Once you have 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 no real recent history groups may exist which call themselves anarchist but don’t really have a lot to do with anarchism. It can just be a trendy label. Or sometimes a group just runs out of energy but keep going for social reasons (ie because the people like meeting up for a drink). Problems you should look out for include:
• Attitude to the working class; Is the group based around trying to get the idea of anarchism out and help working class people organise or is it just into ’fringe’ issues with no central political aim?
• Does the group try and enforce a particular life-style on people involved, is it only interested in ’drop-outs’, squatters or vegetarians? There’s nothing wrong with being any of these but if you are expected to live this way then the group is more concerned with life-style then 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 struggles, unions and demonstrations?
• Is the group democratic in scope, does everyone have a say in decision making or is it ran by a Guru whose decisions are unquestioned.
• Are important decisions made at meetings that everyone has an input to or do they seem to be made by a sub-group of friends elsewhere?
• Do they have a public face, do they have a publication, leaflets and public meetings or are they just activists content to do work for others?
If any of these things are problems in the group then you should check around to see if there are any other anarchist organisations around. If there are not or they share the same problems then you probably will have little choice but to get involved anyway and try and change the way the group functions. You may well find this is impossible though. If so recognise when you are beaten and rather then 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.