people doing stuff like that near you. In a squat or a non-hierarchical collective nearby? Sometimes these collectives do not exist in our area, so maybe try to find other people with similar interests close to where you live and start something all together? As it says in the article: