Come Hell or High Water: A Handbook on Collective Process Gone Awry helps individuals navigate the world of egalitarian, directly democratic groups. From their experiences working with egalitarian and anarchist organizations, Delfina Vannucci and Richard Singer offer a street-level view of how social relationships and power work. Lessons are learned and hindsight is 20/20, and Come Hell or High Water offers readers both in this little gem.
Critical, humorous, and prophetic, this book is a must-read for those new to egalitarian groups as well as for the salty old vet that thinks she's got it all figured out. It's a tough world out there; it's a world that doesn't prepare us for developing social relationships based on trust, caring, and solidarity—as well as a healthy respect for differences. Whether playing a role in an anarchist organization, horizontal social or political group, worker co-op, or trying to incorporate egalitarian processes where …
Come Hell or High Water: A Handbook on Collective Process Gone Awry helps individuals navigate the world of egalitarian, directly democratic groups. From their experiences working with egalitarian and anarchist organizations, Delfina Vannucci and Richard Singer offer a street-level view of how social relationships and power work. Lessons are learned and hindsight is 20/20, and Come Hell or High Water offers readers both in this little gem.
Critical, humorous, and prophetic, this book is a must-read for those new to egalitarian groups as well as for the salty old vet that thinks she's got it all figured out. It's a tough world out there; it's a world that doesn't prepare us for developing social relationships based on trust, caring, and solidarity—as well as a healthy respect for differences. Whether playing a role in an anarchist organization, horizontal social or political group, worker co-op, or trying to incorporate egalitarian processes where they don't already exist, Come Hell or High Water will help keep you focused on the positives and help in avoiding the pitfalls.
Delfina Vannucci has volunteered with Food Not Bombs and other groups. She lives on Staten Island with her boyfriend, a good friend, and Richard's cat.
Richard Singer has enjoyed writing in several different capacities. He has delved into dystopian fiction, postpunk music journalism, and radical social history. Presently, he's writing a bunch about the socialistic music-packed movies of mid-20thcentury India.
Review of 'Come Hell or High Water' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I really wanted to give it 2.5 stars. It had useful info about where collectives go terribly wrong. But often it came across like a bitching session or payback for one of the authors being pariahs in a collective. And, in trying to point out the problems that can occur when a group overcompensates for historical privilege, they came across like people who pay too little attention to it.
