GLIMPSES INTO THE YEAR 2100

Daily life in the libertarian communist society

Introduction

The "glimpses" are a way to make the world commune of communities of the libertarian communist society less abstract... It is based on the big experiment of kibbutzes - the communes movements of Palestine-Israel of about 94 years, my following it since age 7, and living within it age 16 to 32. Nearly non of the members of the kibbutzes were libertarian communists.. Most of them were first of all naZionists of various trends, But, till it started to deteriorate, the internal relations among the members were libertarian communists and the decision making was mainly direct democracy. (At the present, most of the kibbutzes are in the process of privatization.)

Ri got his morning beeper signal in his ear. As a fast riser, he just enjoyed the melody for a short while before turning it off. Quietly, so as not to wake up his mate Ti, he paid a short visit to the service room, put on his clothes and walked towards the community centre.

It was still the grey light of dawn on the third DD (Direct democracy) day of Spring. Partly because it was a bit cold, partly by way of morning gymnastics, Ri walked fast - nearly running the few minutes till he arrived at the entrance to the dining facility.

He was delegated to a season of auxiliary work at that facility, and this DD morning, it was his turn to ensure the system was ready for the new day. He checked the temperature of the various drinks and porridges, and took from the cold room the vegetables, fruit and various salads for the breakfast diners.

Then he poured himself his morning mug of tea, took a nice slice of the cake he so liked and sat down at the early risers table.

He had just sipped the first few drops of his tea when Dana sat down at the other side of the table - giving him the warm, intimate smile that was so common between the near-sisters and brothers of the same age group that had grown up together. Dana was mandated this year to the work organizer team, and it was her turn today to ensure all the essential tasks were taken care of - either to call replacements for people who were sick and could not tend to their tasks, or for emergency tasks in the community or the region that could not be put off.

Just before Ri finished his last sip of tea, a noisy group entered. They were people destined for a community in the countryside that needed help picking vegetables, as the warm weather had caused a lot of tomatoes to ripen too early.

Ri's usual work at the facility was to prepare the products for the "chef" responsible for the special foods for people with specific needs - part of it for people who used the dining facility, part of it for people who were taken care of elsewhere: the seniors' facility, the local clinic, or just people who were too sick to come to the dining facility.

While he was busy working away, Gal, who helped the "chef" who did the regular dishes, came in to start his shift, and asked him how the educational committee had been yesterday. They were both on it but he had missed it because of some family happening.

Breakfast time passed, as did the preparations for the midday meal and Ri finished his work tasks for the day and went home to sit near the communication facility. There, he was joined by his mate and together they browsed the texts that were relevant to the evening meeting of grassroots community members.

Together they went to the midday dining facility to eat and chat with friends and together they returned home. As Ri had missed out on his sweet morning sleep and, consequently, on some of the intimacy they should have shared during the week, they decided to dedicate the afternoon to mutual indulgence...

DD-day tea time was the usual kind of family meeting. Accompanied by their two siblings, today was their turn to visit Ti's parents. Also present were some of Ti's other family members, including her brother and his family, who were from a far-off community - on the other side of the city.

All together, they went to the dining facility to enjoy the family "reunion" some more. After the meal, they went each their own way - the kids to their age-mates, the grown-ups to their various recreations, and Ri returned to the communication corner in his home, browsing the texts of the regional assembly delegates. This year he was the delegate to the regional assembly which grouped members of each of the 200 grassroots communities in the region. In the chat room of the regional educational committee, he chatted with some of the other members about the decisions the committee had proposed for the DD-day assemblies of grassroots communities in the region.

The proposals were about some changes to the regional educational system. After long discussions in the educational committee and approval by the regional assembly, it was decided to bring to the grassroots communities themselves the suggestion to try to get more involvement from the older kids in the education of the younger ones. In fact, it was some of these older kids, who were involved in an informal aid project with the younger ones, who had originally made the proposal. It was proposed that the changes be systematically assessed and, if successful and satisfying, the changes would be put to the assembly of delegates of the whole city.

After the evening meal in the community dining hall, the members of the community started to converge on the DD-day general meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting, chaired by one of members of the interpersonal relations committee, various committee members and individual members proposed subjects for discussion and decision. The first round was on the subjects to be included and the ones to be put to further discussion by the specific committees or at the end of the list, to be deferred to the next meeting if the time allocated to the assembly was insufficient. As usual, the final agenda was agreed without anyone calling to vote on specific items, and deliberations on the various items began. First, the proposals from the various committees that no-one in the committees had objected to were put to a formal vote. Then, proposals involving some minor disagreements or requests for change were put up for discussion and vote - some involved changes in the efforts to reach a consensus, others were decided on by an overwhelming majority, and one was decided by a marginal majority, at which stage the assembly decided to send it back to the specific committee in order to seek consensus in some way.

