The global network of communitarian unions embodies a living experiment of collaborative living underpinned by sharing resources that brings to fruition a way of life that culminates in “Rich By Association” shared prosperity that centres on personal progression, group development, common good and ecological stewardship. This model of living draws on the wisdom of past and present communal movements while offering practical solutions for today’s social, economic, and environmental challenges.
Sharing life in a communitarian context means living together in a way that strengthens human connection, builds trust, and fosters a sense of belonging. This involves sharing meals, knowledge and skills, celebrations, and contributing labour and expertise to Right Livelihood eco-social production enterprises, which form the heart of communal living.
Daily Communal meals
Food is a powerful unifier, and daily communal meals serve as a cornerstone of the collaborative lifestyle, commonly referred to within communitarian union circles as “Deep Union”. Meals are prepared collectively using living foods from Organic Kitchen Gardens and Permanent Agriculture Food Forests, ensuring that the essential fuel for our bodies is clean-green, fresh, abundant, and accessible to all contributors to living food production.
- Shared responsibility: Rotational food preparation, table service and cleaning duties
- Health-focused diets: The Communal Union’s focus on Living Nutrition ensures that meals are predominately raw and fruit-based to support health and longevity
- Communal gathering: Meals are a time to pause, connect, and engage in reflection, fostering social bonds and a shared sense of purpose
Gestalt Personal and Group Development
Collaborative Living is as much about personal growth as it is about collective well-being. The Gestalt approach to personal and group development helps individuals build self-awareness, navigate interpersonal dynamics, and resolve conflicts.
- Personal growth sessions: Associates engage in self-reflective practices and peer-supported dialogue to identify personal barriers and opportunities for growth
- Group development workshops: Groups engage in structured activities that facilitate skill-building in the areas of advanced communication, leadership, peace-processes, cooperation, understanding and radical honesty
- Conflict resolution: The use of Gestalt principles supports conflict resolution through nonviolent communication, leading to greater emotional maturity and understanding within the associations
For communitarian associates, the pursuit of knowledge is critical to both personal and group development that strengthens the intellectual and cultural fabric of the globally networked eco-social unions.
- Communitarian curriculum: Associates study the works of key communitarian founders, explore the history of communal unions, and engage in modern courses related to eco-social living and Right Livelihood enterprise production and distribution of essential life-supports
- Weekly study circles: Associates gather for study sessions, discuss key texts, and apply learnings to daily life
- Recognition of growth: Celebratory events mark milestones in learning and development, reinforcing the value of lifelong learning
Organic Kitchen Gardens & Food Forests
Food sovereignty is a key element of the communitarian collaborative lifestyle and love-style. Organic Kitchen Gardens and Permanent Agriculture Food Forests provide the local and regional communal unions with direct access to clean-green living food.
- Collaborative cultivation: associates work together to plant, grow, and harvest produce
- Educational opportunities: associates learn regenerative agriculture methods, mineralizing depleted soils, composting, and seed-saving techniques
- Seasonal feasts: Harvest celebrations bring the unions together to appreciate the fruits of their labor
The practice of Liberated Love begins from the fourth year of association and is marked by the liberation from possessiveness and transactional models of relationship. It is expressed through Evolved Relational Expression and Psychosexual Progression. Combined, these evolved relational and intimacy practices supply the foundations of ability to give and receive affection beyond mere attraction, enabling those living and loving in association to connect in ways that are deeply physically and emotionally satisfying.
This depth of connection arises from the development of interpersonal communication skills and capacity to give and receive authentic, whole-body and whole-mind stimulation, cultivated through Gestalt practice to achieve well-rounded, ever-increasing emotional maturity.
Liberated Love
Liberated love removes the constraints of exclusive possessiveness. It emphasizes love as a shared communal experience that benefits all who come together to live the collaborative lifestyle and love-style. Rather than being limited to private, individual relationships, love is embraced as a foundational communal principle, allowing associates to experience deep emotional and physical connection through shared affection and care.
- Free from possessiveness: Associates practice love that is not bound by jealousy, rather this style of relational expression supports emotional growth and interconnected well-being.
- Building emotional maturity: Through dialogue and self-reflection, members develop an understanding of love that is based on respect, honesty, and contribution and concession, if needed, for the collective good.
- Expansive love: Love is shared with all associates of the union through acts of hospitality, kindness, service and support that are not limited to romantic partners.
Within communitarian union settings, relationships are seen as opportunities for intellectual, social and emotional stimulation and expansion. Evolved Relational Expression means moving beyond traditional, fixed roles into dynamic, co-evolving partnerships with as many of those who practice eco-social principles, as possible.
