World in Common - History

History

Previous efforts to bring these various elements together, and, to a greater or lesser extent, inspiring those who founded the World in Common project, were the Discussion Bulletin of Frank Girard, published from 1983 to July 2003, the year before Girard’s death; The “Imagine International” circular among these same groups in the late 1990s; The Red Menace, a Canadian publication of the 1970s; as well as the writings of such thinkers as Maximilien Rubel, John Crump, and not infrequent references to the commonalities in many of the classic anarchist and socialist thinkers.

The purpose of WiC (according to the WiC “Core Statement”)is “to help inspire a vision of an alternative way of living where all the world’s resources are owned in common and democratically controlled by communities on an ecologically sustainable and socially harmonious basis”. Of course, the many other groups and political parties in this sector have much the same objective but the role that WiC envisions for itself is unique. In their view, one of the reasons that the anti-market anti-statist sector remains relatively small and ineffectual has to do with the extent to which the various groups remain isolated from each other and regard each other with mutual suspicion, and even sectarian hostility.