Building an autonomous and resilient Falmouth

Cooperation Falmouth is a horizontally-organised group (no hierarchy, no leaders) working to prefigure Falmouth: to imagine and create the society we actually want to live in.

Cooperation Falmouth was started by members of Dyski Organise, Enlichen and Community Alive Falmouth.

We are at the start of journey, but our work revolves around three key pillars:

MUTUAL AID & THE SOLIDARITY ECONOMY

We are developing systems of mutual aid, which are voluntary and collaborative exchanges of skills and resources to lessen our dependence on money.

One example of this is Falmouth LETS (Local Exchange Trading System): a mutual credit scheme where people can exchange resources and skills with others in their community digitally without the need for money, using the local currency of ‘the Falmouth palm’. Cooperation Falmouth is working to update and revive the open-source software behind Falmouth LETS.

Systems that encourage mutual aid, such as Falmouth LETS, feed into the solidarity economy: an alternate economic model which prioritises democratic decision-making, environmental sustainability, worker self-management, and social justice.

DIRECT DEMOCRACY

We are facilitating the building of systems of direct democracy, where Falmouth residents can get together to talk about the issues that most affect them and plan how to resolve those issues themselves.

Our members have experience organising and facilitating community discussions about topics such as climate resilience, anti-fascism, and large infrastructure developments.

STRENGTHENING COOPERATION

We are supporting existing and new grassroots initiatives and cooperatives to build food resilience, housing resilience, solidarity, community, biodiversity, the circular economy, and more.

Our members have experience working with existing grassroots groups across Falmouth to help them work on their goals so we can all benefit from a more resilient community.