AnarWiki/markdown/Ca_Favale.md

[Anarres](The_Dispossessed:_An_Ambiguous_Utopia "wikilink") - '''Ca
Favale '''was an [anarcho-communist](Anarcho-Communism "wikilink")
[ecovillage](Intentional_Community "wikilink") that existed in rural
Italy from [2000 to
2012](Timeline_of_Libertarian_Socialism_in_Southern_Europe "wikilink").

## Description

According to [Peter Gelderloos](Peter_Gelderloos "wikilink"), who stayed
there for several nights in 2005, Ca Favale was:

> Ca Favale was a little village in the mountains east of Genova. It was
> abandoned thirty years ago, and now going on five years a group of
> anarchist lived here, restoring the crumbling buildings of stacked
> stone. The village sat on about fifteen acres of land. There was a
> quartet of chickens, two beehives, dogs, a wriggling pile of newborn
> puppies, a hillside of olive trees, grapevines, a couple orange and
> lemon trees built into a microclimate on the south side of a stone
> wall, terraced gardens, and about eight residents; though the number
> climbs as high as twenty in the summer. Most of them are Italians and
> German-speaking Swiss in their twenties or fifties. One of the older
> people there had been in the struggle for decades. At the end of the
> ’70s, early ’80s, her partner was locked up for belonging to an
> armed anarchist group. He died in prison, when their son was four.

> There were an indeterminate number of buildings in Ca Favale, with
> perhaps twenty rooms between them, though half of these were under
> renovation, and some even lacked roofs and floors. The architecture
> bespoke an organic collectivity, with a common kitchen, one compost
> toilet, many bedrooms, and buildings built very much into one another.
> The ambiguity between passageways, halls, and courtyards even tested
> the separation between inside and outside.

> The people of Ca Favale were mostly involved with construction and
> renovation, building roofs and the like. My first full day we hauled
> thirty years worth of mud from the spring-fed pond that served as
> their reservoir, then rebuilt the little dam and reinstalled the pipes
> that carried water down the hill. Others were also expanding the
> gardens. This work took up most of their typical day. Afterwards they
> would gather for a hearty meal and long, involved conversations,
> emptying a two-gallon jug of wine in the course of the evening.

> Here they countenanced no dichotomy between destroying capitalism and
> building a replacement. Though the work of the village kept them busy,
> they tried to stay involved in the struggles in the cities, and their
> idyllic situation was no doubt a summer haven for city activists.
> Several of them also translated anarchist books into Italian.

> My second full day there, 20 Marzo, was a day for lying in bed with a
> book or a lover listening to the wind howl. Fortunately I had a book,
> <em>Notes of a Native Son</em>, another gift from a friend, but
> outside of the sleeping bag my hands got too cold to enjoy the
> arrangement. After having my fill of lying around I went out to turn
> soil for a new garden on a terrace below the houses, along with two
> others. The rain began to freeze and bounce off us in white balls, but
> this too felt good in a way, so we worked until it was too dark to
> see. I asked “What is the difference between work, labor, and play?”
> We laughed at the primitivists who said that agriculture was
> inherently alienated; that farming was necessarily work in the
> negative sense. We were enjoying ourselves there on the mountaintop
> terrace — the exertion, the assault of the cold wind, the sense of
> accomplishment, the anticipation of watching the growth of delicious
> vegetables. Then I got a blister and said: “if I turn one more
> shovel-full it will become labor,” so we stopped and went inside for
> supper.

> At Ca Favale I felt they had really created libertarian communism.
> There was plenty of work to do, and some days it was exhausting, but
> you invented the curious tendency to do it willingly and happily. You
> could sit around all day if you wanted — if you were feeling sick or
> low it was encouraged — but before too long you felt moved to get up
> and participate in an act of creation. There was no separation between
> work and leisure, and the pace of activity, whether resting or
> working, was relaxed and self-guided. Certain days brought a burst of
> energy to finish some project, and those involved worked fast and
> hard, but the next day would happen to be a rainy day and we would do
> nothing but talk and cook or nap under warm blankets. There was no
> system of inducements, no rewards and punishments, and if you had a
> problem working with someone else you talked about it as a group,
> argued a little, laughed and resolved it. Or, I heard, personal dramas
> would grow and deepen, and maybe they would go away in time, or maybe
> somebody would leave. This wasn’t paradise. Some of the folks in the
> collective got sick of one another, and they often had to work hard to
> communicate well or find common ground. But it was great to see in
> practice how people need no wage or fear of punishment as long as they
> are living for themselves, not working for someone else.

> Martedi, 21 Marzo was a glorious sunny day in the mountains. Three of
> us turned more soil, preparing gardens for planting, talking in
> capering Italiano or the knock-kneed singsong of Schwitz-Dutch. Later
> we split wood. Around noon I sat on sun-warmed slate and wrote a
> letter to L, the uppies napping around my feet or nibbling my toes.
> Only then did I realize it was the first day of spring. This would be
> a good year, I decided. I sensed there was some tribulation waiting in
> the wings; not an easy year, but a good one nonetheless.\[1\]

## Disbanding

In 2012, members of the ecovillage collectively agreed to disband the
community. In their own words:

> After many years, we came to the conclusion that ecovillages, as much
> as we know them, aim mainly to settle into “civil society” and are
> actively seeking no confrontation with the world surrounding them.
> Different from the perspective of fighting domination and exploitation
> and achieving mutual support, these places act as “access
> concentrators”. Traffic goes in, but seldom comes out – if you
> understand the difference. As a matter of fact they represent the
> evolution of old society, in a greener civil society. But war,
> science, economics, (or, in just a word – power) are not questioned.
> When you visit an ecovillage you will generally pay per stay. In some
> of them you won’t be able to even cook for yourself. In some others,
> you won’t be able to simply put your tent. Paid services will be
> present for everything you can imagine. In some places you will have
> to pay just to hear some guru speak. They represent the opposite of
> what free people are looking for.\[2\]

## References

<references />

1.  [Peter Gelderloos](Peter_Gelderloos "wikilink") (2010) [To Get to
    the Other Side: a journey through Europe and its anarchist
    movements](To_Get_to_the_Other_Side "wikilink")
2.  <https://ecovillage.org/project/anarres-ca-favale/>