Evaluating an Anarchist Group
Once you’ve found an anarchist group the next thing to do is to work out whether or not you should get involved in it. If the answer is ’no’ (and sometimes this is the right answer) you’ll need to look around for another group or try and set up a new one.
In many countries where anarchism is weak and has little or no real recent history, groups may exist which call themselves “anarchist” but don’t really have a lot to do with anarchism: it’s just a trendy label. Or sometimes a group just runs out of energy but keeps going for social reasons (for example, because the people involved simply like to meet up occasionally for a beer).
Potential problems you should look out for include:
• Attitude to the working class: is the group based around trying to popularise anarchist ideas and organise among working class people, or is it more concerned with ’single’ issues and has no central political aim?
• Does the group — consciously or unconsciously — try to enforce a particular life-style on people involved? Is it really only interested in catering to the needs of middle class ‘drop-outs’, squatters or vegetarians? There’s obviously nothing intrinsically wrong with being any of these, but if members are expected to regard this way of living as ‘ideal’, then it may be that the group is more concerned with ‘lifestyle’ than it is anarchism.
• Is the group composed of people who like hearing their own voices, but are unwilling to engage in activity? Does it take part in social struggles and movements?
• Is the group anti-hierarchical, does everyone have a say in decision-making, or is it run by a guru whose decisions and opinions are unquestioned?
• Are important decisions made at meetings that everyone has an opportunity to take part in, or do they seem to be made by a sub-group of friends elsewhere?
• Does the group have a public face, do they have a publication and hold public meetings, or are they just activists content to do work for others?
If any of these things appear to be a problem in the group then you should probably check around to see if there are any other anarchist organisations in your location. If there aren’t, or if they appear to share the same problems, then you’ll probably have little choice but to get involved anyway and to try and change the way the group functions from within. You may well find that this is very difficult, if not impossible. If so, recognise when you are beaten, and rather than get demoralised look at the possibility of setting up a new anarchist group. If you feel this way then the odds are other people do as well.
