Page 6 - C.A.L.L. #42 - Spring 2017

Community Close Up:

Las Indias - Madrid

Long-term ICD member Michael Livni reports from his meeting with the
communards of Las Indias - a small Madrid-based commune that is drawing
inspiration from the historical kibbutz movement while forging a new path for
communal living into the future.

Michael Livni, Kibbutz Lotan, Israel

…Belonging to a community is recognition through work and learning, not an “essence” inherited
from national culture or birth, or the result of insubstantial adherence or an ID card.

…To be a communard is to gain autonomy and security in the fraternity of learning, to be
rediscovered as valuable and valued in shared work. To be a communard is to put the values we
believe in into action, not compete to shout them the loudest or wield them like a menacing weapon.

We are entering a time in which no narrative can be believed if it can't demonstrate, here and now,
that it successfully allows a new generation to develop and live decently through work…

Inequality, unemployment and demoralization …if anything has been really global over the last ten
years it's been the experience of social decomposition...

There is no self-realization without work…conquer work, reconquer life…

To be unable to access work is to be in social exile

Excerpts from: https://jardin.lasindias.com/the-communard-manifesto

ON my way to the 12th ICSA Conference in Tamera, my partner, Brenda and I visited Madrid. We spent
an evening with the communards of Las Indias on behalf of
the Intentional Communities Desk. We were welcomed
royally and a special communal meal was prepared for us
together with the communards.

In preparation for the visit we had received the 36 page
"Communard Manifesto" outlining the vision of Las Indias –
just a few excerpts of the vision are quoted in the above
preamble. In my opinion, the Manifesto is in the tradition of
decentralist (anarchist) socialism. The communards believe
in a vision of abundance for all. The name Las Indias is Michael Livni (right) in conversation with Las
derived from a Renaissance myth of abundance resulting Indias communards.
from discovering the riches of the New World combined
with the concept of the Garden of Eden.

The egalitarian commune of "Las Indias" in Madrid is composed of only six members but its vision is
global in scope. The six members consist of two couples and two singles. Legally they are organized as a

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