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Yuasa Makoto (AWN staff member)
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The motto of AWN, established in the year 2002, is "working together
we continue living." This is a visible goal to be experienced.
I have been working for about 10 years to support the homeless with an
attitude of "companionship," but the stance of the present activities
is something new to me. Up to now, as a supporter, my activities differed
from the site of work and living.
How different are my experiences now compared to my former activities?
I hope that my views are able to express my personal experiences while
I introduce AWN.
My first contacts with AWN go back to about a year ago. In fact AWN was
established a year ahead, on August 2002. The following is the message
attached to its inauguration: "The persons concerned (homeless) as
well as their supporters work together and handle their businesses in such
a way that, no matter the continuation of homelessness, they manage to
assure themselves with a minimum income of 30,000 Yen to survive."
The first business was the opening of a recycling shop by obtaining second-hand
clothing and selling it in a free market.
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At that time, I was not yet involved in the activities and I cannot explain
the details, but anyhow, the first aim was, "to get a monthly income
of 30,000 Yen through work, in order to have food and to be able to go
to a public bath." AWN rented a 66 m2 space for a shop and an office
with a bathroom attached to it. An organization, called Food Bank, donated
rice and food and that helped to continue the activities. The drop-in-center
functions of the place together with the work done supported the persons
concerned.
I hear that the income of the first month was just enough to pay the needed
130,000 Yen for the rent of the place. In December 2002 the 3 staff from
among the concerned persons were able to earn the 30,000 Yen proposed as
a goal. Besides them, two more persons from the supporters' side were also
working full-time there. It is easy to imagine the pain at the time.
On the other side, I worked as a volunteer with a different organization
to provide jointly guarantors for those in difficult economic situations
to rent rooms, and we had to clean up the place when people had to leave
the apartments. In other words, we were troubleshooters. The job consisted
of solving the trouble, once the people had already left. This was an impossible
mission. I did not want to undertake a work without any future vision,
but there are times when something has to be done and I asked myself how
could I perform the same task providing a vision to it? I reached the conclusion
that maybe work done jointly by the homeless people with the assistance
provided by the ones supporting their lives could become the answer. In
normal circumstances, some kind of a survey could indicate who will settle
things and how, what would be the cost. Then, I thought seriously about
taking it as my job and transforming it in real business. Just, by the
time, AWN business was stagnant after reaching the 600,000 Yen ceiling
and the plans for breaking the 30,000 Yen income-wall had been revealed.
The answer lied in producing more jobs, so that more companions could earn
more income. That was the beginning of handyman business.
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The first enterprise of the handyman business was to settle the problem
of a rented apartment on 30 July 2003. Three main forces acted together.
Firstly, the persons concerned. The work of dividing meticulously the old
clothing for selling is different from moving a house and settling everything
by handyman business, such work is done by the persons concerned. People
like myself, failed intellectuals, unaccustomed to labor, learn many things
from persons concerned when we work together with them. Such is the case,
in packing and shipping loading, in using tools, handling and transporting
heavy things. This is also true when having a break or taking a rest. The
second strength comes from the supporters. The total work is not finished
at the site of work. The same that the production of goods does not stop
at the production line, but rolls through the sales and the purchasing
of stocks till the goods are sold, handyman business goes through the business
process of taking orders by phone, making cost estimates, sending salesmen,
preparing the cars and doing publicity, giving the keys of the apartments
and doing office work of writing bills and receipts, so that by filling
all various business steps the work is finally completed. In fact, those
concerned lack experience in office work and find it difficult. Although
I do not have much experience either, at present I can make estimates and
because of that I can give proper information to others. Thirdly, we lean
on the strength of the collaborators. Due to the orders done by people,
handy business can begin functioning. Minor movements like the ones of
homeless people lack money, techniques and power and by making the best
use of manpower, their only strength, they create jobs. At the beginning,
incredulously, people say, "let's try," and we have found that
persons that provide work are the source of support for the handy business.
