Longo Maï
{{Short description|European-Latin American agricultural cooperative network}}
{{Expand language|topic=|langcode=fr|otherarticle=Coopérative européenne Longo Maï|date=December 2021}}
{{more citations needed|date=January 2017}}
The Longo Maï Co-operatives are a network of agricultural co-operatives with an anti-capitalist ideological focus. Founded in 1973 in Limans, France, the network has spread in Europe and to Central America.
History
File:Longo Mai Limans ETH Bibliothek Com LC0410-003.tif
Following the events of May 68, groups of students from Austria and Switzerland who held anarchist ideologies collaborated to raise funds to allow them to buy land upon which to start to farm collectively. In 1973, they purchased 270 hectares of land at Limans near Forcalquier.
The community's ideological leader was Roland Perrot, a military deserter from the war in Algeria. Perrot knew Jean Giono and had experienced the free commune in Contadour in the 1930s. The ideological focus of the community is anti-militarist, pacifist, anti-capitalist, and egalitarian. Activities focus upon self-sufficiency, community life, craft and agricultural production, the joint management of energy, water, and respect for the environment.
Longo Maï has been involved with various international solidarity efforts with a particular focus on resistance against dictatorships.
Facilities
The ten Longo Mai co-operatives operate in a network:
- In France:
- Limans
- Briançon, Saint-Chaffrey (Hautes-Alpes) which processes 12 to 15 tons of wool a year
- Mas de Granier, the village of Caphan at Saint-Martin-de-Crau (Bouches-du-Rhone);
- Treyne, Chanéac, Upper Ardèche (twenty adults and twelve children in 1999)
- Cabrery, wine and olive trees
- In other countries:
- Ulenkrug, Mecklenburg, Germany;
- Hof Stopar Eisenkappel in Carinthia, Austria (17 hectares plus 25 hectares leased, breeding sheep)
- Montois farm in the Swiss Jura (12 ha geese and sheep)
- Uzhgorod, Transcarpathia, Ukraine, with a French school in the 1990s
- Finca Sonador in Costa Rica{{cite web|url=http://www.sonador.info/en/ |title=Longo Mai, Costa Rica |publisher=Sonador.info |date= |accessdate=27 December 2011}}{{cite web |url=http://www.longomaicostarica.org/ |title=Home |website=longomaicostarica.org}}
The head office of the cooperative is in Basel, from which are organised campaigns to collect donations (about five million francs a year in the 1990s).
File:30 ans publics de radio zinzine.JPG
The cooperative also has media operations
- {{ill|Radio Zinzine|fr}}: A {{ill|Free radio|fr|Radio libre}} founded in 1981 and named after the hill in Limans on which the community was founded. It is affiliated to the European Federation of Free Radio
- a news agency, l'Agence Indépendante d'information (AIM), which has a hundred contributing journalists
- le journal Archipel, Journal of the European Civic Forum
- It also publishes some books.
See also
- Coopératives Longo Maï - from Wikipedia France
- La coopérative Européenne Longo Mai de Limans
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Longo Maï}}
- {{Official website}}
{{Co-operatives}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Longo Mai}}
Category:Agricultural cooperatives
Category:Agriculture in society
Category:Cooperatives in Switzerland
Category:Agriculture companies of France