We’ll never have a peaceful, just and sustainable world (or, as Charles Eisenstein says ‘the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible‘) whilst the land that sustains us all is owned and controlled by a tiny minority of the population.
We need to transcend private land ownership.
But what is the alternative?
Community Land Trusts are a good option and Homes and Hands is a great video that illustrates the different ways that community land trusts operate in the U.S. Produced by Women’s Educational Media. For information about ordering the DVD, visist this page on the US National Community Land Trust Network website.
See also our earlier post Coming Home: E.F. Schumacher and the reinvention of the local economy which is also covers CLTs.
The video was riveting but is it true to say that in a CLT, a resident’s security depends on them being able to maintain an income from the economic system which has property as its foundation? In that, it could be seen as a governance method for that system … ie. put your shoulder to the wheel of THAT system if you want shelter. Does CLT depend on the continuation of that economic system which, like the Monopoly board game, creates wealth and security for some but poverty and exclusion for others?
It would seem to me that the only sound principle on which to base a CLT would instead be the recognition of our birthright to land (access, not ownership) for housing, and the acceptance of birthright linked responsibilities towards the land claimed – sustainable living being essential.
@landrights4all