🗞️ Microsolidarity Network January Update
Growing practice through connection
As the year gets underway, our first issue is filled with ways to connect across the Microsolidarity ecosystem.
This month you’ll find many invitations to practice and learn, to explore shared power and regenerative forms of leadership, and to collaborate and build together.
Small and big experiments continue to take root in different places around the world, and this issue offers an inspiring peek into what’s growing right now in our network.
Community Highlights
🕸️ org-clinic: Practical help for better organising and shared power
Hello my dear Microsolidarity friends, Zoe here.
I joined the first Microsolidarity gathering in Belgium in May 2022, and had one of those rare “oh wow, these are my people” moments. Almost everyone in the room spoke both NVC (Nonviolent Communication) and IFS (Internal Family Systems). That had basically never happened to me before. Usually people I meet maybe know one of those, and only rarely both.
It felt like stumbling into a hidden ecosystem of relational and structure nerds who actually do stuff, not just talk. I’m still genuinely grateful for how generous this network has been with sharing, reflecting, and experimenting together.
For me, Microsolidarity is a peer learning network and a community of practice: a place to get inspired, try things out, train your “organising muscles,” and meet others who are paying attention to similar qualities in whatever they’re building. Both a playground, and a gym, in the best sense.
The biggest teaching I took home was literacy of scales: what I can do with myself, what’s possible in a dyad, what becomes doable in a small crew, and what requires larger structures. It maybe sounds simple, but it really changed things for me.
When I’m staring at “dismantle capitalism” or “reverse climate collapse,” my nervous system does the classic shutdown. But when I come back to human scale, I can breathe again, and actually move.
When I stop trying to “solve the whole world” in my head and return to my body, something in me relaxes. I can feel my feet again. I can breathe. And then the next small step reveals itself. Those little moves might not look super impressive from a distance, but they’re how living systems grow. And over time, they become momentum.
During that first gathering, I remember asking Nati Lombardo something like: “What about using more nature-based metaphors for community building? Communities are grown, not built.” And she basically hit me with: why don’t you do it yourself? 🫠
So I did.
Since then I’ve been co-creating, and practicing decentralised organising “in the wild,” most recently with Cosy Club in Helsinki: a multifunctional space run by around 40 members in a genuinely decentralised way. It’s a living lab of trust, structure, culture, repair, and learning-by-doing.
And now I’m testing a new format you can join.
I’m hosting org-clinic, a recurring Zoom space where you can bring a real situation from your work, team, or collective, and we work through it together in a practical way. You can also just listen and learn alongside. It’s meant to be low-key, grounded, and genuinely useful: we look at what’s real, and find the next workable step.
We had the first session last week, and it was very Microsolidarity-flavoured. Here’s a small harvest:
* Don’t build “the perfect system” for an imagined future. Start with what’s real now: who’s here, what capacity exists, what needs are actually arising.
* Minimum viable structure beats premature bureaucracy. Add only what helps at the current scale. You can evolve it later.
* Scale literacy is a relief. Some coordination problems aren’t “personal failures.” They’re a scale mismatch.
* Trust becomes actionable when you make it concrete. Reliability, boundaries, feedback, and clarity about who decides what.
* If the conversation floats into big abstractions, bring it back to the body and the next real step. Praxis over philosophising.
If this sounds like something you’d enjoy (or benefit from), you’re very welcome to join.
Next org-clinic is Monday 9.2. --> 90 minutes, starts 17:30 (CET) / 8:30am (PST)
Sign up here!
It’s a recurring thing, so if this date doesn’t work, there will be more. I will inform about upcoming dates & share previous recordings via email/substack: subscribe here!
Upcoming Events
🌱 //touch grass - Mar 26-29 - Elkenmist
An invitation from Sara Bajor:
I’m hosting an event at Elkenmist, which has been the 2-time venue host of USA Microsolidarity Summer Camp! While this event is a little different, I’ll be bringing lots of microsolidarity-flavored structure and facilitation. So if you happen to be somewhere at the intersection of microsolidarity, tech (especially web3/blockchain), and wanting to gather with others in a STUNNING natural setting (the Pacific Northwest near Portland, OR), then this one is for you!
March 26-29, 2026
A 3-day retreat for web3 builders focusing land regeneration, ancestral skills, and community innovation.
Would love to see you out here or just hear from you in a DM if you’re interested :)
🤙 February Network Call - 5th February - 18:30 - 20:00 CET / 9:30 - 11:00 PDT
Join us for this month’s network call as we continue the “Present Your Project” series.
Jonas will share about Civil Action Network, supporting an engaged civil society in Vienna. And Ieva will share about Holy Motors Camp, an incredible community project in the wilderness beyond the Arctic Circle.
We’d love to see you there!
Simply register on Open Collective for €3/month and you’ll receive a calendar invite with the Zoom link for these calls
Get involved!
📞 Stay Connected on Telegram
Looking for ways to keep the Microsolidarity connections flowing? Our main Telegram channel is where our community stays active: crew invitations, local meetups, peer support, book clubs and the ongoing conversations that keep us linked.
Jump in, say hello, and see what’s happening. Or invite a friend and introduce them to the group!
👉 Join here and check the pinned Welcome message to introduce yourself.
Got a Card Deck? Join the Card Chat too! There’s also a dedicated Telegram group where we share experiences, inspiration, and creative uses of the Microsolidarity Card Deck. Scan the QR code in your deck for some card-focused fun!
✏️ Share what’s alive for you
Got something microsolidarity-related to share with the network? An invitation, reflection, update, or creative piece?
Submit here by February 25th, or reach out with questions at microsolidarity@gmail.com
That’s all for this issue! See you next time!
Gui
Know someone who’d love these updates? Feel free to pass along the link to subscribe 👉 microsolidarity.substack.com/