Community Projects and Permaculture Why Charity is not Sustainable

Anyone who practices permaculture, sustainability or is a political activist comes across a good few community projects. I Emphasize that these projects are not charities. What separates these organizations from charities is that they organize to fulfill a need for the community and have nothing to do with whim and generosity for their continuation. These are groups of people who come together to make their goals a reality. There are as many community projects as there are problems and unlimited ways of organizing. This blog post is about their function politically, their role in urban permaculture. I will mostly use examples from groups in Dunedin, NZ.

Click here for my post on creating your own community group

What is a Community Group? The Difference Between a Charity and a Community Organization

"It is more socially injurious for the millionaire to spend his surplus wealth in charity than in luxury. For by spending it on luxury, he chiefly injures himself and his immediate circle, but by spending it in charity he inflicts a graver injury upon society. For every act of charity, applied to heal suffering arising from defective arrangements of society, serves to weaken the personal springs of social reform, alike by the 'miraculous' relief it brings to the individual 'case' that is relieved, and by the softening influence it exercises on the hearts and heads of those who witness it. It substitutes the idea and the desire of individual reform for those of social reform, and so weakens the capacity for collective self-help in society. -J A Hobson, Work and Wealth, 1914"

This quote is great. It eloquently sums up the fundamental problem with charity. If you wanted to look into it even more you will find many scandals and critiques of individual charities that illustrate the systemic incompatibilities between charity and social gains, but I find that a distraction from real organizing. A community group is an organization which is organized and maintained by those who use and need it. It may be a service like free shop, a toy library, a food growing cooperative and also includes activist groups, support groups and general interest groups alike. Not all community groups are free, they may do fundraisers or have membership dues, but they are independent and self determining. Some community organizations may find themselves acting charitable from time to time as well, for example, free shop got a good few visits after the Christchurch earthquakes. But this was a natural disaster and the organizers, while happy to help out, did not have any intention of relief work at the outset. The members of the organization decide what is done and how, they are not passive recipients of what they need from a foreign organization based on random generosity or worse, pity. They are also not deciding on what third party receives the fruits of their efforts. In my opinion there is nothing more politically empowering than community organizing and nothing less empowering than receiving charity.

Community Projects, Community Organizations, Community Groups and Grassroots Organizing

These terms are often interchangeable but can hold specific meanings. Community projects are more synonymous with free shop or toy libraries while community organizations often refer to smaller institutions like rape crisis centers or food shelters. Community groups are often less specific and come together to fight for or against public policy or speak out about local issues. Often a community group does two or all of these things and often in cooperation with other community groups in the area or nationally. What separates these organizations from NGO's as they are typically perceived, is that they are smaller, democratic, and in cases where there is a national group that breaks down into local chapters, the local chapters have autonomy financially and in decision making. This type of organizing is often called Grassroots because the power of decision making comes from the very bottom, its members, and not from the bureaucratic levels.

Permaculture and Community Groups

I believe that Fundamentally, all progressive change comes out of community organizing and that community projects strengthen a community and equips it to fight for their interests. To have a sustainable society, a lot of progressive change needs to happen. Grassroots organizing teaches people activist skills and tactics as well as providing working alternatives for this change to be modeled on. More specifically, community groups can be based around permaculture, gardening, food growing, handicrafts, home repair and tool sharing. Ride shares are common as well. Many organizations are based around preserving indigenous knowledge as well as breaking down racist, sexist and homophobic barriers within communities. Grassroots organizing creates a space for people to meet their neighbors and network with other people to form mutually beneficial arrangements and also just to make friends and socialize. Some specific organizations in Dunedin, NZ that work with permaculture ideas are Transition valley (creating a more sustainable community), Critical mass (promotes the use of bicycles as transportation) and Oooby (Out of our own backyards, local food growing). Their websites are listed under the references at the bottom of the page. Frankly, I believe that community groups are a fundamental part of any democracy whether environmentally sustainable or not and permaculture is no exception.

Links to Great Community Projects:

Website and online network: Free Cycle
The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 5,035 groups with 8,917,299 members around the world. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills.

Wikipedia: Give-away shops, swap shops, freeshops, or free stores
The free store is a form of constructive direct action that provides a shopping alternative to a monetary framework, allowing people to exchange goods and services outside of a money-based economy.

Website: Transition Valley Aotearoa NZ
This website is a small aspect of the work which is going on all over the country, as people begin to understand the importance of acting now to mitigate the effects of some of the most direct impacts of peak oil and climate change.

Wikipedia: Critical Mass Movement
Critical Mass is a cycling event typically held on the last Friday of every month in over 300 cities around the world.

Resources:

Website: Did You Say Free Shop? Otago Daily Times News Article
Website: Free Trade Flourishes. Otago Daily Times News Article
Website: Adventurous rat stows away in Donation Otago Daily Times News Article
Facebook Page: Free Shop Dunedin
Website: BBC Arguments against Charity
Website: Dunedin Volunteers Start DIY Bike Workshop. Otago Daily Times News Article
Facebook Page: The Crooked Spoke Bike Workshop

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