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Title: Affinity Groups
Author: uaw/MF
Date: November, 1968
Language: en
Topics: affinity groups, New York, Up against the wall/Motherfucker, 1968, Black & Red 
Source: Black & Red Number 3, November, 1968, page 28
Notes: Scanned from original. See also: The Brown Paper Bag Theory of Affinity Groups (http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/zw3s68)

uaw/MF

Affinity Groups

AFFINITY GROUP = A STREET GANG WITH AN ANALYSIS

“Ideas can create life-and-death situations, but a man can really only

fight and die for himself and for the lives of his friends.”

--Chief Joseph

In the present struggle forms of organization must come into being that

are appropriate to the changed conditions that are the real content of

our times. These must be forms that are tenacious enough to resist

repression; forms which can grow secretly, learning to manifest

themselves in a large variety of ways, lest their mode of operation be

co-opted by the opposition, or they simply be smashed. The affinity

group is the seed/germ/essence of organization. It is coming-together

out of mutual Need or Desire: cohesive historical groups unite out of

the shared necessities of the struggle for survival, while dreaming of

the possibility of love. In the pre-revolutionary period affinity groups

must assemble to project a revolutionary consciousness and to develop

forms for particular struggles. In the revolutionary period itself they

will emerge as armed cadres at the centers of conflict, and in the

post-revolutionary period suggest forms for the new everyday life.

Mass demonstrations succeed in two ways: they bring predominate levels

of consciousness into the streets and make visible the quantity of

active alienation in our society...and they sometimes transcend the

issues of “demonstration” to become mass actions. As mass demonstrations

they fail to advance the nature and the forms of our struggle--as mass

actions (whether against cops or against property) they begin to define

the direction and the reality of what our struggle must become. “Riots”

or rebellions are the highest forms of mass action that we have seen so

far.

These rebellions project the consciousness of a community in action as

it (1) liberates goods and geographical areas, and (2) engages the

occupying forces (PIGS) in battle. This form, too, has advantages and

limitations, and it is in response to both of these that people are

discovering the tactical-theoretical possibilities of working together

in small intimate groups. The prospects for the future are clear in at

least one respect: the Man and his Pigs are learning “crowd control” and

they are escalating their response to all masses of people who take it

upon themselves to behave in violation of this society’s “law and

order.” Our preparations for advancing the struggle must always take

into account the abilities and tendencies of the enemy. Mass

demonstrations and community rebellions will continue to serve

particular needs in many situations...But in the general sense of

ongoing struggle it is necessary that we begin to act in that manner

which is most favorable to our means and to our goals--THE SMALL GROUP

EXECUTING “SMALL” ACTIONS IN CONCERT WITH OTHER SMALL GROUPS/“SMALL”

ACTIONS WILL CREATE A WIDESPREAD CLIMATE OF STRUGGLE WITHIN WHICH ALL

FORMS OF REBELLION CAN COME TOGETHER AND FORGE THE FINAL FORM:

REVOLUTION...

Already we have seen the small group response--Columbia’s Communes,

Berkeley’s Revolutionary Gangs, France’s Committees of Action, and

others so far known only by their actions (Cleveland). In the months to

come these groups and the many others which will be forming face two

kinds of absolute necessity as they seek to create the possibility of

real community:

(1) Internal development and security. Each group will continue to

create its own sense of identity through the conscious synthesis of

theory/practice, and each group will apply this identity to the existing

reality in the most effective manner.

(2) External relationships with similar groups. We must begin to set up

those forms of communication and mutual awareness that can allow for

greater mobility and greater response to more-than-local crises. This

means that we will have to begin to create a network of affinity groups

(both within existing communities and between those communities).

This network or “Federation” must be characterized by a structural

looseness which guarantees the identity and self-determination of each

affinity group, as well as an organizational reality which allows

maximum concerted actions directed toward total revolution.

The concept of the affinity group in no way denies the validity of mass

actions, rather, this idea increases the revolutionary possibilities of

those actions. The active minority is able, because it is theoretically

more conscious and better prepared tactically, to light the first fuse

and make the first breakthroughs. But that’s all. The others can follow

or not follow...The active minority plays the role of a permanent

fermenting agent, encouraging action without claiming to lead,...In

certain objective situations--with the help of the active

minority--spontaneity finds its place in social movement. It is

spontaneity which permits the thrust forward, and not the slogans or

directives of leaders. The affinity group is the source of both

spontaneity and new forms of struggle.

up against the wall/MOTHERFUCKERS

341 EAST 10^(th) St. LOWER EAST SIDE NEW YORK, NY.