Year: 2018
Location: Near Sremski Karlovci, Serbia (Stražilovo area, Eco Camp “Fruška Gora”)
Duration: July 20 — August 19, 2018
A month in the Serbian wilderness
In the summer of 2018, a group of activists, philosophers, and hackers gathered in the mountains of Serbia. Not in a conference hall or a coworking space, but in a cabin near Sremski Karlovci, organized by the local Novi Sad node of FairCoop.
The spot was called Eco Camp “Fruška Gora” — a 20,000 square meter piece of wild nature at the foot of the Stražilovo forest park. No fancy infrastructure. Just trees, open sky, and space to think, talk, and build.
People came from Southern Europe and beyond. They weren’t there for a vacation. They were there to figure out how to build a different kind of economy.
FairCoin: A post-capitalist experiment
The main topic on the table was FairCoin. Not your typical crypto. This one was designed as a post-capitalist alternative. The goal wasn’t private profit or extracting value. It was about facilitating exchange based on cooperation and ecological sustainability.
FairCoin wasn’t trying to be the next big investment vehicle. It was trying to be a tool for people who want out of the current system. A way to trade, collaborate, and organize without feeding the beast.
During the camp, people presented, debated, and refined how FairCoin could actually work in the real world. Not just in theory, but on the ground — in communities, cooperatives, and local networks.
Why this gathering mattered
This summer camp was a turning point for the FairCoop movement. It wasn’t just a meetup. It was a strategic moment to figure out how to scale the ideals of economic autonomy and horizontal organization.
How do you take peer-to-peer technologies and use them to build something that can grow beyond a small group of committed people? How do you stay true to your principles while reaching more people, more places, more networks?
These were the questions hanging in the air between the trees of Fruška Gora.
The tension no one ignores
Later analyses of this camp and the broader FairCoop experiment point out something honest: scaling post-capitalist communism within the logic of today’s market is full of tension.
You want to build alternatives, but you’re still living inside the system you’re trying to escape. You need resources, visibility, and growth — but those things come with compromises.
The Summer Camp didn’t solve those contradictions. But it faced them. In a mountain cabin, with real people, real conversations, and real food cooked together.
Why it matters for Undervan
For the Undervan project, this gathering is another example of what mental decolonization looks like when it gets practical. Not just thinking about freedom, but building tools — FairCoin, cooperative networks, horizontal decision-making — that try to make freedom real.
It’s messy. It’s not perfect. But it’s real people doing real work in a remote valley, sharing meals and ideas, and refusing to accept that there’s no alternative.
Suggested tags for the Story Line:#FairCoop #FairCoin #SummerCamp #PostCapitalism #Serbia
