1
00:00:13,009 --> 00:00:14,849
Many draw back in front of affinity.

2
00:00:14,849 --> 00:00:18,500
It is in fact
a lot easier and less demanding to sign up

3
00:00:18,500 --> 00:00:22,810
to something, be it an organization, a permanent
assembly or

4
00:00:22,810 --> 00:00:27,210
an environment and to take up and reproduce formal
characteristics,

5
00:00:27,210 --> 00:00:32,210
rather than undertaking a long and never
exhausted research for comrades with whom

6
00:00:32,210 --> 00:00:35,670
to share
ideas, analysis and eventual projects.

7
00:00:35,670 --> 00:00:39,710
Because affinity is exactly this: a reciprocal knowledge

8
00:00:39,710 --> 00:00:43,090
between comrades, shared analysis that lead to perspectives

9
00:00:43,090 --> 00:00:43,680
of action.

10
00:00:45,420 --> 00:00:49,800
Affinity is therefore directed
on one hand towards theoretical

11
00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:54,100
deepening and on the other towards
intervention in social conflictuality.

12
00:00:57,940 --> 00:01:00,820
It aspires to the sharing of ideas and methods,
and it

13
00:01:00,820 --> 00:01:04,559
does not have as a goal an infinite growth.

14
00:01:04,559 --> 00:01:07,220
For some
comrades, one of the main preoccupations,

15
00:01:07,220 --> 00:01:10,130
even though often well hidden, seems to remain

16
00:01:10,130 --> 00:01:11,450
the number.

17
00:01:11,450 --> 00:01:12,909
How many are we?

18
00:01:12,909 --> 00:01:14,690
What should we do to be
more?

19
00:01:14,690 --> 00:01:19,860
From the polarization on such a question and
from the constatation that today we aren’t

20
00:01:19,860 --> 00:01:23,030
many,
given by the fact that many others do not

21
00:01:23,030 --> 00:01:25,420
share our ideas
deriving the

22
00:01:25,420 --> 00:01:29,619
conclusion
that we should, to grow numerically, avoid

23
00:01:29,620 --> 00:01:32,720
putting
too hard of an accent on certain ideas.

24
00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:37,920
Affinity is not the same thing as friendship.

25
00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:40,040
Of
course the two do not exclude each other,

26
00:01:40,940 --> 00:01:45,020
The search for affinity occurs on an interpersonal
level.

27
00:01:45,030 --> 00:01:47,850
It is not a collective event, a group affair,
where

28
00:01:47,850 --> 00:01:51,200
it is always easier to follow than to think
for oneself.

29
00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:54,100
The deepening of affinity is evidently a matter
of

30
00:01:54,100 --> 00:01:58,380
thought and action, but in the end affinity
is not the

31
00:01:58,380 --> 00:02:01,520
strictly about carrying out an action together,
but rather a

32
00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:05,100
starting point from which to then pass to
action.

33
00:02:05,100 --> 00:02:09,050
It is true that the search and the
deepening of affinity require a lot of time

34
00:02:09,050 --> 00:02:12,490
and energy,
and that therefore it is not possible to generalize

35
00:02:12,490 --> 00:02:14,030
it to
all comrades.

36
00:02:14,030 --> 00:02:19,250
The anarchist movement of a country, of
a city or even of a neighbourhood cannot become

37
00:02:19,250 --> 00:02:20,650
one
big affinity group.

38
00:02:20,650 --> 00:02:24,690
It is not about enlarging different
affinity groups with more comrades,

39
00:02:24,690 --> 00:02:28,620
but to make possible the multiplication
of autonomous affinity groups.

40
00:02:28,620 --> 00:02:33,580
The search, the elaboration and the deepening
of affinity leads to small groups of

41
00:02:33,580 --> 00:02:37,960
comrades that know each other,
share analysis and pass together to action.