Faculty of Arts, University of N.S.W.

Part 3: THE TRANSITION

When we are clear about the basic problems in our society and the essential nature of the required alternative, a number of implications for the transition process are inescapably given.

• The transition cannot be imposed by a state or an authoritarian or revolutionary group. The new local societies can only be made to work by the willing effort of local people who understand why The Simpler Way is necessary and who want to live that way. In any case only they know the local conditions and social situation and only they can develop the networks, trust, cooperative climate etc.. All the producing and maintaining and administering will have to be carried out by them. In any case there will not be enough resources for centralised authorities to do these things. The transition therefore has to focus on helping ordinary people to move towards willing acceptance of the new ways, and towards enthusiastic participation in the long process of learning how best to organise in their area..
• There is therefore no value in working to take state power, either within the parliamentary system, or by revolution. Even if the Prime Minister and cabinet suddenly came to hold all the right ideas and values, they could not make the required changes -- they would be instantly tossed out of office if they tried. The changes can only come from the bottom, via slow, profound change in ideas, understandings, and values, and these cannot occur except through a lengthy process of learning the new values in the places where people live.
• We do not have to get rid of consumer-capitalist society before we can begin to build the new way. Fighting directly against the system is not a good idea at this point in time. It has never been stronger than it is today. The way to beat it is to ignore it to death, i.e., to start building its replacement and persuading people to come across.
• The main target, the main problem group, the basic block to progress, is not the corporations or the capitalist class. They have their power because people in general grant it to them. The problem group, the key to transition, is people in general. If they came to see The Simpler Way as preferable, consumer-capitalist society would immediately collapse. The battle is therefore one of ideology. Our best chance of winning it in the long run is to start building the alternatives to which people can move as the problems the present society is creating become more intolerable. If a petroleum shortage occurs it will concentrate minds wonderfully. But the window of opportunity will be brief and risky. If things deteriorate too far there will be too much chaos for sense to prevail.
• The top priority for anyone concerned about the fate of the planet must therefore be to contribute to the building of elements of The Simpler Way, here and now. In the last 20 years a "Global Alternative Society Movement" has developed, in which many people all around the world have begun to build, live in and experiment with new settlements which enable simpler ways. (Note 14)The fate of the planet depends on whether the Movement is able to develop sufficient impressive examples of The Simpler Way in coming years.

Following are the steps we can start taking immediately, within our suburbs and especially in dying country towns.

A group must come together and form itself into a Community Development Collective (hereafter referred to as CDC.) Ideally the CDC will eventually develop into a mechanism for the participatory self-government of the town or suburb, but at first it might involve only a handful of individuals seeking to do some humble things.

Set up a community garden and workshop. The CDC's initial goal is to identify and organise some of the locality’s unused productive resources of skill, energy, experience and good will so that people can start to produce for themselves some of the basic items they need. The most promising first step is to establish a community garden and workshop, especially to involve low income receivers in the production of food and other items for their own use.

The CDC should then look for areas in which additional cooperative production to meet local needs could be organised. A promising early possibility would be bread baking. Once or twice a week a cooperative working bee might produce most of the bread etc the group needs, again selling some to outsiders for cash. Another early possibility would be the repair of furniture, bicycles and appliances. The workshop could become a shop where surpluses are for sale. Scavenging from the locality, especially on council waste collection days, will provide furniture, appliances, bicycle parts and toys to be repaired and materials for use in the workshop. Other possible areas of activity would be cooperative house repair and maintenance, nursery production, herbs, poultry, honey, preserving and bottling fruits and vegetables, toy making, making slippers and sandals, hats, bags and baskets, car repair and the "gleaning" of local surplus fruit from private back yards.

Later the CDC would explore somewhat more complicated fields in which it could organise productive activity, such as planting fast growing trees for fuel wood, aquaculture, house building and repairing, insulation, recycling and planting "edible landscapes" on public land.

