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Title: Affinity Groups Author: Shawn Ewald Date: 2008 Language: en Topics: affinity groups Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20141209120342/http://shawnewald.info/aia/dec_affinity.html Notes: Excerpted from Direct Democracy Now! http://www.directdemocracynow.org/ags.html
What is an affinity group?
An affinity group is a small group of 5 to 20 people who work together
autonomously on direct actions or other projects. You can form an
affinity group with your friends, people from your community, workplace,
or organization.
Affinity groups challenge top-down decision-making and organizing, and
empower those involved to take creative direct action. Affinity groups
allow people to "be" the action they want to see by giving complete
freedom and decision-making power to the affinity group. Affinity groups
by nature are decentralized and non-hierarchical, two important
principles of anarchist organizing and action. The affinity group model
was first used by anarchists in Spain in the late 19th and early 20th
century, and was re-introduced to radical direct action by anti-nuclear
activists during the 1970s, who used decentralized non-violent direct
action to blockade roads, occupy spaces and disrupt "business as usual"
for the nuclear and war makers of the US. Affinity groups have a long
and interesting past, owing much to the anarchists and workers of Spain
and the anarchists and radicals today who use affinity groups,
non-hierarchical structures, and consensus decision making in direct
action and organizing.
Affinity Group Roles [in a protest]
There are many roles that one could possibly fill. These roles include:
Medical - An affinity group may want to have someone who is a trained
street medic who can deal with any medical or health issues during the
action.
Legal observer - If there are not already legal observers for an action,
it may be important to have people not involved in the action taking
notes on police conduct and possible violations of activists rights.
Media - If you are doing an action which plans to draw media, a person
in the affinity group could be empowered to talk to the media and act as
a spokesperson.
Action Elf/Vibes-watcher - This is someone who would help out with the
general wellness of the group: water, massages, and encouragement
through starting a song or cheer. This is not a role is necessary, but
may be particularly helpful in day long actions where people might get
tired or irritable as the day wears on.
Traffic - If it is a moving affinity group, it may be necessary to have
people who are empowered to stop cars at intersections and in general
watch out for the safety of people on the streets from cars and other
vehicles.
Arrest-able members - This depends on what kind of direct action you are
doing. Some actions may require a certain number of people willing to
get arrested, or some parts of an action may need a minimum number of
arrest-ables. Either way, it is important to know who is doing the
action and plans on getting arrested.
Jail Support - Again, this is only if you have an affinity group who has
people getting arrested. This person has all the arrestees contact
information and will go to the jail, talk to and work with lawyers, keep
track of who got arrested etc.
[Affinity groups are not just useful within a protest or direct action
setting, this form of organization can be used for a wide variety of
purposes as the history of affinity groups below illustrates.]
History of Affinity Groups
The idea of affinity groups comes out of the anarchist and workers
movement that was created in the late 19th century and fought fascism in
Spain during the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Anarchist movement
provides an exhilarating example of a movement, and the actual
possibility of a society based on decentralized organization, direct
democracy and the principles behind them.
Small circles of good friends, called "tertulias" would meet at cafes to
discuss ideas and plan actions. In 1888, a period of intense class
conflict in Europe and of local insurrection and struggle in Spain, the
Anarchist Organization of the Spanish Region made this traditional form
(tertulias) the basis of its organization.
Decades later, the Iberian Anarchist Federation, which contained 50,000
activists, organized into affinity groups and confederated into local,
regional, and national councils. Wherever several FAI affinity groups
existed, they formed a local federation. Local federations were
coordinated by committees were made up of one mandated delegate from
each affinity group. Mandated delegates were sent from local federations
to regional committees and finally to the Peninsular Committee. Affinity
groups remained autonomous as they carried out education, organized and
supported local struggles. The intimacy of the groups made police
infiltration difficult.
The idea of large-scale affinity group based organization was planted in
the United States on April 30, 1977 when 2,500 people, organized into
affinity groups, occupied the Seabrook, New Hampshire nuclear power
plant. The growing anti-nuclear power and disarmament movements adopted
this mode, and used it in many successful actions throughout the late
1970s and 1980s. Since then, it has been used by the Central America
solidarity movement, lesbian/gay liberation movement, Earth First and
earth liberation movement, and many others.
Most recently, affinity groups have been used in the mass actions in
Seattle for the WTO and Washington DC for the IMF and World Bank, as
well as Philadelphia and Los Angles around the Republican and Democratic
National Conventions.
What is a Cluster and a Spokescouncil?
A cluster is a grouping of affinity groups that come together to work on
a certain task or part of a larger action. Thus, a cluster might be
responsible for blockading an area, organizing one day of a multi-day
action, or putting together and performing a mass street theater
performance. Clusters could be organized around where affinity groups
are from (example: Texas cluster), an issue or identity (examples:
student cluster or anti-sweatshop cluster), or action interest
(examples: street theater or [black bloc]).
A spokescouncil is the larger organizing structure used in the affinity
group model to coordinate a mass action. Each affinity group (or
cluster) empowers a spoke (representative) to go to a spokescouncil
meeting to decide on important issues for the action. For instance,
affinity groups need to decide on a legal/jail strategy, possible
tactical issues, meeting places, and many other logistics. A
spokescouncil does not take away an individual affinity group's autonomy
within an action; affinity groups make there own decisions about what
they want to do on the streets.
How to start an affinity group
An affinity group could be a relationship among people that lasts for
years among a group of friends and activists, or it could be a week long
relationship based around a single action. Either way, it is important
to join an affinity group that is best suited to you and your interests.
If you are forming an affinity group in your city or town, find friends
or fellow activists who have similar issue interests, and thus would
want to go to similar actions. Also, look for people who would be
willing to use similar tactics - if you want to do relatively high risk
lockdowns, someone who does not want to be in that situation may not
want to be in the affinity group. That person could do media or medic
work, but it may not be best if they are completely uncomfortable around
certain tactics of direct action.
If you are looking to join an affinity group at a mass action, first
find out what affinity groups open to new members and which ones are
closed. For many people, affinity groups are based on trusting
relationships based around years of friendship and work, thus they might
not want people they don't know in their affinity group. Once you find
which affinity groups are open, look for ones that have an issue
interest or action tactic that you are drawn to.
What can an affinity group do?
Anything!!! They can be used for mass or smaller scale actions. Affinity
groups can be used to drop a banner, blockade a road, provide back-up
for other affinity groups, do street theater, block traffic riding
bikes, organize a tree sit, [confront the police, strategic property
destruction], change the message on a massive billboard, play music in a
radical marching band or sing in a revolutionary choir, etc. There can
even be affinity groups who take on certain tasks in an action. For
instance, there could be a roving affinity group made up of street
medics, or an affinity group who brings food and water to people on the
streets.
What makes affinity groups so effective for actions is that they can
remain creative and independent and plan out their own action without an
organization or person dictating to them what can and can't be done.
Thus, there are an endless amount of possibilities for what affinity
groups can do. Be creative and remember: direct action gets the goods!