Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

Second, direct action must be employed to provide for people's basic needs in a way that promotes self-reliance and builds networks of cooperation and trust. This might mean serving free meals in the park, or stopping an eviction by force, or organizing radical concerts and social events?the need for entertainment and camaraderie is no less fundamental than the need for food or for housing. The more people are able to meet their needs direcdy and together, the less they need the capitalist system and the conditional solutions it offers?and the more they can invest themselves in building alternatives to it.

Third, the power of direct action must be demonstrated in exciting, accessible, participatory ways. Rather than letting direct action become the specialty of a subculture or expert class, those who appreciate its value should arrange opportunities for people of all walks of life to take part in it, starting with the communities with which they are most famihar. Everyone who is involved in such demonstrations should have empowering experiences that indicate the possibility of an entirely different way of life. For this to occur, the character of each demonstration must be dictated by the needs and circumstances of those who are to participate: a class of bored and rebellious high school students might discover their collective power by staging a walkout, while the residents of a neighborhood could experience a similar revelation in the course of tending a community garden. AU events and contexts are ripe for conversion into participatory direct

action, however hopelessly repressive they may seem: a speech at a stuffy ceremony can swifHy be transformed into a hurricane of creative heckling, just as a crowd of docile consumers at a concert can take to the streets in an unpermitted march?all it takes is for a few individuals to seize a previously unthinkable but longed-for possibility in a way that IS contagious. These demonstrations should not simply be isolated events: it should be easy for those they inspire to become connected to ongoing projects and communities in which they can give substance to their new visions.

Finally, an atmosphere must be created that provokes curiosity, builds momentum, and maintains morale. Everywhere people go, there should be evidence that something IS afoot, that big changes are in store. The subject of direct action, however controversial, should be on the tip of every tongue, and the substance of it scrawled on every wall and employed in every workplace. Wild speculations, whispered rumors, secret invitations, passionate crusades, epic triumphs, surprises, suspense, drama, adventure: these are the stuff of revolutions, and without them it is not possible to break the deadlock between fear and desire.

Despite your best attempts, there will be periods when momentum dies down and it seems you are losing the ground you gained. During a waning phase of activity, don't panic or give up hope. Pace yourself, take it in stride as part of the cycle of life- it will pass. Weather it with the others that stick around, focusing on the worthwhile projects you can undertake without a crowd around you. Use this period to consolidate what you've learned and built, and to develop new relationships and proficiencies so you'll be ready to take things even farther when the action starts to heat up again?as it wiU.

Don't let anyone tell you nothing ever changes. Revolutions always happen, as sure as the earth goes on turning. The only question is whether we participate in them unconsciously, washing our hands of responsibility for the choices we make, or deliberately, bringing our dreams into being with every step. ^'^^"^^

pn anarchist cookbook ^ a moveable feast

Affinity Croups

Ingredients Acircleoffriends Trust Consensus Secrecy a good idea Plans for different scenarios

Structures for responding to

unexpected scenarios A LITTLE COURAGE (may he optional, hut should he at hand just in case) Action! Subsequent discussion

Instructions Chances are, even if you have never been involved in direct action before, even if this is the first radical text you have ever encountered, that you are already part of an affinity group?the structure proven most effective for guerrilla activities of all kinds. An affinity group is a circle of friends who, knowing each other's strengths, weaknesses, and backgrounds, and having already established a common language and healthy internal dynamics, set out to accomplish a goal or series of goals.