A document for discussion

Some thoughts on the nature and function of the ALLiance, stemming from our recent internal conflicts:

The ALLiance should be welcoming to women, men, trans-women and trans-men, of whatever sexual preference, people of all nationalities and ethnicities, all faiths or lack thereof, transhumanists and survivalists, etc., that is, to all people seriously struggling for anarchism, along whatever economic or philosophical path, using whatever language or lingo. Members of the ALLiance should be expected to pursue this vision diligently, on their own responsibility, using their own best judgment, and respecting, as much as possible, the judgment of their ALLies. Strategic and tactical differences ought to be aired and discussed as precisely as differences within the ALLiance, differences between persons. Vague talk of “tendencies” and non-intention sub-alliances probably ought to be avoided as simply unhelpful, and likely incorrect, given the fairly low level of specific agreement between individual ALLies on any given issue, beyond the general pursuit of liberty and our policy of general welcome and support for the like-minded. Any attempt to treat individuals, within the ALLiance or without, as other than individuals–as mere instances of some social grouping, trend or pathology–ought to be opposed as destructive of the hospitality which alone can make the ALLiance into something more than a collection of more-or-less similar, more-or-less isolated individuals. By it’s nature and composition, the ALLiance has to embrace viewpoints of a conflicting nature–and sometimes the conflicts will be of more than trivial significance to the ALLies. Most of us are committed to philosophical, political, economic and/or ethical paths, to which we have invested often considerable energy, time, ideological struggle (and the pains that come with it). ALLies, present from the beginning, work from foundations as disparate as amoralist egoism and spiritual revelation, and pursue means of libertarian social change that run the gamut of revolutionary and evolutionary approaches. The ALLiance of the Libertarian Left, as such, cannot endorse any or all of these positions without compromising the philosophy of hospitality which is at the core of our current disputes. Nor can the ALLiance, as such, be expected to present any particular approach any more prominently, or negatively, than it is presented by the actions and expressions of the individual ALLies–hopefully magnified, clarified, criticized, and put into creative, productive play with other such actions and expressions by other ALLies, motivated and guided by that spirit of hospitality.