I have attempted to give a general outline of the reasons for choosing to work in small groups, some suggested structures for small groups, and some of the dynamics and problems involved. This discussion is by no means exhaustive.
There are infinite ways to work together in a small group. The most important point, is that the structure of the small group meets the needs of the individuals involved, and is chosen democratically by those involved. It may sound like a lot of hard work, but much of it is fun and can be very rewarding.
Collectives offer us a model of decentralised, directly democratic, organisation. Traditional protest movements and political parties are mass organisations which perpetrate the inherent problems of society in the form of hierarchy and domination.
We need to organise ourselves as an anti-mass movement of collectives setting our own agenda, one of direct democracy and decentralisation. The means should be as important to us as the ends we seek. Working in collectives can enrich our everyday lives while providing a glimpse of a new world in the shell of the old.
At its best the collective movement can respond to the deep longings people feel for a better society. Collectives can demonstrate a long-term way of building a society based on the needs of the majority of the people. We can integrate those visions for a better society into our daily lives.
A movement for fundamental change in this country will only succeed if it offers a model of what we are working for, and a consistent way of working for it. This is the contribution of collectives. Closing paragraphs from No Bosses Here! A manual on Working collectively and Cooperatively
When power becomes institutionalised in a hierarchy, individuals do not wield power for themselves but as part of an institution which controls them. This power is based on the objectification and separation of the person wielding power from the object or person being manipulated. It is the power of domination. Domination encourages the formation of hierarchies in all forms of life and culture because it makes the exercise of control easier. Thus we see stratification based upon class, gender, sexual identification, race and age lines.
With the establishment of the nation state and the religious state, we find the excesses of hierarchy: domination and exploitation, brutality and poverty, and increasingly more centralised control of resources and decision making. The epitome of this form of organisation are the states established using fascist, national socialist, communist, or militarist ideologies, or Catholicism during the Inquisition and the witch hunts.
The western democratic tradition of representative democracy is little better. The concepts of hierarchy and domination still pervades this system. The difference is that once every three, four or six years we get to collectively change the people who make the rules. In more ruthless nations, coercion is used to control people, while in our western democracies we are privileged to have our thoughts and desires manipulated by mass media to ensure our submission to hierarchy and capitalism. As the saying goes: No matter who you vote for a politician always gets in.
Hierarchy and domination now pervades our thinking and our culture to a remarkable extent. As the intrinsic goal of economic competition is monopoly, so the goal of hierarchy and institutionalised power is to grow and extend its domination and control over all areas of human society and culture.
You can see the effects of domination in how our western society relates to nature as a resource to be owned, raped and plundered. Similarly, women in western society have been treated as a reproductive resource to be owned, used and disposed of by men. The first and second waves of feminism have done much to reduce patriarchal domination, but domination per se cannot be eliminated without the eradication of all hierarchies. The structural form domination and hierarchy imposes on human society is centralised control, mass organisation, patriarchy, and relationships of domination and submission.
A more ancient and radical view of power asserts that everything has an intrinsic or inherent power and value. This is the power an individual wields and holds by virtue of being alive. Instead of power being a relationship based on separation from 'the other', power is seen as a relationship of connectedness and identification. All things have power through their relationships.
The structural form of this power in human society is diversity and small scale community organisation. Attributes include a respect for those with the greatest experience and wisdom, a closeness to nature, and direct democratic forms of decision making. Tribal societies which have retained much of their culture and traditions often demonstrate this form of power.
This tradition and definition of power can be found in several streams of thought including: anarchism, radical feminism, communalism, radical ecology, and a spiritualism deriving from humans as part of nature. It also exists in many oppositional movements and cultures. In fact, modern society could not function without a high level of cooperation.
If you have ever been in an industrial dispute in which the workers decide to 'work to rule', you realise the importance of cooperative skills and initiative in ensuring hierarchical organisations function normally. When that cooperation is withdrawn, hierarchy cannot functioning efficiently.
For those of you who would like to follow up subjects raised in this essay, the following books have been instrumental in developing the ideas and descriptions:
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John Englart has been a member of collectively run bookshops since 1975, including being a founding member of the Jura Books Collective in Sydney in 1977, and the Black Rose Anarchist Bookshop Collective in 1982. In 1992 John was a co-founder with two other people of the Anarres Books Collective, an anarchist mail order and bookstall collective presently active in Melbourne.
As well as the anarchist movement, John has participated in the movement against uranium mining, and has had some activist involvement with Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace.
As a dedicated cyclist, John has participated and organised several bike rides, including Rides against Uranium from Sydney to Canberra, and Broken Hill to Roxby Downs. John continues to ride his bicycle, commuting to work each day.
Currently John is living in a community called Bread and Roses located in an inner city suburb of Melbourne. The community is purchasing the house based upon a collective ownership agreement, and a form of income sharing.
Contact the author: John Englart.