Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

The proportions of different demographics within a collective often have a great influence over its internal dynamics. For example, it's best that there be at least two people who identify as women in every collective, if possible: an all-male group will inevitably lack certain important perspectives, and a lone woman in a group of men is going to have to deal with a lot of frustration on her ovwi. All-woman groups, on the other hand can be inspiring for others, and can function as "safer spaces" that are more comfortable for the participants than working in mixed company {again, see Undermining Oppression, pg. 560).

Commitment is to collectives what bottomlining is to affinity groups; it is the bedrock on which communities can build their power and organize themselves. When you give up all the false riches and reassurances of the capitalist protection racket, you'll need this from each other more than anything else.

The world we live in, or rather, what world we live in, depends entirely upon our investments: we go on living in this world of sales, wages, rent, and cages because every day, people wake up and?seeing no other viable option?invest their energy and ingenuity in surviving vidthin its structures, thus perpetuating them. If you can somehow invest yourself in creating and perpetuating another world, that world will exist at least to the extent that you exist?that's the logic of living a radical lifestyle. Now, one person alone living and believing against the grain can barely survive, let alone make a real impact; but a small tribe of people who reinforce and sustain one another can thrive, and help others open doors to new worlds of their own.

Anarchist communities, at their best, are networks of such tribes, all trading support and inspiration with each other and helping plant seeds that could grow into new

Commitment

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realities. The most decisive element in determining what a given community can and cannot do is the commitment of its participants. A group of people v^rho are ready to go through anything together, who know they will be faithful to each other and their dreams through the hardest of times, need not be perfect; as time passes, they will learn what they need to learn and improve where they need to improve.

When you're considering who to work with, characteristics like experience, technical proficiency, and access to equipment should be secondary?a person who has none of these but is possessed by a burning desire to accomplish great things can acquire them eventually. Likewise, if you want to get anywhere working in cooperative groups of any kind, the most important characteristics you can develop in yourself are commitment, dedication, reliability, and responsibility. Don't let people down, no matter what challenges you encounter. Let others know through your actions that they can count on you in everything you undertake together.

Three people can share and minimize rent and food costs, cover a tovm in posters and graffiti, and organize a part-time childcare collective; ten can cultivate a community garden, operate an infoshop or newspaper, and form a radical marching band; one hundred can transform a neighborhood into an autonomous zone, organize city-stopping demonstrations, and fan out across the country to share those skills with ten thousand more?but it all comes down to commitment!

Dimion of Labor, Specialization, and Power

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In seeking to prevent both internal strife and the centralization of power, collectives will do well to be leery of long-term division of labor. An estabhshed division of labor means that every member becomes specialized in his or her particular tasks?and, often, in the accompanying role associated with those tasks. Once the members of a collective have settled into different roles, they tend to develop conflicting needs and perspectives, and an imbalance of power often follows.

For an offbeat example of the pitfalls of too much specialization, let's look at a common but oft-neglected example of the collective: the political punk or rock band. Many poHtical bands experience an internal disorder in which a rift develops between the singer and the other members. Already likely to be outgoing and expressive by temperament, the singer finds himself in the role of spokesperson for the whole band: he is expected to compose lyrics and accompanying song explanations, field the majority of interview questions, and introduce the songs while other band members fine-tune their instruments. All this serves to reinforce the singer's inherent authoritative tendencies?^let's not kid ourselves, we all have some?until he starts to take the power of his position for granted.