As the more pressing subjects were cleared quickly, there was plenty of time for the last matter. Ri was invited to report on the discussions and proposals for a decision of the regional assembly. Most of the items were rapidly approved, but a proposal from the educational committee of the regional committee brought about heated polemics. As time passed and it started to get late, one of the more involved proposed to defer decision and if there were no clear majority of support for the decision among other grassroots communities in the region, to continue the discussion at the next DD meeting.

The end of the year festival days

Ri got up slowly. No need to hurry today – the first of the five end-of-year days. After getting up and visiting the dining hall with his mate, Ti, and their youngest girl (aged 5) Di, they sat in the communication corner and opened the family statistics.

First, they looked at their energy consumption records. Last year, they had reached their limit a few decimers before the end of the year (the decimer, or 10-day period, replaced the old 7-day week) as a result of Ti's hobby of scooter driving. But as the rest of the grassroots community was far from reaching its limit, the requests of Ti and a few others for an increase in their energy consumption quota had been approved. This year, they were just a bit below the family quota limit.

After that, together with Di, they looked through her statistics for the year. They were glad to see that she hadn't gone over the limit for any of the sections - clothes, foods, sweets, toys, etc. Indeed, they noticed that her use of luxuries fell far short of her quota, so they discussed the various options and, in the end, Di decided that she would spend what remained of her quota on a trip to the far-off mountains with her five fellow affinity group members. (The basic educational unit and the new living-space units were arranged in such a way as to accommodate six new births per year.
Babies were usually born at the end of spring, so expectant parents moved to new living-space units after the autumn, after pregnancies had passed their initial medical checks. The new design of these living-space units better suited both the privacy of each child and couple, and also enabled 24-hour care for the children, who had their own affinity group space until they grew up and joined the company of the older children.)

Then, they went to the sports centre where they played a few games of table tennis with various partners. In their teens, Ti and Ri had been enthusiastic table tennis players and had participated in many regional and all-city tournaments. They had got to know each other better and after a while moved in together into Ti's community. Now it seemed that Di was intending to follow in their footsteps, though it was still a bit too early to conclude that it was the sport she loved best.

Like on the other special days, Di did not return to her living space to eat with her own group and instead accompanied her parents to have dinner at the dining hall. After the meal, they returned to the group living space for their midday nap.

When they got up, the screen on their com unit was flashing. On approaching it, they saw the latest news: the need for the commune factory's products (special medical supplies) had dropped due to some innovation in hospital procedures. This meant the grassroots community assembly would have to find an alternative for a significant part of the work they contributed to the society that lay outside their community.

The members of the workplace production committee were urged to start studying some alternatives before the next meeting of the committee, so they would be able to prepare it in time for preliminary discussion at the coming DD assembly.

The main alternatives given were: first, to increase production of other items or new items by the commune's old factory. Second, just increase the number of work shifts of community members in other community, regional or city workplaces. And third, build a new production facility to replace the old one, which would need a commitment by members to take on a long-term mandate to work there, as it would require a significant period of training.

Ri and Ti, who were among the commune members who contributed a significant amount of their work shifts quota to the old factory, discussed the subject at length.

Ti tended towards the third option. Ri, who had been involved over the last few years with the community's educational committee and recently with the regional committee, raised the possibility of his wanting to train to become an educator in the region educational system. Over the years he had been ambivalent about the subject. His mother was a well-known educator and still worked in this capacity. As a child and teenager it had seemed to him that an educational mandate made people too serious and was not compatible with his involvement in light music. However, he was very relaxed with youngsters, and the education committee suggested time and again that he become an educator. Once, in spite of his reluctance, the subject was even brought up at a DD community assembly discussion, but the community accepted his refusal of the mandate.

After a while Di joined them for late-afternoon tea and cookies and both had a nice surprise when Di's big brother Ted joined them. Excitedly, he told them about the small theatre show his affinity group had prepared for the community festival and the possibility that it would be chosen for the regional festival the next day.

The community's announcement system started to play the evening festival theme music that had been adopted just after the revolution in 2050. The music was a kind of a magical march for them and it accompanied them and all the members of the community to the dining hall. Among the walkers were some wheelchairs with the old folks who were too frail to walk. Most of them, as well as some of the "younger" veterans who were proudly walking, wore the honorary hat of that was given to participants in the uprising that had sparked off the revolution.

