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Solidarity Economy in Kommune Niederkaufungen

Kommune Niederkaufungen is one of the largest intentional communities in Germany.
It is an egalitarian, income sharing commune with nearly sixty adult members and
nearly twenty children and teenagers, living and working together in a complex of
former farm buildings in the village of Niederkaufungen near Kassel, central
Germany.

Solidarity Economy, defined by the US Solidarity Economy Network as “ an
alternative development framework that is grounded in practice and in the principles
of: solidarity, mutualism, and cooperation; equity in all dimensions (race/ethnicity/
nationality, class, gender, LGBTQ); social well-being over profit and the unfettered
rule of the market; sustainability; social and economic democracy; and pluralism,
allowing for different forms in different contexts, open to continual change and
driven from the bottom-up”, is the basic economic idea in the commune of
Niederkaufungen, both in the interactions within the commune and through many of
its economic activities outside. As well as having a radical, completely communal
economy internally, the commune can be seen as part of the "third sector" in which
economic activity is aimed at expressing practical solidarity with disadvantaged
groups of people, and as a participant in the struggle of those seeking to build an
economy and culture of solidarity beyond capitalism in the present. Indeed, most

members of the commune believe that solving our most pressing political, economic,
social and environmental problems requires a revolutionary transformation on a global
scale, with networks of groups and individuals working up from the grassroots to
influence the wider society. The commune has been actively proposing and attempting
this for over twenty years.
Since the foundation of the commune in 1986, its core principles have included:
common ownership of all land, buildings, means of production and motor vehicles;
income sharing; consensus decision making; work in self-managed, non-hierarchical
collectives; and a reduction of patriarchal, competitive structures. Politically, it sees

itself as a left-wing project. In addition, a number of measures have been taken to
reduce the “ecological footprint” of the commune, because “living beyond our means”
is both leading to the degradation of large parts of the planet and is unjust towards
the millions of poor people living in those regions.
Kommune Niederkaufungen is a member of the Kommuja Network of Political
Communes, which has a fund for the support of new and existing communes and which
helps to start and organize new communities. For more info. see: www.kommuja.de

Kommune Niederkaufungen, Kirchweg 1–3, D–34260 Kaufungen, Germany.

E-Mail: info@kommune-niederkaufungen.de
Homepage: www.kommune-niederkaufungen.de

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