These activities would also provide important intangible benefits, such as the experience of community and worthwhile activity. The involvement of local people who are not on low incomes would be important, especially gardeners, handymen and retired people. Ideally the garden and workshop would become a lively community centre with information, recycling, and meeting and leisure functions. Specific times in the week should be set when all would try to gather at the site for the working bees, followed by a meal, discussions, entertainment and social activities.

What we have done at this point is establish a radically new economy, one geared to need not profit, cooperative, independent of market forces, and under participatory social control.

Connecting with the normal/old economy -- stimulating the town’s internal economy. The next step must be to enable people in this new sector to trade with the normal/old firms that exist within the locality. The CDC must find out what things the new sector as a whole can start providing to some of the old sector firms. For instance in the case of restaurants the answer is likely to be vegetables from the CDC’s cooperative garden.

We would not set up firms that compete with the existing firms in the town. There is no net benefit in us setting up a bakery that wins all the scarce bread sales opportunities and therefore just puts people in the existing bakery out of work. Our focus must be on creating sales and jobs in a new economy involving those people previously excluded from economic activity. However this will not be possible unless the CDC finds items it can sell to the old firms.

It is in the interests of the old firms to join in enthusiastically, because this will enable them to increase their sales and their real incomes. They will be able to start selling to that large group of people previously not involved in much economic activity.

Organise town working bees. The development of the garden and workshop would take place through cooperative working bees. Before long the CDC should organise voluntary neighbourhood or town working bees, perhaps occasional at first but eventually occurring at set times aimed at developing the locality in desirable ways, e.g., planting fruit and nut trees in local parks, or building simple premises for new little firms.

A market day would be organised mainly to sell CDC produce and products, and so that many people who do not operate firms or work full time for wages can gain income by selling items they produce in small volume through home gardens, craft activity or family produce.

Start developing commons throughout the neighbourhood.

Later start working on replacing imports to the town or suburb. The proportion of the town or suburb's consumption that is met by imported goods is typically very high. When goods are produced somewhere else and imported this means that the jobs that were involved in their production are not located in the town, and it means that money is flowing out of the town. The CDC should explore what items the town is most likely to be able to start producing to replace imports. Food is an obvious item. Other possibilities are fire wood, and insulation, as replacements for imported energy, and timber from woodlots and earth for building.

Work on reducing the need for money in the first place. The CDC must constantly focus attention on the importance of living simply, making things yourself, home gardening, repairing, sharing and re-using. The fewer goods people consume the less that the town will have to import or provide. The more simple their demands are the more likely that these can be met from local resources. The more we do without or make for ourselves the less money we need to earn in order to buy things. Every dollar we can cut from our expenditure the less the town needs to export.

The CDC could develop craft groups to increase home production. It might organise classes, skill sharing and display days for gardening, pottery, basket making, woodwork, sewing, preserving, sewing, sandal making, weaving, leatherwork, blacksmithing, etc. It could list skilled people willing to give advice or run classes. It could also list sources of materials, especially from the commons such as bamboo clumps and clay pits. The CDC could develop recipes for nutritious but cheap meals mainly using plants that grow well locally.

Leisure, entertainment, celebrations, festivals and culture. One of the committees within the CDC should focus on the possibilities for providing local entertainment, especially including regular concerts, dances, visiting artists, drama groups, craft and produce shows, art galleries, picnic days, celebrations, rituals and festivals.

Form a town bank (or credit union) and business incubator, creating the power to set up the kinds of firms the town needs.

The research and educational functions of the CDC. The most important functions for the CDC are to do with education. After all the main point of the exercise is to bring people to understand the need for and the rewards offered by the new ways. All activities provide opportunities for increasing awareness within the surrounding region.

If we do make it to a sustainable and just world order then the transition will have been begun by tiny groups of people who at some point in time have taken on this task of working out how they could start to move their towns and suburbs towards being highly self-sufficient and cooperative local economies.

The approach outlined is positive and immediate. It is not about destroying before we can start to build. It enables living in and enjoying the new ways, to some extent, here and now, long before the old system has been transcended. There is nothing to stop us starting this work immediately. Above all, given our global situation, what other action strategy makes as much sense? Is any other more likely to get us to The Simpler Way?

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