At the start, we fixed the goal: "a monthly allowance of 80,000 Yen
to all those who commit themselves for a year" and partly making fun
of the business, customers as well as orders continue growing in such a
way that labor days and sales increase, with the result that, counting
the recycling business, the monthly sales have reached 2 million yen. This
allows sharing 80,000 Yen among all 9 staff and the 2 full-time supporters
plus other part-timers like myself. Based on the experience and managerial
skills acquired we are moving to the next step of how can we together create
more possibilities of work so that we can build a fit environment for many
more homeless people to have a job.
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AWN aims to become a Workers Collective Union. In other words, workers
manage together the business, they are responsible for all the decisions
taken at AWN. On the other hand, AWN only has pay staff. All receive the
same salaries and there are no volunteers. At present, those working in
the shop receive 3,000 yen a day, but if they work in the handy business
the pay is 6,000 yen, not including transportation and food. When going
to work there is a fixed share for all staff members, according to the
working days. Now, in order to assist the concerned staff that lives only
from AWN's profits, there is a housing allowance for them.
Work together
Something that helped me was the fact that I was somehow liberated from
my dilemma between my personal life and my activities. To stress one against
the other brings always headaches to the persons concerned as well as to
their supporters. If one tries to fill in a blank space of life with activities,
there will always be limitations and the blank space will always remain
such. The reason is simple. It is impossible to eat. Again, if the efforts
are spent in assuring food, the activities will suffer a blank. But, it
will be difficult to recognize that. One wants to assure that there is
no blank in one's activities. And as a result, one places an excessive
identity on action. And since all the efforts go there, halfway volunteer
action seems impertinent. One is inclined to say that life is not so sweet.
Only oneself can understand the mood and the situation on which he stands
as a person concerned. I have seen many persons entrapped in bad environments
and I also went through such bad experiences. This is true of other homeless.
They are busy to get food and a place to sleep, so that they could survive.
On top of that, they participate in activities. I have heard hundred times,
"if I get into action I cannot eat," but when people get involved
in action, some profitable results are expected.
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I have also often seen persons of action that somehow enjoy special privileges.
After all, it becomes a problem of social awareness, they say. You hear
people say: "The situation of homeless people is serious, but why
don't they participate in the activities? How those especial privileges
affect the situation of other homeless?" Nevertheless the root of
the problem is physical and material, not a mental attitude.
This dilemma surrounding homeless and supporters became very demanding
to me through the years. In reality, one becomes so busy by doing things
that action swallows life and not only to make a living is near impossible,
but the bad environment into which one has fallen unconsciously appears
clearly. Nevertheless, when it comes to "working together," such
a dilemma blows off, facing the very simple fact that the activities as
well as the work aim at earning a living. We can say with no pretense whatsoever
that, we will do our best to be able to have enough food. This way, anybody
would accept any kind of little assistance.
One more good result, similar to what I have been saying, is that in AWN
all staff members feel they are considered equal in all kinds of jobs.
Before, I participated actively in the movement of homeless people, a movement
totally constituted of those persons concerned, meaning that supporters
were outsiders cooperating with them. But, in fact, the real promoters
were the supporter of the movement. They wrote the leaflets, recruited
the homeless, organized the movement and put together all opinions as the
opinions representing the homeless concerned. Neither my role nor my stand
as a supporter was never clear to me. Although I was sitting in front I
could had also been sitting behind and that was a little confusing. Things
are different now, because, by "working together" my stand becomes
clear. All I do now is to work hard, performing my job in order to support
AWN. I go ahead doing the things I am able to do well, and I learn from
others those things I am not so good at. Tasks to perform at the site of
work are rather simple and clear. Everybody does his job like cleaning
the place, or transporting things, loading them. We do it naturally and
the tasks shared follow everybody's strong and weak points. The reason
for that is simple: this is the smoothest and most efficient way to perform
a task with limited personnel. This is not the job of "somebody,"
but the site work of all of us.
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I talked of "results," meaning basically the liberation from
a probable dilemma that arises from a limited space and Micro Cosmos, and
it could be also called equality. The members of AWN, all together, are
16 people. Besides them, there are others living near AWN who live by the
Sumida River, about 1,000 in all, from where most staff members come. Homeless
in Tokyo number around 6,000. Although AWN might raise the income of its
members and accumulate their skills and know how it will not affect the
homeless in general. AWN has solved for itself the dilemma between "living"
and "action," but that is not the case with all the other homeless.
