AIDS TREATMENT NEWS #188, December 3, 1993
John S. James
The Next Step: New Affinity Groups?
The vision that most interests us, for either gay or AIDS organizing, is a network of greatly enriched affinity groups. Activists have long used affinity groups for coordinating actions at demonstrations and dealing with arrests. Similar support groups form around individuals with AIDS, to care for them as their health declines. From these experiences can grow a kind of group which provides the personal support which a good family or church can give, while also supporting more effective political organizing, especially communicating with public officials, than we have had in the past.
Organized affinity groups could offer security in time of trouble, assistance in keeping one's life together and dealing with the world, professional or job contacts and opportunities, ways to meet people, and cultural and educational advantages, as well as medical and service referrals, and mutual support for the otherwise solitary work of political letters and calls. Affinity groups are more personal than other organizations, while at the same time providing channels for national communication. They work best when they have a shared cause, one that goes beyond the individual and beyond the members' mutual benefit.
The groups should be self selecting and governing, and may be quite different from each other; some, for example, may be religious, some mainly cultural, some mostly political, some international, and some using computer networks to connect people who seldom or never meet physically. Some may focus on a specialized task, such as coalition building with a specific constituency, or countering misinformation in the media.
While the size of the groups will vary, they may work best with fewer than 12 or 13 people -- which is generally considered the largest size that can function without a bureaucracy. Leaving a few potential "slots" empty may facilitate external links with other groups. [This model works for Concerned Women for America, described in the FIGHT THE RIGHT ACTION KIT of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force as "a multi-issue organization with tremendous grassroots organizing skills and an innovative '535' program they use with great effectiveness to influence Congress." According to an article by Steven Gardiner, Research Director, Coalition for Human Dignity, also reproduced in the NGLTF kit, CWA may have "the most effective multi-issue, grassroots lobbying organization in existence. . . . Seven individuals, including a prayer leader, form a prayer group; seven such groups form a chain; and seven chains form a local chapter of CWA which is run under the direction of a chapter leader. . . . Chapters are under the direction of a regional director who reports to the national CWA headquarters." The "535 program (435 Representatives and 100 Senators) instructs all CWA members to drop an avalanche of letters and phone calls to legislators and public officials at both their Capitol Hill and home offices"; the chapters remain autonomous on local issues. Where there is no chapter, individuals who inquire are directed to a regional coordinator for assistance in forming one.] The AIDS community may choose a less hierarchical model, with national or regional organizations making action and policy suggestions, and focusing on providing the leadership necessary to make the whole movement a success. What seems to count is the close personal association, which most political organizations, modeled loosely on business meetings, do not readily provide.
We believe that the affinity group, in one form or another, will be a key ingredient of effective activism in the future.
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