Everything. Building anarchist community must be our first priority, because what there is exists only in tiny proportion to the rest of society. Manifold anarchists (and ideological Anarchists) wrestle with this problem -- Anarchists point to the need for skilled leadership and organizational superstructures to jumpstart the movement and bring about their revolution. Of course, they are the ones who they envision as these decisive, "natural" leaders.
Those with greater concern for anarchistic methodology should, instead of seeking the guidance natural leaders, foster and expand the growth of an anarchist community in their area. This is the only way to escape the "anarcho-ghetto" we currently reside in -- meaning the fringes of political activity, unable to reach larger populations.
Without a vibrant, diverse, and active community of anarchists, those anarchists which are out there will operate in isolation, which is the death of any social movement. Authoritarians understand the power and threat of community, which is why they work hard to destroy it -- to make us afraid of our neighbors, of each other, of ourselves. They work to smash and sunder all communities, sometimes reconstructing them to have the appearance of community, without the substance.
What is the basis of community? It is local in scope. This is all-important, because it means you have flesh-and-blood contact with comrades and fellow travellers. American society in particular is community-starved -- we exist in daily isolation, either stacked in anonymous apartment complexes, or self-isolated in generic suburbs. Go for a walk in your neighborhood at night and see how many places are dark, emitting only the glow of a television screen. Popular culture is what passes for community in America -- a nation of television sets and sound bites.
The anarchist cannot expect the movement to grow and expand without planting solid roots in their own community. It's a difficult process, and a slow one (the authorities decimated the anarchist community in the U.S. nearly a century ago), but it is vitally necessary.
Once established, a community generates its own social inertia. This is the vitality that arises from human cooperation and interaction itself. New people mean new ideas, and new ideas mean new activities, and new activities mean new people -- an upward spiral.
Too many ideological Anarchists think that anarchist ideas are written in stone -- stone tablets that they alone may hold aloft, like Moses, and preach to the masses. Their idea of "community" means bringing new people into lockstep with their own authoritarian ambitions. Their idea of cooperation is you doing what they say. To the sensible individual, this is insane, and certainly not anarchistic. Anarchist ideas are not Anarchist intellectual property -- rather, they're the property of humankind itself -- perhaps the property of all that lives and thinks.
Community is the lifeblood of any social movement -- no community, no movement. Anarchists can't simply graft anarchist ideas onto disparate groups. Rather, they must find a welcoming hand from anarchists themselves, and decide for themselves if the ideas (not "our" ideas) are to their satisfaction.
The first step for would-be community builders is to locate the declared "anarchists" in your area, and check them out for yourself. This is a slow and difficult process, as there are many poseurs, flakes, authoritarians, egomaniacs, freaks, etc. who flock under the term "anarchist" for their own purposes. Find the people you feel you can trust, and build from there.
Once you find this reliable core, you need to take stock of your area and see what's affecting the community in general, and determine what (if anything), anarchists can do about it. Then you have to start doing something about it, and from there, letting other folks know what you've been doing (the press won't cover you; you have to generate your own press).
And speaking of press, that's another missing thing that was the very foundation of radical communities -- local papers. These informed and sustained and concentrated local radicalism. Local papers were largely wiped out when mass-market advertising came along, because local papers depended on subscriptions for revenue, whereas mass-market papers got their revenue from advertisers. The difference between the two is that local papers existed for their audiences -- whereas mass-market papers delivered their audiences to their advertising paymasters.
So some form of local media is vital for community-building (and use your imagination on this, based on your budget, or lack thereof). Zines have become pretty popular, and I think that's certainly a way to go, although there are some expense issues with zine production (unless you have access to a copy shop). Micropower radio is a valuable community-building resource, but I think that's a little further down the line -- once you've gotten a "critical mass" of anarchists in your area.
Local media is the way to keep your community informed -- this is essential, because the mass-market media will not favorably cover radical activity.
If a community is to be sustained, its values must be passed down from generation to generation; this is why many long-standing communities have existed for centuries, even millennia. You must consider how you can pass anarchist ideas along to other generations. Authoritarians use rigorous, unending indoctrination and propaganda (misnamed "education" in our society; see also "religion") to transfer their social values to next generations.
Anarchists should consider how to pass along anarchist ideas -- otherwise, one risks a "generation gap" -- whereby a social movement stalls for lack of younger people to carry on the fight. This is always a problem with radicalism, because radicalism demands so much from people, and because popular radicalism is so roundly discouraged by the authorities (to put it nicely).
I don't have a ready answer for how a person should pass along anarchist ideas; the main consideration is that it should be done in an open, libertarian manner. One thought is social functions -- study the radical communities of the past and you'll find that they didn't focus just on social or economic issues -- they engaged in fun activities, too -- dances, picnics, parties, etc. That's as much a key element of community-building as anything else. We're not a bunch of stuffy Marxists -- we're anarchists, and anarchism should be fun; otherwise, what good is it?
Once vibrant, active communities are again established in our society, we'll start to see some serious changes (and of course, serious social repression by the authorities), but we'll be able to turn things around and build a future we can all be proud of.
10/6/98
a4a