Info, news & debate
Year: 2025
Help make the world’s first community-owned, commons climbing gym a reality
The world’s first community-owned, commons climbing gym is getting closer to reality. It will be a flagship for the commons models (around finance, governance, asset locking and federation) that we’re trialling in Stroud.
Money Commons: Review of ‘Remaking Money for a Sustainable Future’, by Ester Barinaga Martín
Remaking Money for a Sustainable Future: Money Commons by Ester Barinaga Martín was published in 2024 by Bristol University Press in its series Alternatives to Capitalism in the 21st Century. Available through Open Access, you can download it as pdf or epub here: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/89799 The book provides an in-depth view and thorough analysis of various …
May the 4th be with you: the Empire vs the Commons Rebel Alliance
There’s a global corporate / state machine (let’s call it ‘the Empire’) that destroys nature, democracy and community, and prevents peace. None of this is planned – it’s systemic, even though Empires are always founded and led by the worst among us.
Step-by-step guides to growing 20 different herbs
Here’s a list of very easy beginners’ guides to growing a range of herbs, by John Harrison of Allotment Garden.
How the commons, unlike other movements for change, can reach working-class communities
We’ll need to produce and distribute food and other essentials, and maintain houses, energy and water infrastructure outside of the corporate system – and that requires working people to do it.
Step-by-step guides to growing 50 different vegetables
I guess an article about growing 50 of the same vegetable wouldn’t have been as interesting! So instead, here’s a list of very easy beginners’ guides to growing a range of vegetables, by John Harrison of Allotment Garden.
The fundamentals of Commoning, Part 1: Introduction
I’m interviewing Dil Green about the fundamentals of commoning. Dil is part of Mutual Credit Services (MCS) – designing models for the commons economy, that groups in Stroud and Liverpool in the UK are using in several sectors of the economy, including housing and finance.
Making local food production and land commons more viable with procurement hubs
small, local food producers are having a hard time making ends meet, because small farm incomes are falling, due to supermarkets constantly squeezing farmers/growers, to make food prices cheaper and cheaper. Here’s a potential solution.
Laying a Hedge with ‘dead hedge’ and woodchips rather than a bonfire
The first time I watched a hedge being laid was way back in the day. I vividly remember the enormous bonfire that followed, as the contractors burnt all the brash – with a little help from a can of diesel and some pallets. I saw it from Castle Cary, a good three miles away, and I thought the house had gone up. Yikes.
Green light for the UK’s first commons-owned climbing centre
Some exciting news to start the year for climbers and commoners. The UK’s first climbing commons, in Stroud, has finalised a deal with a location in Stroud, and if all goes well, there should be a commons/community-owned climbing centre opening in the summer.
How to track deer and find them in all seasons
Nature Mentoring is a North American site containing a wealth of information on how to discover simple methods for exploring the plants, birds, trees & wildlife of your natural landscape. Deer tracking is one of the great thrills of exploring the outdoors for many nature lovers like myself. The ability to find deer on a …
Commoning the flax/textile industry: Dil Green of Mutual Credit Services
I’m talking with Dil Green of Mutual Credit Services, who design models for building the commons in all sectors of the economy. Today we’re talking about building a textile commons around the flax / linen industry.
Darren Allen on civilisational collapse
There’s a debate about whether humans are in a ‘collapse era’. Here’s one of our favourite authors, Darren Allen’s take.
An amateur winemaker’s calendar
Amateur winemakers are not a uniform bunch. We are diverse and unconstrained by market forces or labeling laws, or much of any legal prohibition except good common sense.
Feb 2025 news from the commons movement in Stroud & Liverpool
This is the first monthly news update for what’s happening in the budding commons movement in Stroud and Liverpool, plus Mutual Credit Services and our partners and friends around the UK and the world.
Grow your own flowers to avoid the environmental horrors of the global flower industry
See our flower growing topic for tips on growing your own flowers; and see below for the problems associated with the flower industry, that you’ll avoid. The global flower production industry (the floricultural industry) is worth approximately €64.5 billion and is typically limited to socioeconomically developed countries such as the US and European countries. The …
Does foraging damage the countryside?
Andy Hamilton – ex of Self-sufficientish has written books on foraging, and his new book New Wild Order is out now. Here’s his take on whether foraging is bad for the countryside and wildlife: