Self Defense / Affinity Groups - Up Against The Wall Motherfucker

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.

Self-Defence

The existence of the hippie/drop-out community represents both an alternative to the present system ...and a means for its destruction. The hip connunity poses a way of living rather than simply a way of surviving. On the one hand it rejects middle-class values, on the other hand it makes possible a fuller and more complete life. Out of that emerges a revolutionary culture.

This commmity is not a regional phenomenon-- there is no such thing as a Boston hippie community, a New York hippie community, a San Francisco hippie cumunity. There is one hip community and it spreads and grows from one end of this country to the other.

Our need and desire for our own community and for the right to discover our on ferns of living are in direct conflict with the basic nature of Amerika today----we become targets for the enforcers of the brutal values and empty aspirations of this society. We are being attacked because we are an alternative/threat and in order to survive we are going to have to defend ourselves and our communities by any means necessary.

We are engaged in a two-fold struggle ---the struggle to create a new way of living, and the struggle to defend ourselves against increasing repression. Already Amerika has determined to prevent our communities from forming, and already we have had to fight back. In the struggle to create our own lives, Self-Defense transcends the personal act and becomes an involvement in the communal experience. AS WE FIGHT FOR OUR OWN LIVES WE ARE FIGHTING FOR THE POSSIBILITY OF LIFE...

Our communities must he created and their creation must be defended. We must discover both the forms of living together, and the means of defending these forms together. If we are attacked verbally, we defend ourselves verbally. If we are attacked culturally, we defend ourselves culturally. If we are attacked violently with open hands, we respond violently with open hands. And if we are attacked with weapons, we defend ourselves with weapons.

The idea of self-defense or even violence is not contrary to the idea of love. Our community is not specifically a "love" community, it is a total community. In order to be total we accept all of the elements of living. We don't reject any one element. What we would want, our ideal, is to create the kind of life that doesn't need violence, but at the same time we recognize that in order to be full men no part of life can be rejected.

The hip community is a full community, a culture, a way of iife, a way of existing. It's not just a tactic or a means, or another form of pacifism. Many people in the hip community are pacific and would not use violence. But there are others of the hip community who know that we must defend those values that we pose as an alternative to Amerika.

The dichotomy is always made between non-violence and violence and that's a false dichotomy. The real difference is between living and death. Some kinds of violence are living, and some kinds of violence are death. If our violence comes out of our desire to live and is only directed against those who would prevent us from living, then that is living-violence. If violence, like police and military violence, is directed against the lives of others, then that is death-violence. That's the real dichotomy; living and death, not non-violence and violence...Our community represents living.

SELF-DEFENSE IS PREPARATION AGAINST ATTACK.
SELF-DEFINSE IS THE RESPONSE TO ANY ATTACK.
SELF-DEFENSE IS THE REPRISAL FOR AN ATTACK.

WE MUST DEFINE OURSELVES FOR OURSELVES IN THE LANGJAGIF AND GESTURES OF OUR OWN DISCOVERIES

WE MUST LEARN TO RECOGNIZE EACH OTHER AND TO KNOW THAT ANYONE WHO IS NOT WITH US IS THE ENEMY

WE MUST LEARN TO FIGHT AS WELL AS SEEK TO LOVE

WE MUST TAKE UP TILE GUN AS WELL AS WE JOINT

WE MUST DEFEND OUR COMMUNITY AND OUR OWN HUMANITY

up against the wall/MOTHERFUCKERS

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