The tables were arranged around a small stage and waiting for them was the traditional meal of the poor wage-slaves in the harsh years that had preceded the revolution.

After the meal, one by one, small theatrical groups presented short sketches on life before the revolution and during the next 50 years. Then the tables and chairs were cleared away and the hall turned into a dance hall with local musicians taking turns on stage, playing old and new tunes while people danced the night away.

When Di was too sleepy to stay any longer, Ti and Ri left Ted with friends and returned to the dwelling area to put Di to bed. Having said goodnight, they ensured that one of the other parents in the dwelling area would stay there, awake, to look after the children and returned to the dance.

The best-kept secret about the revolution just revealed

Ri got up a bit earlier than usual on the second day of the 5-day end-of-year festival. He had an important schedule because of his mandate as member of the regional assembly of delegates. The first thing was a meeting of the educational committee. The meeting was hosted by a neighbouring community.

During the morning, they edited the final draft of their yearly report to the assembly of delegates. Immediately after the midday meal they shared at the host community's dining room, they joined the other members of the regional assembly for the accountability meeting. Though the draft reports of all the committees were already available on the communication system, there was a non-redundant discussion at the assembly as nearly all committees were proposing some points to deliberate and to put on the agendas of the regional grassroots communities for decision.

The main point raised by the educational committee was to intensify the relations and visits of the older teens with the various city polytechnics so the passage to higher education would be smoother. The idea had been discussed the previous year by the city educational committee and a few regional educational committees had accepted the challenge to be the testing ground, if approved by their regional and grassroots communities. The decision finally arrived at was that the new approach would be approved by the regional grassroots communities, and a special programme would be developed for the two higher age-groups of the region's high school.

When the regional assembly finally ended, they had a surprise waiting for them: they were invited to the 80th birthday party of Gil, a veteran of the city spokespersons at the time of the uprising that eventually became the 2050 revolution. He was a member of one of the grassroots communities of the region and had even participated a few times as guest at the regional committee. However, throughout the years he participated as a welcomed non-delegate at meetings of the city and regional assemblies committees, though he refused to be formally delegated to any of them.

It was a mystery all those years why he refused to be delegated to the region or city or any higher-level assembly of delegates. Though he was not a delegate to any inter-city assembly of delegates he was twice proposed as a special delegate to the world assembly of delegates, but even then he declined the offer.

Rumour was he might use this birthday party to reveal the reasons for his strange reluctance to be delegated. And indeed, when the party was drawing to an end Gil called for a moment of quiet, and started to speak:

"You all know that before the revolution I was a member of this country's specific anarchist federation for years. In the spokespersons' assembly of the mass uprising of 2049, I was often delegated by my regional collective to the spokespersons' meetings of the coordination committees of various social struggle movements. The day when events in our city proved to be the turning point in the revolution has been written about in the history of the revolution. There was even a movie about the critical hours preceding the explosion of the bridge that prevented the last efforts of the State forces who were trying to disperse the spokespersons and suppress the uprising. The movie, and all the other texts about these crucial moments, vividly describe the moment when I put forward a motion calling for a vote whether to continue the discussions and polemics or to block the State forces from entering the city. Some "consensus people" objected to any vote as long as there was strong objection from the Leninist left and other reformists and the chairperson, who was also the head of his party's central committee, just refused to put the motion to order to the vote.

And, of course, you all know that I and a few other comrades forced him out of the chair. I replaced him and put the call for a motion to order to the vote. The overwhelming majority supported it and discussions at that point ended. Immediately afterwards the usual two speakers in support and two against made their cases briefly, followed by the vote on the decision to block the State forces from entering the city. There was overwhelming support for blowing up all the bridges leading to the city, and this was immediately implemented. It was the point when the 2049 uprising turned into the full-blown 2050 revolution...

But what you do not know, and what was never revealed, is that I did it on my own initiative - without any collective decision or deliberations... Because of this - and not as a form of self-punishment or guilt-cleansing, but as a precaution against any repetition of power-taking by me, on my own initiative - I refused, from that moment on, any mandate for any post involving decisions about other people - not even a specific mandate, if included the tiniest amount of power or authority."

Making his way home after the party, Ri could see how fast these sensational revelations were spreading over the information system - first the regional one, then the city system, quickly reaching the news headlines of the world main language feeds.

As he entered their dwelling unit Ti, who was still up despite the late hour, excitedly shared the sensational news with him...