I'm not sure what to make of this, or if it's accurate. Affinity groups are actually a form of information that come from the anarchist federation - specifically they are from the spanish anarchist tradition, where a grupo de afinidad would form the base unit of a collective, which would in turn form the base for the local/regional federation, and so on. In terms of a Black Bloc, where affinity groups are organised, it's mostly useful if there are some specific goals in mind that require tactical unity on the part of the demonstrators.
Personally, I think that the struggle should be focused around organising people to join the event. But, I wouldn't count on people just joining the event the day of, not having been prior informed, on a spontaneous whim - so making leeway for that kind of inclusion is somewhat redundant, and more often helps the cops than anythign else.
>In recent days the subject of "summit-hopping" type activism and the
>entire nature of the "anti-globalization movement" (in North America)
>and its status as basically a movement of white priveleged youth who
>have the resources to go to Seattle, to go to Quebec, but who often times
>ignore injustice such as police brutality right in their backyards has
>come up, and I think it's a necessary discussion.
Sure, I have problems with the lot of the summit hopping thing. Not because I think police brutality in the backyard is being ignored - certainly around the time i was in the quebec bloc i was also involved in local anti-police brutality campaigns. The main problem with summit hopping is that, while it's important to show public dissatisfaction with these kinds of things, the "follow up" work needs to be there. I can't comment on that in quebec city, since i'm not from there...
>Thoughts?
I'm not worried about protest being inclusive, I'm worried about organising being inclusive, and inviting broad sectors of the opressed classes to join in struggle.
Paul
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