- Personal evolution: Associates of all levels commit consistent time and effort to develop the knowledge and skills that cultivate clarity and emotionally stable relationships
- Relational growth: Participation in the Gestalt Psychosexual Progression sessions with the immediate communal union, associates explore how they can best develop their personal capacity to contribute to the collective well-being
- Guided progression: Group workshops offer support for exploring emotional and psychosexual growth, ensuring it aligns with the community’s core values of evolved ethical living and relating
Resource sharing is essential principle and practice that supports the daily needs and long-term sustainability of the collaborative living associations. From healthy Living Food to transportation to livelihood production equipment and tools, the community’s goal is to maximize the use of shared resources.
Within local and regionally networked communal unions, nutritionally dense foods are grown, shared, and prepared collectively. Surplus production is either laid down as stores, shared with other communitarian networks, or else sold to provide financial security of all those involved in contributing to Right Livelihood eco-social production and distribution of all that supports life, liberty and happiness.
- Food sharing: clean-green organic living foods are grown according to planned participatory governed collaborative provisioning methods in both backyard Kitchen gardens and larger collective Permanent Agriculture Food Forests to provide consistent access to nutrient-dense produce
- Distribution: Produce is distributed among the communal unions according to need and availability as well as adequate reserves of stores laid down to provide local and regional ‘common’ wealth food security.
Mobile Accommodation & EV Vehicles
Shared accommodation and transport systems allow members to reduce environmental impact and increase mobility to achieve socio-economic security.
- Mobile accommodation: Communal Union Shareholders practice communal living through collective ownership of mobile homes and communal living facilities. The reason accommodation and kitchen and laundry units as well as MAKE HUBS are predominately mobile capable, is three-fold:
- To ensure the unions are able to lift and shift in the event of climate, economic and political challenges that require the unions to swiftly respond and adapt to ensure the safety and security of our residents.
- Investing in off-grid mobile accommodation facilities enables the communal unions to easily relocate to take up opportunities to contribute to Right Livelihood projects including rural and remote land and waterway regeneration
- Building Mobile Accommodation is a HOME FRONT practical LOVE-IN-ACTION contribution to addressing the social-economic human right to live in peace and security.
- Electric vehicles (EVs): Vehicle-sharing reduce the collective’s carbon footprint while also reducing the costs of initial purchase, maintenance and insurance.
Right Livelihood Tools & Equipment
Production equipment, tools, knowledge, skills and best-practice processes and systems are shared among worker-owned and operated eco-social enterprises to sustain and advance the economic base of the global network of communal unions.
- Production of organic fruits and greens: Communal Unions cultivate produce that is shared for sustenance and sold to support collaborative livelihoods via sharing the means of production
- Renewable Energy Generation: Renewable Energy Generation installation and maintenance equipment, tools and knowledge along with best-practice is shared among the global network of communal unions contributing to the spread of renewal energy generation to power tiny house villages and EV transport hubs
- Make Hub natural fiber manufacturing: Communitarian unions create natural fiber clothing, fostering self-reliance and sustainable production
- Recycling, repurposing, and repair: Clothing, Furniture and Building Materials are recycled and repaired, reducing waste and encouraging resourcefulness
Practical Love-In-Action
Love in action is not merely an ideal – within communitarian circles it is the daily practice of eco-social revolution. Associates engage in on-the-ground activism that aligns with communitarian values to create tangible impact.
- Everyday revolution: Acts of love are seen in daily toiling that involves simply living tasks such as gardening, food preparation, cleaning and maintaining personal and communal living facilities, along with offering hospitality, demonstrating that love is a verb – a doing word. Without action, love remains an unfulfilled sentiment, unable to bear fruit or realize its true potential. In contrast, the communitarian principle of Love-in-action requires committed consistent action that contributes to the betterment of people, animals and the planet.
- Eco-social activism: Associates engage in practical activism projects that involve collaborative planning, seeding and maintaining Permanent Agriculture Food Forests to contribute to environmental restoration, sustainable clean-green food production, and zero-waste living.
- Eco-social Education: Communitarians are committed to the dissemination of knowledge and practical skills that contribute to the adoption of sustainable living and Right livelihood practices within the communal unions while also building support for communitarian principles and projects by schools, universities and community groups. Our main focus is food security, vocational education, collaborative provisioning and ‘common’ wealth Right Livelihood enterprise.
Rediscovering Our Shared Humanity: The Path to Collective Living, Loving, and Thriving
The practice of sharing Life, Love, and Resources within the network of Communitarian Unions is a radical reimagining of human relationships, social organization, and resource management. However, this style of living and loving is not new. On the contrary, it is the oldest form of human interaction, grounded in the timeless understanding that together we achieve more than we ever could alone. By integrating the principles of shared meals, liberated love, shared production, and eco-social action, the global network of communitarian unions offers the stepping stones to creating a more just, sustainable, and fulfilling way of living.
As the movement grows, it calls upon others to join in a collective effort to live simply, love fully, and share generously. The commitment to sharing life, love, and resources within collaborative living transcends strategy, offering a transformative way of being human in deep connection with one another.
