AN AFFINITY GROUP IN ACTION
Let?s say you and six of your friends and fellow activists want to participate in a direct action to temporarily block the entrance to a major war-profiteering corporation, such as Bechtel (which has offices in San Francisco). The seven of you may decide to form an affinity group for this particular action. Your group will meet, plan your action, and make arrangements for any anticipated arrests, including civil disobedience training and legal support. Other activists and other affinity groups may be joining you in the blockade or in a supporting demonstration. Your affinity group will meet with others and agree on the basic plans for the action, but your affinity group will be able to decide for itself on the fine points, such as how to behave at the action -- the ?tone? of your protest -- and how you will express the message of the action in signs, puppets, chants or skits.

ONGOING AFFINITY GROUPS
An affinity group may be formed for a single action, or it may persist indefinitely (for example, until the revolution comes). The nice thing about this sort of affinity group is that it may also be a study group, in which you help each other think through all the puzzles and problems of saving the world by changing it.

ORIGIN OF AFFINITY GROUPS
The modern affinity group originated in Spain before the turn of the 20th century. The first affinity groups were called tertulias: small groups of friends who met at cafes to share ideas and plan political actions. By the time of the Spanish Civil War in the 1930?s, thousands of affinity groups made up of workers of various political persuasions, but especially anarchists, would ultimately join in large federations to fight fascism in Spain just before World
War II.
In the United States in recent years, the affinity group became the form of much of the anti-nuclear power movement, the disarmament movement, and the mass actions for global democracy and economic justice in Seattle, Washington D. C., Florida, and elsewhere. Affinity groups have also been central to the recent upsurge of the anti-war and anti-imperialism movements.

Dispatches from San Antonio
Meg is a Bay Area nurse who went to San Antonio as part of a contingent of nurses from SEIU to help with hurricane victims. Her accounts give us a glimpse into the chaos and deliberate denial of the humanity of the evacues from the "official" caregivers.
Click here to read Meg's dispatches...

Number Six Reports Live from Chiapas:
A Journal of the Journey

Special update from Chiapas

The Sixth Declaration of the
ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION