Skill Exchange Intro: Basic Repairs for common amenities.

In a post capitalist society, there's still work to be done and we need to know how to do it.

Anarchism isn’t all just doing a weed in the woods with your garden and your 12 gauge. In a post capitalist society, there are a lot of things that will need to be maintenanced, built, managed, and moved, and we will no longer be relying on the labor of others to do it. Which means, we are going to need to learn how to do that stuff ourselves, or ensure that within our organized communities, someone has the know-how to do these jobs.

That intro is a little vague so let’s grab a few specific examples to discuss for a moment before we get into the weeds. Unless you believe in some kind of anarcho-primitivism, where we move from a capitalist society of the modern world, to one in which we all live in lean-too shelters in the woods, there is a good chance you’re going to want to keep some of your modern creature comforts. Like Air conditioning, refrigerators, plumbing, etc. Each of these things requires someone to build them in the first place, and someone to repair and maintenance them afterwards. If your toilet won’t flush, do you know what to do aside from call someone to fix it? Can you trouble shoot why you don’t have hot water? Do you know how to light a furnace, or change the pads/pump on a swamp cooler?

Once you shift from a system in which someone is required to do those things for you, to one where they aren’t, you could find yourself struggling in the heat, or eating some rank food that spoiled on you. So in order to prevent the most suffering possible, let’s talk a bit about some basics for taking care of yourself.

Plumbing 101: Some resources for basic repairs.

Unless you plan on moving too a compost toilet, or just shitting in the woods, basic plumbing skills are going to be vital to your comfort as well as help prevent the spread of disease within the community. Part of the reason plagues were so common and awful during Europe is because they had no major plumbing infrastructure and were simply throwing their waste (human, or animal for butchers) out into the streets. I’ve looked around at a few things and instead of writing a bunch of how-to’s on things like toilet and sink repair, instead, here’s a great channel on Youtube with good info on those things. I will caution you that they also have a ton of goofy click-bait nonsense on the channel. There’s a non-zero chance some Gen-X/Millennial social media guru convinced them it was necessary, and so I won’t blame them. Here’s a solid video on replacing a flush valve on a toilet. Which so happens to be pretty much the most labor intensive repair you can do. And to to be honest, if you know what you’re doing and have the right tools, you can do it in about 15 minutes.

HVAC 101: Making sure its the right temperature in your space:

If you’re like me and live in a desert environment, it can get pretty gnarly in the late-spring to early-fall as far as the heat goes. and because it’s a dry climate, you often see the use of evaporative coolers, AKA Swamp Coolers. Here’s a nice video on some standard maintenance to make sure yours works.

If you’re someone who has a central air unit, or a combo Heating and AC unit outside (or on the roof), this is a good time to refer back to organizing your neighbors, especially if one of them is an HVAC specialist. Having done maintenance at a university housing complex for a while, I can tell you that in a LOT of cases these units are just gonna require massive repairs/replacements of parts. In a post capitalist society these parts may become difficult to obtain. In the case of the coolant: Freon that is in a lot of units, there isn’t anymore being produced. All there is now is all there will be. And it is EXPENSIVE. a small tank currently runs between 600-1800 dollars depending on the type. This means that if your system needs a refill at some point due to a leak or something, you likely won’t get it.

This is a good opportunity to start looking at alternative heating/cooling solutions so you can start working/building them in case of emergency. Since HVAC stands for Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning, here’s a solid video on how to do simple repairs/maintenance on a furnace for those who don’t have an all in one unit:

I’ll cut this one off here, but this is going to be a hefty section with a lot of information over the next little bit. As a matter of fact, the goal will be for you to have all the info you need to do a full yearly maintenance routine as well as the repairs to keep your home safe and functional.

A key to remember about this stuff is while it’s great for you to learn it and be self sufficient, it’s also a good idea to have people in your community capable of it as well. Being able to repair and upkeep your stuff, will make sure that living in a house isn’t somehow worse than the woodland lean-to. Stay safe, and we’ll see you next time.

-EQ