Anarchism in Norway - The largest Collective in Oslo

When I was in my early twenties I lived three years in Oslo were I frequented Hausmania, Blitz and the little red house in Hjelmsgate which are three buildings run by people volunteering to serve the larger community in the core anarchistic society.

Image Credits: Dagsavisen
Hausmania works to get everyone who need it, roof over their heads and to pay the bills, the collective arrange concerts, events, theater, charge rent from the people who live there and run a vegan restaurant.

Most people in Hausmania are friendly, artistic and just want to live their life without being chased by authoritarian police because of their poverty, their substance usage and mental problems. Everyone living there have their own issues, and overcoming them by participating in building up and maintaining the community is very rewarding to each and every one of them.

Image Credits: Klassekampen
The way the Hausmania community is run is by having a meeting every week where they basically talk and argue for about two hours until it gets out of hand and someone needs to calm down the group and remind each other that they are all in the same boat.

image credits: NRK

Once or twice some of the artists break free economically with their music, paintings or in one way or another becomes wealthy. When that happens, the rumors spread around Hausmania like wildfire, and spite, jealousy creates hate and more then once have I met successful people who moved out from there after a few years, and I met quite a few veterans who had lived there before but was only visiting (like me) to support the ideology of voluntarism in a self-governed society next to the only river running through the capital of Norway.

Image credits: hitchcockian

Most of these people don´t want another lifestyle, except some day to have their own house with a garden where they can grow their own food, smoke their own weed and live their own lives. What is so wrong with that?

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I have many great stories to tell from these visits, follow @fyrstikken for more later