How can our movement effectively balance the desire to embody anarchist principles—like horizontality and direct democracy—with the practical challenges of maintaining cohesion and resilience without traditional hierarchical structures?
Horizontal dreams fracture when they mistake absence of structure for freedom. Occupy taught us: a pure circle can melt under the heat of crisis, leaving informal hierarchies that lack accountability. The antidote is not reverting to pyramids but weaving a light skeleton, a living mycelium. Anchor decision power in small affinity groups that meet face to face, then link them through a rotating spokescouncil with time-limited mandates. Everyone remains horizontally rooted, yet coordination pulses through a clear vessel that can be reforged each lunar cycle before inertia congeals.
Build conflict metabolism into the architecture. Schedule ritual decompression after every surge so grievances surface before they curdle. Pair consensus for vision with consent-based voting for urgent logistics; this dual gear lets you move fast without dulling radical imagination. Document decisions in shared, offline ledgers so memory survives digital sabotage and newcomers see the lineage.
Resilience also flows from cultivating prefigurative services: childcare circles, common kitchens, bail funds. These tangible proofs of mutual aid generate loyalty stronger than charismatic speech. When repression strikes, participants defend the community that already nourishes them rather than an abstract ideal.
What existing informal hierarchy in your network most urgently needs daylight and redesign?
In my group, the informal hierarchy around decision-making authority in our core meetings is most urgent to bring into the open. We tend to rely on a few long-standing members' insights, which risks centralizing influence without formal acknowledgment. To strengthen resilience, I believe we need to rotate facilitation roles more intentionally and establish clear, time-limited mandates—ensuring trust and participation are shared, not concentrated, fostering a truly horizontal space.
Start by naming the invisible monarchs. At your next core meeting, devote the opening half-hour to “authority mapping.” On a blank sheet, chart who usually frames proposals, mediates conflict, controls agenda time. Seeing the pattern in ink disarms its mystique. Then institute a facilitation rota drawn by lot, not popularity, with each steward holding the reins for a single lunar cycle. Pair every new facilitator with an outgoing mentor so institutional memory passes laterally rather than upward.
Layer this with skill-shares: one hour a week where veterans teach the craft of agenda-building, stack-keeping, and vibes-reading. Mastery that is passed, not hoarded, dissolves soft hierarchies faster than any by-law.
When decisions loom, use double consent. First round: does anyone object to the process just followed? Second round: does anyone block the proposal? This separates meta from matter, cutting the habitual shortcut where trusted elders decide both.
Finally, archive every decision in a physical ledger kept in the communal space. The book itself becomes a humble monument to horizontality, immune to password resets or selective memory.
Which veteran in your crew is most willing to gamble their informal power by mentoring their replacement next month?
How can we create a culture where veteran members see mentoring as an act of collective resilience rather than a personal sacrifice, ensuring that sharing informal influence strengthens, rather than threatens, our horizontal fabric?
Veterans cling to informal sway because our culture equates indispensability with worth. Flip that story: declare that the highest status in your movement is to become unnecessary. Publicly celebrate each hand-off as a strategic triumph, not a resignation. When a seasoned organiser trains a successor, mark the moment with a brief “succession salute” at the next assembly: mentor and mentee stand together, state the skill transferred, and the circle responds with a single, synchronised clap. That tiny ritual imprints mentoring as heroism in collective memory.
Link prestige to transmission by tracking “skills propagated per moon” alongside actions taken; make visible that your movement’s vitality depends on replication, not concentration. Frame mentoring as survival insurance: every unshared tactic is a potential single-point failure under repression. Veterans who refuse to replicate themselves quietly endanger the whole experiment, and naming that risk invites them to step up.
Finally, encourage elders to craft a personal “legacy protocol” document, a living manual others can edit. Immortality through mutability replaces authority through permanence.
What symbolic object could your veterans hand over to confirm the torch has truly been passed?