New tools for growing the commons, part 3: roadmap for a strong movement
This is Part 3 of a series of 4 articles about new tools being developed to help build the commons.
Part 1 was about how I discovered these tools, and why they excited me.
Part 2 was about how they protect the commons from co-option, purchase or cancellation.
This article is about how they can help build a movement to challenge the status quo.
Part 4 is about what a commons town / world might look like.
Recap of the tools and their benefits
I’m part of a commons group in Stroud, collaborating with Mutual Credit Services, Local Loop Merseyside and others, working with Ostrom principles and a package of tools (some completely new, some old and repurposed) that we’re provisionally calling the ‘Integrated Commons Toolkit’. These include credit clearing and mutual credit to help reduce the need for (extractable) money, use-credit obligations to help build commons without debt, a custodian member class for stronger asset locks, and the Credit Commons Protocol for federation to scale.
More on the tools we’re using here.
We believe that these tools can help achieve exponential growth in community ownership in ways that others haven’t, because they can provide affordability, security of tenure and jobs as well as places for people to put part of their savings / pension pots to get reasonable (typical pension-grade) returns, without having to engage with the corporate finance sector; and they can help protect the commons from attack by corporations or the state.
More on the potential benefits of these new tools here.
The Growing the Commons collaboration
Below is an overview of what’s happening in our collaboration, helping build commons as an alternative to corporate capitalism, or at the very least, as a safety net to prepare for what’s coming.
In Stroud, a commons-owned climbing centre is opening this year. Not essential for community resilience – but rather, a flagship project to show what can be achieved with new commons-building tools. Stroud Housing Commons has one house, with happy tenants, investors and steward. We hope to double the number of houses in common ownership each year for as long as we can. There’s also a project to investigate the possibility of building a number of ‘tiny homes’ for food growers, on or near community food producing schemes around Stroud, to reduce housing costs for food growers.
A group of academics and activists from our collaboration and elsewhere have joined forces to create a ‘Commons Lab’, which will:
fine tune existing commons tools and models
research and develop new models
develop a prospectus, business plan and ‘playbook’ to help launch housing, climbing and other commons in communities anywhere, potentially using a social franchise model
provide support and advice for franchisees
provide training for aspiring commoners (maybe online, maybe face-to-face in a bricks & mortar venue, probably in Stroud).
After the success of the Festival of Commoning in Stroud this year, a group of 15 locals has formed to organise a bigger and better festival in 2026.
In Liverpool, Local Loop Merseyside is preparing to launch in 2026, to help small businesses in Liverpool save money and solve cashflow problems. Its loop clearing, liquidity injection and clubs of businesses that trade together regularly will generate mutual credit networks that reduce reliance on the banking sector. And as with other sectors, everything can be replicated in other cities and federated together using the Credit Commons Protocol.
Finally, a number of commons-building groups have come together to launch a knowledge commons, called Growing the Commons, and comprising a blog, forum and a knowledge base of 250 topics, governed and owned by a network of specialist curators. It’s still under construction, but will launch in 2026, after which the curators can add new topics, recruit new curators and grow the knowledge commons as a common resource.
We’ll blog here about the launch and growth of all these initiatives, including the festival programme.
The wider movement
I’ve focused on our tools in this series, because I’m involved with developing and implementing them. I do think they have the potential to give the commons movement a huge boost, but there are thousands of other tools that are helping build commons.
This is a very good thing, because it has to be a huge movement to deliver the scale of change we need. We’re prioritising the housing and small businesses sectors, both of which are so important, and so fundamentally broken that any improvements will benefit millions of people relatively quickly. If we can provide affordable housing with secure tenancies, and help small businesses save money, we won’t have to try too hard to recruit people to the movement.
Colleagues have been talking about these ideas with groups in the Czech republic, Sweden, Belgium, France and even Pacific Islands. We’ve had enquiries about the imminent housing commons playbook from groups in north Wales, Spain and the west coast of the US; and much more is already happening.
But a commons movement has to be about relationships and community. In my home town in the UK, hardly anyone walks any more, most front gardens are paved and there are very few local pubs or shops left. Opportunities for social contact are disappearing. Perhaps the most important aspect of the tools I’m writing about might be their ability to bring people together in commons groups, from which strong local relationships can be built.
Growing exponentially
We need to build a movement that can grow exponentially. I don’t want to make any extravagant or grandiose claims that we can replace capitalism, or transcend it to a commons world (although of course that’s my hope), but I do want to claim that we can make this movement grow exponentially – then who knows what can happen? Whatever it is will be largely emergent, and therefore beyond prediction right now. It’s difficult to build a strategy for the commons – there are just too many moving parts, with a hostile corporate sector in the driving seat. This article is just an outline of some of the things that could happen if we recruit and build. If they do happen, we’ll be in a much better place to take the next steps in challenging the corporate system.
Most people I speak with these days understand that it’s a new system we need, and that tinkering with this one won’t be enough, any more than putting a sticking plaster on a tumour would be. Which means that it has to grow quickly as well as exponentially, because we can’t bring houses into the commons if Blackstone has them all, which they eventually will if they’re not stopped. I’m not saying let’s square up to Blackrock or Amazon - but there are plenty of cracks in capitalism, where we can plant seeds. If that can open up those cracks and allow more seeds to be planted, we have a chance. It’s how capitalism superseded feudalism after all. Feudalism wasn’t ‘overthrown’ and capitalism wasn’t planned – it was just built in the cracks – starting with things that feudalism didn’t do well. So let’s do that. Capitalism certainly doesn’t do housing or small businesses well.
We can’t spend all of our time trying to clean up after capitalism – which is what almost all my friends do for a living (unsurprisingly, I don’t have many investment bankers in my circles). We can’t keep pulling babies out of the river, without at some point going upstream to find out who’s putting the babies in the river, and trying to stop them. We won’t get close to a new system in our lifetimes – but we can build commons. If you don’t believe that commons could be the bridge to a new system, then what could? Or should we give up on ideas of a new system altogether, get some popcorn and intoxicant of choice, sit back and watch the end of the world show? If that’s what you believe, I’m not saying you’re wrong – just that I’d find it more interesting to try.
One more thing: to grow exponentially, the commons movement has to make sense in working-class communities, where the vast majority of people live. Then the message will change, from ‘new system’ thinking to the immediate benefits that commons can bring. Many people in working-class communities have demanding jobs, money worries and no capacity for activism. But most people won’t be reading this. You are. So how about it? Got any capacity to help grow the commons movement?
Get involved
Commons is a way of bringing 3 kinds of people together:
activists, who would like to help build something different – something community-based, as an alternative to corporate capitalism
people with savings or a pension, who would like to get a reasonable return, but would prefer their money to help develop community, rather than making the super-rich even richer.
people in need, who would like secure, affordable housing, affordable utilities, care, and jobs.
Contact us if you think you might like to get involved in any of the projects mentioned above. Are you any good at writing, interviewing, editing, proof-reading, business planning, strategy, coding, fundraising, event organising, marketing, web development, UX, UI, law, finance, economics, admin, sales? Would you like to talk about investing, or setting up a housing (or other) commons franchise in your town?
Please contact us if any of the above applies to you. I promise you’ll find it interesting, and as the movement grows, very satisfying. If not, please consider subscribing, sharing this on social media and talking to people about it. Here are more details of how you can get involved.
Growing the Commons will be a platform for news of this movement, blogging about new projects and existing projects and their successes. We invite articles from commoners everywhere.