A-Infos (en) Germany, Dortmund, AGDO:The Apple & the Trunk - Katja - Fragments of Community (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

CN - interpersonal conflicts, abuse of power
web - www.transform-social.org
Perspective - white queer cis woman in a Berlin housing project.
Community is when you remember there's no more toilet paper in the 
bathroom and quickly run over, laughing, to hand a new roll to the next 
person just in time.
What are the motivations for seeking community? Not feeling comfortable 
in a society where people are marginalized. No longer being able to 
endure isolation. Not being able or willing to keep up with capitalist 
competition. Wanting to contribute to climate-friendly slowness. Wanting 
to share resources to reduce the ecological footprint. Struggling with 
mental health issues. Wanting to develop further. Needing support. 
Wanting to play together.

Different biographies, different utopias. Together in a community? At 
first, it works; at first, the group euphoria and the shared goal are 
paramount. Then it becomes more difficult. Then come those who think 
they know how "the right," "the true" community works, who push 
themselves to the forefront, offering input to others. Potential for 
conflict, at least from an anarchist perspective.

What exactly is community? (No, there isn't one "right" interpretation, 
lol.) Community is characterized not only by social cohesion but also by 
shared resources. These don't necessarily have to be material goods like 
houses in the case of housing projects. They can also be shared goals 
and values, shared experiences, shared time, or a joint project. All of 
these are resources that need to be shared, nurtured, and preserved. 
What's special about anarchist communities is that decisions about the 
distribution, maintenance, and further development of resources are made 
according to needs and by consensus. The community evolves with the 
dynamic goal of anarchist societies.

An anarchist community is a prefigurative structure that embodies an 
anarchist society as best as possible "in the wrong system," making an 
anarchist utopia a reality. A countercultural movement that aims to tip 
the system.

Community is when I cook huge amounts of lasagna and it's all eaten in 
the end.

In an anarchist community, the focus on needs is liberating for those 
whose needs are largely ignored under capitalism. Expressing needs 
becomes a discovery of the self, a liberating act, a countercultural action.

At the same time, there's a risk that the focus on needs could tip in an 
unfavorable direction: desires presented as needs, needs strategically 
deployed, needs that are neither understood nor accepted. People who 
express their needs as emotionally, dramatically, and eloquently as 
possible, with great vehemence and urgency, are more likely to be heard. 
Less articulate, shy, less self-absorbed people, people on the spectrum, 
people with little time for these discussions, tend to get left behind. 
People with needs that stand in the way are pressured by repeated 
inquiries into what lies behind those needs, as if they still haven't 
been understood. Conflicts over scarce resources become a competition 
for the strongest and most important needs, turning needs into weapons.

Why do these battles occur? It's simply not always possible to meet all 
needs within a community. For example, when it comes to scarce 
resources, such as space in a housing project. How do we deal with the 
fact that there are many more unmet needs outside the community? Are we 
stuck in patterns of unreflective consumption and competition? Things 
become particularly problematic in long-term communities when past 
conflicts remain unresolved, when people feel their needs are constantly 
being neglected, and when the competition for needs escalates.

Then trust is lost. Trust that needs will be communicated honestly, 
trust that people aren't only concerned with themselves, that agreements 
will be honored, trust in the future, trust in anarchist communities.

"You only get as much done as you initiate," someone told me during my 
first visit to a housing project. Is that true?

I wish, especially for long-term communities, that we can trust one 
another. A safe space and security. This includes letting go of the 
pattern of shirking responsibility that we learned through socialization 
in authoritarian structures. It's not about blame, it's about 
responsibility. Respecting everyone's needs, respecting agreements that 
were important to others. If others only grudgingly agreed to an 
arrangement, checking in after a while to see how they're doing. 
Intervening when others attack each other. Passive observation 
normalizes this behavior and further humiliates the person being 
attacked, a loss of perspective, a loss of understanding of what 
constitutes appropriate behavior. A loss of security and community.

An anarchist community cultivates critical thinking and the courage to 
resolve conflicts. As an anarchist, can you handle criticism, even when 
it concerns your authoritarian behavior? In long-term communities, 
running away from conflicts is difficult. In housing projects, conflicts 
are your neighbors. And when they get out of hand, ignorance, cynicism, 
and social coldness follow.

Community is when, in rural areas, the entire queer movement comes 
together for Pride without splintering.

Should we shift our focus more towards available resources? What 
structures can we use to recognize patterns of manipulation and 
domination early on, before vile behavior becomes normalized and 
conflicts build up? What agreements do we make for addressing conflicts 
at different levels of escalation, and do we actually stick to them?

Social structures in communities, interpersonal interactions, and needs 
are complex. Perhaps the complexity within the group is too high. 
Perhaps our ideas of community don't align. Separation is just one 
option among many. Especially when it comes to coveted resources like 
affordable housing, separation is difficult. People stay because they 
cling to the resource without truly wanting to be part of the community 
anymore, which in turn reinforces the frustration of those who want to 
strengthen community structures.

Separation is not failure or defeat, but rather the prefiguration of 
diverse communities, a key anarchist idea: Diverse communities form 
around shared interests or needs; communities emerge and dissolve; 
communities separate and coexist. Can we create structures that 
facilitate separation? For communities about which stories can be told, 
stories that shift the narrative, that make anarchist societies conceivable.

Community is what, despite all the anger at violence, brings tears of 
emotion to the eyes when reading "Stone Butch Blues."
------------------------------------------
This text was first published in the zine "The Apple and the Trunk" on 
the topic of community. The zine was lovingly organized, compiled, laid 
out, and printed by the Anarchist Group Dortmund. Many thanks for that! 
The print edition is available from Black Mosquito, and you can find it 
online as a PDF here. https://archive.org/details/DerApfelUndDerStamm/FINAL/
From the perspective of a white queer cis-female person in a Berlin 
housing project.

https://archive.org/details/DerApfelUndDerStamm/Web_2026-03-13-Zine_Gemeinschaft_barrierearm/page/n1/mode/1up
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