Above: Hundreds of ecotopians hiked across Europe to the camp, helping local groups along the way. Opposite page: explaining solar collectors at ecotopia. direct actions or for little maintenance tasks) people came through. We don’t tell anyone when to go to a workshop, but we occasionally talk about how late the loud music should play — again this balance of maximizing freedom while taking care of others. Though I must say that the happiest ecotopians are the ones who are the most flexible about these things. Back in 1990, the ecotopia motto was “Don’t worry, be flexible”. This year’s theme was energy. There were a number of workshops for renewables and energy efficiency, and against nuclear power. On the anniversary of Hiroshima/Nagasaki we protested nuclear testing in Sofia at the embassies of countries with nuclear weapons. We had solar hot water heating equipment (which saved a fortune in gas for cooking and showering) and a photovoltaic system for lights, a tape deck and an amplifier. We brought a windmill, but the promised Bulgarian wind was on summer vacation. Over 160 ecotopians went on the tour of our sustainable energy system and studied its basic principles. (Some people were confused by the announcement of a tour of our “solar system”, which they thought was an astronomy workshop). Besides energy, there were workshops on bicycle repair, dynamic meditation, eastern European environmental problems, belly dancing, making art from garbage. Volume XIV, Number 3 alternative education, UNCED, how to rip off the system (and the ethics of it), jealousy and multiple relations, intentional communities, feminism and the environment, consensus decision-making, anarchism, biotechnology problems, the Chinese language and character drawing, alternative economic systems, European east-west relations and several dozen more. Ecotopia is organized by EYEA, the European Youth Forest Action network. The name is a bit odd: we are not solely European, not all young, and we don’t just work on forest issues. EYEA is a decentralized network of direct actions, political bike tours, youth seminars, anti-nuclear work, ozone/climate change work, central European organic agriculture and soft tourism. Most folks who work with EYEA are under 25, European and active in community work, and/or school. A handful work full-time for EYEA. EYEA also tries to connect eastern with western Europe. One way to do this is to remove some of the economic barriers making it difficult for easterners to travel and participate in events like ecotopia. EYEA solicits money from charities and governments to help subsidize the travel of east Europeans (and some Westerners). We also use an alternative money system. If you come from Russia, 1 Eco costs 8 rubles, if you come from Germany it cost 1 DM. It costs 10 Ecos per day to stay, eat and participate in ecotopia. Everything is sold for Ecos (t-shirts, juice, chocolate, beer etc.) The European “official” exchange rate makes 1 DM about 120 rubles now. EYEA charges the westerners a bit more so the easterners can pay much less. There are ways to cheat the system. We tell people how to do it at the beginning of the camp and then ask them not to do it — this works reasonably well. We try to stress the need for trust. It does not always work. Early at this year’s event the Eco rate for the Ukraine was 3 rubles to the Eco. This was so cheap that a Ukrainian bus driver on the first day went to the ecobar with 900 rubles and demanded 100 bottles of wine (priced at 3 Ecos per bottle). Clearly this was not for his daily personal consumption. We moved the Eco rate closer to reality and limited purchases, from EYEA, to 10 Ecos/day. This worked despite much concern over the idea of limits. There was also much talk this year about “the state religion”. A woman, Emily, approached EYEA about building a sweat lodge and holding evening earth rituals at the Bulgarian site. The organizers decided this would be a good idea, and helped bring her, and an assistant, to Bulgaria. Emily had some rules about her sweat lodge, it was constructed in a very special way and was not to be used as a mere sauna, but only for ceremonies. At first some people wanted to stop this organization-sponsored “worship”. But in the end it was a non-issue. Emily led a number of sweats, and after the last ritual she removed the alter and gave the lodge over for use as a sauna. Another controversy arose the night before a demonstration at Kozloduy nuclear plant, located on the Romanian- Bulgarian border. Some people felt moved to commit civil disobedience while others felt that there weren’t enough local people participating in the event. There was worry over Page 46 RAIN Spring 1993
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