Who are the people involved in Becollective? (Ages, background)
Most of the people involved are young, unemployed, some are students with little experience in agricultural work, they come from different parts of the country but most of them live in Heraklion. The one thing we have in common is that all of us are active in local and central social and struggles, antifa e.t.c., in one word we are comrades.
How did Be collective came to exist? Are those who started it still involved?
Becollective did emerge from the need of 3 people that worked together producing biological vegetables (than it was called biocollective) to sell them on the biomarket in Heraklion, after 2 years (2008) this project was dissolved because 2 of the 3 of us moved away professional term paper editors read here. After two years it was restarted with a completely new aim, which was producing Olive oil and distribute it for a fair price firstly to structures, groups and people which are involved in social struggles with anticapitalistic-antifachist characteristics.
Slowly we are in a process of distribute other products like thyme honey, soaps, sea salt and other stuff.
The name was changed to Becollective because to be collective is the most important thing for if people want to change their lives and reinforce their struggles. One other important thing is that the term BIO now means Healthy Food for Wealthy People (the rest can go shop crap in Lidl), it is also a lie (as a market strategy) because almost all of our environment (especial the agricultural zones) is polluted, soil and water. We try to Produce as honest, as organic as possible in a mono-cultural production zone, the farmers around us don’t, so we cannot (we could in market terms), or better we don’t want to be labeled as BIO.
To the second part of the question, one. Since it is a seasonal work there is now a core of 5-7 who take care of the Fields and at harvest there can be about another 10 involved.
How is the network (that brings the olive oil to other countries in Europe) created? Who are part of it (people/collectives and places).
The network is still developing and we want to keep it that way. As everything else it started as an idea which was adopted with much love from comrades, House projects, food coops, Foküs and collectives in Germany.
Why is Be collective created? What is the context (economic/political) in which it emerges?
Becollective was created to offer a realistic autonomous way of work, production, distribution, to give people and groups the possibility of making a living “outside” of the regular capitalistic market (although nobody is really outside, let’s say in a alternative way) and to connect to the existing structures of the Global solidarity economy network. The Text that follows is kind of “our manifesto”
Oil for the Gears of the Movement
“So we have a corpse on our backs, but we won’t be able to rid ourselves of it just like that. Nothing is to be expected from the end of civilization, from its clinical death. In and of itself, it can only be of interest to historians. It’s a fact, and it must be translated into a decision. Facts can be conjured away, but decision is political. To decide on the death of civilization, then to work out how it will happen: only decision will rid us of the corpse.”
The Invisible Committee
If not now, when?
The wheel is turning , the times are changing , the until recently steadfast system seems to be trembling. Many of its servants wake up from their blissful sleep and face reality with terror. The middle and small class on their whole, don’t only lose the earth under their feet but their illusions as well, the ability to get a loan and consume. Unemployment is rising, the wages are falling, the taxes are increasing both in number and in height along with the basic goods’ prices .The system tries, through means of psychological and physical violence, to maintain its control so as not to displease the loan sharks of both the markets and IMF, thing which is hard to manage , because without the carrot the whip is intolerable.
If not us, who?
These are the times of social, economic and political crisis that we have the opportunities to turn our theory into practice ,to create and evolve networks, collectives , communes.
“communes that will replace social structures : family, school, syndicate, athletic clubs etc. Communes which, beyond political action , won’t be afraid to organize for the material and ethical survival of all of its members and the ”poor devils” that surround them”
The fair and solidarity trade is a step towards this direction. The project “oil for the gears of the movement” besides providing a fair price to the producers for their products , wants to go one step further , to deposit the extra profit in a fund that supports structures with subversive – revolutionary targeting like alternative/counter-information media (printed press, online etc), solidarity fund to support imprisoned comrades and political prisoners etc. We find it necessary to create structures that contradict the existing capitalistic economy both ethically and practically , structures that will allow us to make a living ,self-organized and with dignity. Furthermore it is strategically right in these years of economic wretchedness that arises, to have the means to intervene as best as we can with the current political and economical developments, so as to set and continue our struggle in all levels.
Who are we
Becollective is located in Crete(Greece) and wants to become a network, an umbrella under which various agricultural projects will take place and evolve, in purpose to distribute their products self-organized (without merchants and middlemen) among similar-minded projects. Fundamental conditions for this is that all products are a result of labor that respects and doesn’t pollute the environment and the people involved, cooperate freely and equally, without boss-worker relationship.
Crete – June 2011
How has the work you do shape the way in which those of the community or those involved relate to each other and to the environment?
Working in a collective is completely different, the absence of a Boss means to be responsible of more than just showing up and make your labor. Logistics, coordination, resources, tools, taking decisions all have to be done in a collective way, which is not exactly something people are familiar with, so it is a difficult path, full of obstacle and traps, it is a learning process with tensions and disappointments but also something that forges strong relations and in the case of a “success story”. Labor which has to do with agriculture is also something that has risks, to depend on the climate, especially in this times of climate change is not something that gives confidence in the manner of a sure income. Anyway to earn your living with nature is also a very educative and pleasant process.
What has be collective done to your live? How has it shaped it?
It gives an alternative, it offers a bright perspective. Building up a structure that helps emancipation, that offers the experience of self-organization which serves as an working example that can change lives and perceptions is something meaning and powerful. It also is a permanent struggle with the plenty of bad habits our social environment inherits us.