Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

While an affinity group is a transitory structure based on existing collaboration and Instructions

friendship (see Affinity Croups, pg. 28}, a collective is a more permanent institution in which collaboration can take place and friendships can develop. Individuals may pass in and out of different collectives, like blood circulating through organs, but the collectives remain, offering continuity and infrastructure.

A collective might be a closed circle, such as a clandestine wheatpasting team (see Wheatpasting, pg. 598), or a more fluid, open arrangement in which anyone can participate, such as a Food Not Bombs group (see Food Not Bomfys, pg. 248). Often, as in the case of an anarchist folk band that takes different roadies with them every time they go on tour, the format is somewhere between these extremes. Collectives can serve the needs of the individuals who comprise them, as a reading group does, or the needs of their community, as a women's health care collective does (see Health Care, pg. 275), or those of other communities, as a prisoner support group does in mailing out books to the incarcerated. At best, everyone who comes into contact with a collective ends up both participating and benefiting in some way; that's tiie whole idea of thinking and acting collectively

Affinity groups and collectives can be distinguished from other organizational struc- Cooperation and Consensus

tures in that they are explicitly non-hierarchical. Ideally, all participants have an equal

say in the activities of the group. There are no leadership positions; every effort is made

to keep power and influence from being centralized in the hands of any individual or 797

faction. Decisions are made by consensus rather than by vote, so they meet with the approval of all involved.

In this v/ny, affinity groups and collectives provide a foundation for individual autonomy in collective action. For this to be possible, though, they must themselves be built on a foundation of supportive and liberating relationships. Egalitarian structures and procedures cannot substitute for sensitivity and goodwill; at best, they can only smooth the way for these. As so many of the important aspects of any collaboration are determined informally, participants in collectives must seek to nourish in themselves the attitudes and habits necessary for coexistence and cooperation to come naturally

Expandable Autonomous Zones Rather than increasing the resources or power of individuals, collectives build shared

power. In a competitive system, Hfe is a zero-sum game, in which one can only prosper at the expense of others; in the cooperative system collectives seek to employ, on the other hand, the more everyone invests, the more everyone benefits. Likewise, in establishing and nurturing a collective, individuals do not amass power for themselves alone, but instead build a structure from which all might benefit. The wealth a collective generates is not the kind of currency one can use to purchase an insurance pohcy; it is, ratiier, the long-standing emotional bonds and networks of mutual aid that can provide for people's needs even when insurance policies fail.

At their best, collective projects are contagious, spreading collaborative spirit and structures to all who encounter them. They may do so by welcoming new participants into their ranks, or by demonstrating the advantages of methods others can make use of themselves.

Harmony, Not Unity Many activists approach collective projects with the idea that in order to work together,

Collectives ^^ °^ appear sincere, or accomplish great things, all members of a collective must share

792 a specific political platform, a certain lifestyle, and a strict code of conduct. And you

thought the pressure to conform was bad in high school! So-called radical ideologies such as Communism that neglected to do away with hierarchy have historically demanded such standardization from their ranks, and have ended up with consequently sterile movements, artwork, and societies; anarchist thinking, on the other hand, suggests that diversity is necessary to any healthy ecosystem or organization. Greater diversity offers a wider range of inspiration and ideas to draw on, and makes your group more adaptable; and since human beings are always different, even when they try to homogenize themselves, any value system that encourages conformity can only spawn dishonest and superficial relationships and projects.