# Microsolidarity (µS) @ ScuttleCamp One

[Audio here](https://scuttlecamp-one-6ilzq3-microsolidarity.hashbase.io/)

Jakob & Mikey intro.
Starts with a check in...

- maybe starting a coop with some friends
- concern about the roots of income inequality
- when I have regular income, set some aside to pay for more experimental projects and contributing to things you care about
- distributing economic & emotional energy for more resilience
- microsolidarity names some important simple patterns from complexity, that are transmissable into other contexts
- Emmi? background in mutual aid networks, e.g. housing
- curious to find out what µS is
- Mnin? looking for non-hierarchical structures, more freedom; intrigued to learn what works, practically. also how working relationships can be nurturing & healing
- Zenna: interested in pre-existing structures that map across to µS

Mikey: involved in the early days, when we called it "livelihood pods", income sharing "professional family" within Enspiral. Then in Scuttlebutt, we started an emotional-but-not-economic sharing space called the Faerie Ring.

## Intro to the µS concepts

- Zenna's slides <<<link coming...>>>
- the world is facing mass extinction
- mass centralisation of power, election fraud, etc
- we need courage to persist
- we need resilient methods for making meaning
- people with life-sustaining values can support each other to keep going in the face of adversity
- introducing a vocabulary for different kinds of groups:
- self
- dyad: two people in relationship
- crew: small enough to fit around a dining table
- congregation: small enough for everyone to know each other's name
- crowd: anything group big enough for people to strangers
- modern society is mostly designed for individuals and crowds, crews and congregations are very under-served
- reciprocity game: listening; consistency; reflection & vision;

µS is about curing individualism, practicing small scale relationship, sharing emotional mutual aid, then deepening into economic mutual aid, building small units of solidarity and connecting them into a large movement.

## Our experiences: what works, what doesn't

* Zenna: not much experience, worked in [Syndicalist Youth Union](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Anarcho-syndicalist_Youth_Federation), organised in a [sociocracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociocracy); crucialy important to do the bonding (contrasted to the documentary *[The Swedish Theory of Love](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swedish_Theory_of_Love)* about isolation in Sweden.)
* Mikey: part of Root Systems worker's coop, worked well for 3 years providing livelihood for 7 people. Closing up now. Helped being in the Enspiral congregation. We formed our crew based on circumstance, like who was in the room at the moment. We pitched people on the great benefits: flexible work, support, stability. But we didn't recruit people for doing the hard struggle. If I did it again, I would put more effort into the invitation: focus on how much struggle is likely to be involved.
* Mikey: our Faerie Ring in Scuttlebutt has been great. 3 to 8 people emotional support group. Meet every fortnight. Non-negotiable: you always do a check in round where one person speaks and everyone listens. Then we have another focus question which helps us get to know each other. How do we turn an 8 person support group into two 4-person groups? I think that is the way to scale. Our group is so good that no one wants to leave. But I think we could have many of these all over SSB.
* Mu: Have successfully avoided a lot of hierarchical organising, e.g. in activist communities. I have different language but maybe talking about the same thing.
* Emmi: a lot of the µS work is directly cribbed from 200 years of anarchist tradition. That's the language I'm familiar with. E.g. mutual aid open border support network: sharing money, time, emotion, trust. Have also run Feelz Circles, emotional support groups for activist. Ran it for 6 months using 3-P's (Personal, Professional, Political) format. Wrote [How To Form a Radical Feelz Circle](http://emotionalanarchism.com/how-to-form-a-radical-feelz-circle/). There are some new elements in µS.
* Alanna: have been in the space most of my life, e.g. housing coops, regional burns, Enspiral... have spent very little time in hierarchies. Learing that other people have very different experiences so we can't take our understanding for granted. E.g. we joined POC21, the hacker's alternate event to COP21, self organising temporary community. Had expected we could jump straight into complex social processes, but were shocked to find a lot of the fundamentals were missing, e.g. practice sitting in circles, listening, managing the attention economy, turning up for things punctually, knowing how to be facilitated. Group needs to be clear if it is coming together primarily to produce an output, or primarily to support each other as people. Currently in the [Protozoa](https://protozoa.nz) coop, which is very clearly about relationships first, work second.
* Teq? *hard to hear with people speaking loudly nearby* :)
* We have a crew. I was lonely and not making profit, so some colleagues joined with me: shared income support group. It's not working out so well, we're still together but maybe not for long. Failing as an emotional support group, maybe we are not such a good fit for each other. We haven't found enough income either. Without a source of income it is very difficult.
* Songyi: the crew is very similar to what we do in Korea. We call it a "geh" (*a kind of [shared savings circle](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/asian-women-giving-circle-sisterhood-service-game-changing-geh-n500731)*). Have been involved in this for more than 10 years, e.g. collecting our money together and giving it to someone on their wedding, or a birthday. My mum has many geh circles, school, church, etc. Many small communities.
* Songyi: we still do this, shared working, rotate from one person to the next, like we all go work on Alanna's place this week, then my place next week... In bigger companies, people are encouraged to form into small groups to do activities, like exercise for example. KaKaoTalk (similar to WhatsApp in Asia) even has features for shared payments.

## Action

Let's get more Faerie Rings started in Scuttlebutt! (Mikey writes down a list of willing participants...)

See more at microsolidarity.cc