Britain, AFED Organise! #81 - Children of the Commune

?You must understand that once we have property in common, and establish on a solid moral 
and material base the principle of social solidarity, the maintenance of the children will 
be the concern of the community, and their education will be the care and responsibility 
of everyone.--- Probably all men and all women will love all the children; and if, as I 
believe is certain, parents have a special affection for their own children, they can only 
be delighted to know that the future of their children is secure, having for their 
maintenance and their education the cooperation of the whole---society.? ---- Errico 
Malatesta, At the Cafe ---- This piece will be a very brief glance through squinted eyes 
at what early life could look like in an anarchist utopia. While we may seem a long way 
from communal life, it is important to have some conception of the ideals we are trying to 
prefigure in our lives here and now.

Speculation on the early stages
of someone?s life in a society led by
anarchist communist principles, far
from being a waste of time, can help
make our groups more accessible to
those with a duty of care today. Many
instances of communal childcare and
alternatives to early life exist to point
the way towards a better world.

The Kibbutz

A kibbutz (plural kibbutzim, origi-
nally meaning a cluster or gathering)
is the name for what was tradition-
ally a Jewish communal community.
While it is impossable to sum up the
history of hundreds of settlements
formed over a hundred years in a
neat package, the first kibbutzim
were established early in the twen-
tieth century, primarily as farming
communes that aimed towards the
agricultural settlement of the land of
Israel. While in recent history most
have changed their ideology towards
one of capitalist individuality and
nationalism, many of the initial
pioneers did not want to recreate
the old order of settlements where
Jews acted as bosses and Arabs were
brought in as workers but instead
sought to forge new paths in the Zi-
onist movement based on a utopian
socialist programme.

Part of this drive led to the tasks of
childrearing, both social and eco-
nomic, being seen as a responsibility
of the whole kibbutz. As such, all the
children were given the same op-
portunities and options without the
economic situation of the parents
giving rise to bias towards one child
or another. Children would live col-
lectively in a separate building to the
parents, share the same meals and
enjoy the lifestyle.

After being weaned [new born were enrolled in
the baby house from first days. Mothers would
come to breastfeed even during nights till partly
weaned from night suckling a - I.S. Ed.] child
would be assigned to a [children house around two
years old - I.S. Ed.] with a nanny whose job was
not only to watch over a small group
of children, but to also teach them
the social skills of co-operation,
mutual support and compassion. The
nanny would also support visiting
family members in learning essen-
tial parenting skills ?on the job?. The
nanny would be joined in helping the
children by a formal teacher when
the children turned seven, and this
group would stay together up
until teenhood. After this point
the youngsters would move
into larger dormitories, visiting
home several times per week,
while the nanny and teacher
would separate from the group
and a new wave of teachers
would take responsibility for
the group?s development.

Children would become
responsible for maintaining
elements of their environ-
ment such as their living space,
vegetable gardens and even as-
sistants to young nanny groups.
A multidisciplinary approach
to education was offered so
that everyone would pick up some
practical skills while at the same time
nurturing those with a particular ap-
titude to excel in their chosen field.

While this method of child-rearing
has ended in the kibbutzim, ech-
oes of this method can be seen in
modern speculative fiction, such as
Embassaytown by China Mieville.

Alternate Education

There are many alternatives to the
current mainstream option for edu-
cation. While it is outwith the scope
of this piece to give a comprehensive
list of all possible options, or to even
go into any great depth on any one,
it is worth mentioning a few of the
different modes developed that have
elements more suited to anarchist
communism.

Unschooling / Autonomous Education

This method of home-schooling
assumes that children have a natural
disposition to wanting to learn. It
also works on the basis that, as each
child will have their own prefer-
ence on how to search for and digest
information, it is the child them-
selves who should pick the methods
by which they undertake this task.
Youngsters are encouraged to persue
subjects they have an interest in,
with parents sharing in the task of
looking into areas of enquiry with
them and helping the student find
the information they seek. Parents
provide resources, make suggestions,
provide text and create learning
plans. Though as the child gets older,
the parents pass more and more of
the responsibility of these tasks onto
their child.

Sudbury Schools

These are schools where the staff and
the pupils are all part of the same
directly democratic learning estab-
lishment and have an equal say in
how it is organised. It is assumed that
children already possess the main
behaviours needed to advance in
society and so by engaging in directly
democratic methods of organisation
the child will find the best way for
them to be part of a directly demo-
cratic society. While there are no
formal rules to begin with and rooms
of these schools are not designated
for particular tasks, weekly collective
meetings allow for new rules to be
introduced, learning programmes
started or altered, areas of the school
designated to certain activities, com-
plaints heard, and staff hired or fired.

Montessori Education

This mode of education looks to
guide children along certain de-
velopmental paths. This is done by
having a ?prepared environment?
that has features that are of interest
to most people in the specific age
band as well as features specifically
introduced to suit those learning in
the space with an eye to bringing
forward the qualities that the com-
munity wish to foster in their youth.
Lessons are presented by teach-
ing staff, however it is the students
who pick which topics of enquiry
to follow up upon, and student-led
trips outside the classroom to find
new information (known as ?going
out?) is a key element of this style of
education.

Becoming a Grown-up

A final question that has to be asked
of communal society is at what
point are you considered to have full
responsibilities as a member of the
commune? Even more fundamental,
are the ideas of grading personal
responsibility by age overly arbitrary
or proscriptive? At what point does
a duty of care impinge on another?s
freedom of choice?

Concepts of free association would
suggest that any individual should
be free to apply to join, or leave a
community or workplace as they
feel inclined to do so, and the com-
munity should be free to associate or
dissociate from individuals as it sees
fit. Extending this logic to the young-
est members of our society, they are
in a position where they are subject
in many ways to the communities
choices, until either party decide
otherwise.

At this point someone may call for
the ward of the community to be
emancipated and free to be a full part
of commune life, perhaps mainly
considered after a certain period
of learning. Conversely if a person
felt that their freedoms were being
hampered in one community they
would always be free to leave and
join another.

Living the Dream

All this utopian thinking leaves a lot
for the anarchist groups to act on in
the here and now. We can?t just wait
for a member of the group to pop out
a sprog or hope that parents will fit
social revolution around the child-
care. Instead we should make our
groups seem inviting and supportive
of those with children, starting our
drives for social change with the
social groups closest to us. The exam-
ples of support from the kibbutz can
be taken not only to offer childcare
in meetings, but to offer support to
carers at other times when they need
some space. We must understand
that even our closest comrades now
have a whole new focus in life when
they take on the duty of care to a
young life. They require us to under-
take self-education and skill-sharing,
rather than shirking at the idea of
children being near to us.

We must also look at the question of
at which point the children have a
say in decisions that will effect their
lives and can take on responsibilities
as part of our groups, because if we
cannot show our wards the same re-
spect we would show a stranger, then
what hope do we have of them taking
forward ideas of social change in
their lives? The children of today are
revolutionaries of tomorrow. If we
are serious about future generations
growing up in an anarchist commu-
nist world then we have to prefigure
that outcome today.