Emma Goldman Finishing School is Seeking New Members

We are looking for new members at the Emma Goldman Finishing School (an egalitarian housing community in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Seattle). We are, like a lot of people all over the place, trying to figure out how to have different relationships with each other and the world. We think the world is burning and the time to collaborate and try and struggle and work is now. We would love for a group of 2-5 people who know and love each other to move in, as this has worked well in the past and we have a number of openings. Individual members would be great, too.

Our community started fourteen years ago when a bunch of radicals pooled their resources together and bought a funky old twelve-bedroom house. They turned it into an egalitarian commune where people lived together and experimented with different economic and political models. For example: we save up money every month in the hopes of seeding other radical and egalitarian communities in Seattle, and have a time-based micro-economy where everyone's time is valued the same as everyone else's. Core to our project is that people need a strong home-base to be effective and healthy activists, organizers, and humans, and that we should try to live with each other in more egalitarian and humane ways. To that end, everyone who lives here has healthy food, transportation, health care, and a safe and cozy place to call home.

We are just one strategy amongst many social justice projects in this town, this country, and this world. We don't have all the answers. We don't even know all the questions. We are messed up and problematic in interesting and specific ways, and could write tell-all books about the missteps and heartaches of life at Emma's. Another way of saying this is that we are a human project made up of humans. At the very least, we are an excellent training ground in direct democracy, and all the messiness that horizontal structures bring. And on our good days, we're a lot more than that.

We would love to explore membership with you if any of this sounds interesting, and you're interested in communal living with others.

In the past, we've had some communards who do all their community labor working at Emma's. Currently, with the economy how it is, everyone who lives here has to have some form of outside income. Sucks, but true (at least for now.)

Last, our house has lots of delicious queers. If that's a problem for you, go away. Far far away. Similarly, racists, fascists, patriarchs,
bigots, vanguardists, and anyone who doesn't see the need to examine their own privilege in the world are not a good fit. Sleepy dreamers, wise fools, and fellow travelers are always welcome.

If this sounds interesting, check out our website at egfs.org. We hope you will consider becoming part of our community.

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook

Comments

There are currently no comments

New Comment

required

required (not published)

optional