Page 21 - C.A.L.L. #32 - Summer 2010

Towards Social Equality

In an attempt to achieve more egalitarian social-structures, the communards in
Niederkaufungen have tried to reduce or abolish oppressive patriarchal and
competitive structures within the commune. In addition, all major decisions are made
in consensus. The new internal structures include:

Life in small living groups: Rather than live in traditional nuclear families, the
members of the commune in Niederkaufungen live in eleven small living groups. Two of
these groups are "Womens/Lesbian" living groups, there is one men's living group, the
rest are mixed. Some of the living groups have parent couples with children living
together, but there are also single parents with children in some groups. Nearly all

children have one or more self-chosen adult carer extra to their parents. The
commune tries to keep to a ratio of one child per three adults in order that there are
enough non-parents who can help with the children.
Childcare and cooking done by collectives: From the age of one, commune children
can attend the commune Kindergarten “Die Wühlmäuse” in the mornings. This
enables both parents to work, not just one (usually the man). The Kindergarten
evolved from a self-organised childcare group and has places for children from the
village of Kaufungen as well as for commune children. As most people work in the
commune, parents are near their children if needed, and children regularly get to
visit commune workplaces to see what is going on. Commune children get to know
village children through Kindergarten attendance, and village kids and their parents
get to know communal life in exchange. Many commune children have friends who are

happy to visit them because there is so much to see and do, and a lot more freedom
than in the nuclear family household.
From Monday to Friday, lunch-time cooking for the commune is done by the kitchen
collective, Komm Menu. The collective is, at present, made up of four men and one
woman. The "centralized" preparation of meals by a collective again frees up
communards from some housework usually done by women. The collective also does
the bulk buying of foodstuff.
Other housework done on a rota basis: Preparation of breakfast, of the evening meal,
of meals at the weekends, the dish-washing and cleaning of the kitchen are all done
on a rota basis by all communards. Cleaning the rest of the commune is done by

volunteers, and each small living group organises its housework autonomously. Running
the wood-burning central heating system is done by a team of volunteers who
organise their own rota. Thus men do much the same amount of "women's work" as
the female communards. There is a great degree of freedom of choice about whether
you cook, wash dishes, or do other household and kitchen chores, but it is clear that
everyone has to do their fair share. And everyone has to wash their own clothes and
clean their own rooms..
Consensus Decision Making: Most forms of decision making and governance result in
a minority of people (or sometimes the majority) being dissatisfied with the decisions
or feeling discriminated against or oppressed. In order to ensure that decisions are
made which can be accepted by all communards, major decisions affecting all
commune members are made through a system of consensus decision making.
Decisions within the living groups and work collectives are also made in consensus.

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