At AWN everybody is equal concerning jobs, but inequality is common among
all homeless people. We say working together, but the expression of "togetherness"
is greatly limited to just a few persons. Maybe we should better refer
to try to bring together all those homeless persons living nearby and to
think of levels basically different from such activities. AWN is trying
different ways to enlarge membership, but, after all, it comes to just
about 20 more persons, what means that the majority of homeless people
will remain outside, without any especial contact as before.
I, personally, feel that, at least at this moment, this should be enough
and consequently my task now is to make that a reality.
I recall that during the 80's, one of the keywords in use among citizens'
movements was, "global and local" and recently I think that "space
building" is a good slogan. Homeless people are a result of social
structures and their increase is a terrible phenomenon nowadays. Practically
nobody is astonished today at the rapid increase of unstable workers as
a result of the dispatch of personnel from one company to other. Young
people evicted from their apartments, are dispatched to several companies
where they are registered but they sleep in coffee shops reading comics,
always holding back at a borderline, in danger of being thrown into the
streets. Middle age persons, still healthy, whose tasks have been changed
or that were forced to give up their jobs, are working part time at night
in First Food or Convenient shops. American intellectuals call this trend,
"low level competition" and it is a sign, not only of economic
poverty, but also of a difficult social insecurity. This is how society
is reflected into my eyes.
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Faced with this reality, I ask myself what could I do and, for the time
being, I thought what about building up a fortress. Space building might
be a better expression. Instead of holding on to jobs with daily or monthly
payment that very easily on the spur of the moment might cease, we must
accept ourselves and continue building with our own hands 'space' to work
together. We can build gathering places, like coffee shops or bars where
any time we happen to go we could meet with some acquaintances, no matter
who are they. Or maybe living spaces with good neighbor links where we
are not in danger of being soon evicted. We must build with our own hands
spaces from where the evil forces of society will not swept us away. No
matter how small those places would be, provided that they are basically
common, let's build them rapidly following our interests and talents. It
doesn't matter they are only 4 or 5. But, it is important that they cover
all work and living within a network system. This is my dream.
The work of AWN is small. It is nothing more than a small-size enterprise.
It could not become big, neither it could be a small business that wants
to win in competitive society but without being able to do so. I want it
to be a spot not to be defeated. I feel lately that alternatives and not
to be defeated bear such a meaning.
AWN has plans to buy land and a building in order to proceed on to next
steps. A 4-story ferroconcrete building, with the attached 208 m2 piece
of land that is in front of the actual shop we are renting now, could become
the site of common work so that we could ourselves together support our
own living. Our plan is to make it the center to meet each other, the center
of our lives.
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In a good familiarity relationship with the neighbors who come to the recycling
shop and call our place, "a cheap candy store for adults," the
shop has established natural links with the customers who, only after visiting
us several times, come to realize that the ones working there were homeless
persons. Those working together conduct in common the sharing of their
tasks, and device ways to cut on costs in order to squeeze out personnel
expenses to be able to accept new companions. They don't make the place
a close institution, they sleep there, they relate to the neighborhood
through the shop and the handyman business, and on basis of that they contact
those that have started to live alone in the vicinity. The place will become
the basis for network among organizations that cooperate to solve the problems
of the homeless concerned by giving assistance in medical, legal, welfare
and other different technical fields. Literally, the site is the center
to "work together, to live together."
The price of land and building will be about 60 million Yen. (But, since
it is a public auction sale, unless the Court publicizes the sale it would
be impossible to know the exact bidding price). We already have 40 million
Yen and, at present, we have started to collect the left 20 million by
borrowing. The borrowing will be done through 2 different shares: 1 share
of 1 million Yen or a share of 100,000 Yen. Since the public bidding is
expected to take place in July, there is little time left. In case you
were thinking to invest we will send you detailed information, and if the
need arises we are ready to meet with you personally to explain the whole
program.
The movement of homeless people is at a turning point as a result of advancing
restructuring. We need cooperators to clear the way to start new endeavors.
(29 May 2004)
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