Utopia of Resistance: 40 Years of Longo Maï (Die Utopia der Widerspenstigen: 40 Jahre Longo Maï) (review)

The Longo maï cooperative network (http://www.prolongomai.ch) was founded in 1973, inspired by the events of the May 1968 student revolutions across Europe. A group of Spartakus students from Austria and Switzerland met in December 1972 in Basel, Switzerland, in an “I nternational Congress for the Education of European Youth” (Internationaler Kongress zur Bildung Europäischer Jugendgemeinschaften). Inspired by the revolt of May 1968 and a general malaise concerning the state of the world, the group of sixteen- to twenty-four-year-old activists managed to acquire derelict agricultural land in Limans and Forcalquier, near Avignon, to found an agrarian cooperative. This was the beginning of a whole network of self-governed cooperative farms and intentional communities, particularly aimed at rural communities in decline. Self-sufficiency, biodiversity, upskilling, interpersonal networks, and the reclaiming of land vulnerable to rural land speculation were its leading principles. Each cooperative, to date established in Switzerland, Germany, France, Austria, the Ukraine, and Costa Rica, aims to live self-sufficiently off the land, works with local raw materials, and provides agricultural and artisan apprenticeships for its members. The cooperatives are managed on the principles of self-government, conviviality, and consensus politics. Activities focus upon self-sufficiency, community life, craft and agricultural production, the joint management of energy and water, and respect for the environment. Longo maï’s manifesto underpins this by highlighting the idea of the “European Neighborhood” (Allmend).

Funds to establish the cooperatives came initially from private donations and later on from trade unions, churches, and industries. As critics have pointed out, the proclaimed self-sufficiency is in reality living on the charity and benevolence of supporters and benefactors. Initially, the network had many of those. Writers such as Denis de Rougemont, Adolf Muschg, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, and Marc Olliver and even conservative voices such as the Neue Zürcher Zeitung were all avid supporters and wrote about Longo maï supportively as a lived utopia. Criticism set in later, from former members and particularly from the French and Swiss press in autumn and winter 1979–80. The cooperative movement was suspected to be a quasi-religious sect under the leadership of the charismatic Remi (Roland Perrot), was alleged to have stolen donations, and was accused of tax evasion. An early article in the weekly political magazine Der Spiegel (43 [1973]) assessed Longo maï positively, whereas seven years later, an article in the same journal (34 [1980]) highlighted tax evasion, fraud, and authoritarian community structures that little resembled the initial ideals. When the German cooperative Ulenkrug in the former East Germany was founded after the Berlin Wall came down, similar accusations concerning Longo maï’s structure as a quasi-sect were made. Ulenkrug particularly battled for its ideals in a time and place where the end of the socialist “experiment” was hailed as the final victory of liberal democracy and capitalism.

Perhaps some of the criticism inspired the change from a basically anarchistic cooperative to a foundation. Longo maï’s agricultural businesses and landholdings were transferred to a Swiss charity, named the “European Land Foundation,” with a council (Interkooperatives Treffen) that consists of representatives of all sites. Annual reports facilitate transparency and communication between the different cooperatives and governmental institutions.

The traveling exhibition on the fortieth anniversary of Longo maï, originating at the headquarters of the foundation in Basel, is a beautiful small exhibit curated by Andreas Schwab and Ursula Gillmann. It celebrates the history of Longo maï with thematic exhibits on hospitality, “political agriculture,” consensus politics, self-government, and conviviality. But the exhibition is more than that. Ursula Gillmann, the designer of the exhibition, succeeds in allowing visitors to smell and taste the utopian desire of the movement.

This experience is underpinned by documentary films, posters, and displays of Longo maï’s different pamphlets and books. A big round...