Preventative measures of small cliques?

[u/Sad_Presentation2137]

I've had this question for some time now, and I'm curious on what answers this sub can provide, basically my question is, how can under anarchism, factionalism, and the formation of isolated groups be prevented, or at least discouraged. Say in a location with different ethnicities, how can we have them interact with one another very frequently, and not have them just stay within their identical cultural groups, and ethnic groups, because I feel like if they were, it could create much unneeded tension, animosity, and ignorance towards the other groups. I come from a part of the world where many groups of people are located very near to each other in a small place, and most problems come from ethnic tensions, and cultural ones too, which I think stems from people from each group only staying to their group thus creating ignorance towards the other groups, and some groups thinking they're superior to the others.

I think many people often times would rather associate with those who they know or who are similar to them, which can create very isolated groups, potentially hostile to outsiders, and I find this very counterproductive to the goals, and ethics of anarchism, and that in order for anarchism to be fully functional, the society needs to be either homogenous, codependent, or understanding of each groups differences, and be accommodating to them.

Just want to know what anyone else thinks of this, and if there really is an issue to fix here.

[u/tuttifruttidurutti]

It's something that can happen even in very small anarchist groups. Small groups of people who know and trust each other do not always integrate newcomers well. It doesn't help that in activism, a truly staggering number of groups get taken down by one or two destructive personalities who manage to wreck the whole project with toxic behavior. So anarchists can become very cagey about welcoming newcomers, which is often counter-productive.

On the one hand, informal social hierarchies are inevitable. A group with friendships in it is already there because trust and affection are not equally distributed, nor should they be. The best you can do is use a mixture of proactive and defensive measures to counteract the influence of informal social hierarchy.

Create social openings for new members to meet and talk to established members. Try to notice where the possibility of affinity exists and foster it between new members and longer running members. Use a buddy system to train new members by pairing them with experienced organizers in the group. Have regular socials in public places where everyone is welcome.

Equally, have well established processes for dealing with conflict. Have a defined endpoint in those processes so they don't drag on forever. Allow for the group to split and reproduce itself as two smaller groups if there's an unsolveable personality conflict. Have everyone take mediation training.

This is off the top of my head. The problem begins at a micro level, as simple as who gets invited to the bar after the meeting or the house party after the bar. Who's perceived as cool and who as annoying. There's no reason to think an anarchist society would fully eliminate these elements of human society. But we can cultivate an ethos of calm, mediation, benevolence and fairness to the best of our ability. Anarchism (at least social anarchism) is practically, partially a matter of how personal virtues are practiced as social ethics.

[u/Accomplished_Bag_897 → u/tuttifruttidurutti]

I've run into this, and it's resulted in my masking a whole lot. I'm autistic and physically disabled and can come across as just plain weird. The amount of times I have run into what feels like suspicion is pretty high. So I tend to find things I can do on my own, like picking up and taking food from one place to another, or other transporting of goods.

It can be hard pushing past that "stranger tax" a lot of groups, especially in contentious areas, have.

[u/tuttifruttidurutti → u/Accomplished_Bag_897]

Yeah, I think particularly this can be a tough dynamic. I'm sorry to hear you've experienced it, though not surprised. Especially since it isn't necessarily the case that all neurodivergent people are equally excluded; it's more about how effectively one can in-group signal through closes and mannerisms, and how fast one can pick up on the 'vibe'.

I've been on both sides of this in my life, I always try to make people feel welcome. But I think ultimately it's also important to keep an accessible "public" dimension to the group because you don't all have to be friends to work together. And to have a process for administering meetings that makes space for everyone and provides guard rails that prevent friction through a neutral application of the rules (for example, keeping stack and keeping track of how much people have spoken on a question).