Federation of Egalitarian Communities

Intentional communities are what Utopian Socialism is all about. They are the basic building blocks around which a future communal society is to be organized. But what exactly is an intentional community? Dictionary.com defines it as, “a community designed and planned around a social ideal or collective values and interests, often involving shared resources and responsibilities”. Wikipedia defines intentional community as:

An intentional community is a planned residential community designed from the start to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, or spiritual vision and often follow an alternative lifestyle. They typically share responsibilities and resources. Intentional communities include collective households, cohousing communities, coliving, ecovillages, monasteries, communes, survivalist retreats, kibbutzim, ashrams, and housing cooperatives.

So the definition of the term is somewhat broad and encompasses a range of positions between being partially cooperative to being fully cooperative. The type I want to focus on here would be the most cooperative of the intentional communities - the income sharing communities of the Federation of Egalitarian Communities (FEC). These are the type of community that are at the heart of the modern Utopian Socialist movement and the ones most representative of its goals and aspirations. So what distinguishes them from the many other types of intentional communities in the world? Their website (http://www.thefec.org/) lists the principles of the FEC communities as:

• Holds its land, labor, income and other resources in common.
• Assumes responsibility for the needs of its members, receiving the products of their labor and distributing these and all other goods equally, or according to need.
• Practices non-violence.
• Uses a form of decision making in which members have an equal opportunity to participate, either through consensus, direct vote, or right of appeal or overrule.
• Actively works to establish the equality of all people and does not permit discrimination on the basis of race, class, creed, ethnic origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
• Acts to conserve natural resources for present and future generations while striving to continually improve ecological awareness and practice.
• Creates processes for group communication and participation and provides an environment which supports people's development.

The first two of those items is what distinguishes them as fully cooperative, income sharing communities. The community’s businesses are entirely self-contained and are cooperatively owned and managed by their members. Instead of being paid a wage, the members receive a modest monthly allowance. In turn, all their needs, including housing, food, health care, etc., are met by the community. As all labor is paid the same allowance, these communities are extremely egalitarian in nature. 

The fourth and fifth items on the list highlight their desire to build non-hierarchical, participatory management structures. Some utopian communities in the past and present have had charismatic leaders who exerted an enormous amount of influence upon the direction of the community. The FEC, by contrast, has no one in a leadership role. Communities in the FEC have a decentralized decision making process that relies heavily on collective input.

The sixth item highlights the fact that living in intentional community is the best strategy for allowing mankind to minimize his ecological footprint and for avoiding environmental overshoot. It is clear that contemporary consumerist society is wholly incapable of addressing such issues in an meaningful way. If we are going to have any chance of limiting or reversing the extent of environmental damage currently being wrought, a transition to a communal society as embodied by the FEC is the only strategy that will deliver the desired results.

The communities within the FEC are broken down into three groups. The first is Full Member Communities. These are the six communities that follow all of the guiding principles listed above: Twin Oaks Community (in Virginia), East Wind Community (in Missouri), Acorn Community (also in Virginia), Compersia, Sandhill Farm, and Mimosa Community. Twin Oaks, East Wind and Acorn are the largest of the group. They form the backbone of the FEC. The other three are smaller groups numbering ten or fewer people. There are also ten Communities in Dialogue which are newer or smaller communities that working toward admission into the FEC, and four Allied Communities, which are groups, like Living Energy Farm, that share similar interests.

A critic might justifiably claim that this is a paltry sum to point at after 42 years of work - a handful of communities and about 200 people. Admittedly, such a complaint is not without merit. But I think the intentional communities movement, both within the FEC and as a whole, is on the verge of making great strides. If the same amount of money and effort that was wasted on Marxism in the past were to be invested into Utopian Socialism instead, then the possibilities for change are enormous.