LONGO MÄI (Limans)

Walking towards utopia

travelling by communities and ecovillages

LONGO MÄI (Limans)

www.longomai.org
+33 (0) 492730598 / 492731356

Longo Mäi (which doesn´t mean “long May”, but “long life”) is a group of European Cooperatives, being this visited of Limans the oldest and biggest one. Situated in the region of Provenza, it was founded in 1973 by people from different European countries with the intention to achieve in practice a collective life project after the mobilizations of May’68.

Between 60 and 80 people from 0 to 60 years old share economy and big and diverse outbuildings, being housing distributed in houses, caravans and other vehicles, besides a guest house.

The main tasks and income are: sheep meat, wool clothes, bread, derived products of flowers and plants (oil, cologne, cream), runing a rural tourism complex several kms. far, fruits and vegetables tinned. Other activities and spaces are: big organic gardens (fruit, vegetables, cereals, aromatic and medicinal plants...); bioconstruction (traditional restoration, straw houses); Radio Zinzine, with regional broadcasting and since 1981; wood workshop; mechanic and agricultural machinery workshop; making beer in project; computerized office; publications; social-political activities; etc.

Besides hundreds of sheep, there are goats, pigs, horses, chickens, geeses, dogs and cats. The food made taking turns in the industrial kitchen alternates between omnivorous and vegetarian. They speak many languages: French, German, English, Castilian-Spanish... Phone and internet.

From the first, to bring their own activity into line with international injustice events, they have made support campaigns for refugees of the Chilean “coup d´état” that first 11-S in 1973 and other conflicts as the repression in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Likewise, these last years they have acted as international observers after the racist conflict in El Ejido (Almería-Spain; in collaboration with the Country Workers Trade Union-SOC of Andalucía and other organizations), reporting in Europe the exploitation and the inhuman life conditions of the immigrant people in that tremendous “plastic sea”, which it´s visible from the moon and 1000 trucks leave everyday.

I had the impression that some people didn´t like very much the visits -I understand it partially-, although maybe it was due to they were happening through a difficult emotional moment...

The Longo Mäi network has 5 cooperatives in the SE of France, 2 in Switzerland and 1 in Germany, Austria, Ukraine and Costa Rica. In France, La Cabrery makes wine and Mas de Granier manages a direct marketing system with organic vegetables baskets. In Spain(s) they are linked with the community Los Apisquillos in the mountains of Madrid, where people born in LM are living there (phone 0034-918696004).

TRAIN: La Brillanne (15 km., line Marseille-Veynes Devoluy??)
BUS: Forcalquier (5 km., departure from Marseille)

STAY: 2-10 June´06

Other Longo Mäi cooperative (St. Martin de Crau) appears in Eurotopia

Link to PHOTOS