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Radical Resistance in Conservative Times: New Asian American Organizations in the 1990s
By Diane C. Fujino and Kye Leung
Part 12 of 16
As small, localized formations, ARC, ACTION, and ASIAN! operate based on collective decision-making, with high levels of democracy. These groups believe that the collective can accomplish more than the individual. Also, the collective process helps members feel a sense of "ownership" for the group--that they are responsible for the successes or failures of the group and that they can contribute to its activities and direction. These groups believe in the need for democracy and for enabling members to voice their opinions. The structure of these groups match their objectives of building the leadership of youth, of women, and of APIs. They recognize that internalized sexism, internalized racism, and cultural values such as respect for authority can create obstacles to speaking out. With encouragement and practice, many members gain the confidence and skills to formulate political ideas and articulate them. The collective operations of these groups also help to foster closer social relationship among members, as do their weekly meetings.
It is important to recognize that the small size of these groups, usually less than a dozen members, makes it possible to operate based on collective leadership and collective decision-making. ASIAN! knows this from experience. After the defeat of Proposition 209 triggered a desire for action, ASIAN!'s membership more than doubled to close to 30 people. ASIAN! continued to try to operate based on collective leadership because members were reluctant to implement any hierarchical structure. The results were disastrous. Members were generally frustrated with the slowness of decision making and bored with all the talking. It was hard to keep track of who was responsible for various tasks, making accountability difficult to manage. Another frustration was that the larger size made it difficult to develop the personal relationships and closeness that helps build group unity. Though members are still reluctant to move away from collective decision-making, at a retreat to assess its internal functioning, ASIAN! decided that should it get large again, it would need to quickly implement an administrative committee that would be charged with making sure decisions are implemented and holding members accountable. The entire group would still make major decisions. An unfair hierarchy could be avoided by opening the administrative committee to anyone who is willing to do the work. Part of ASIAN!'s reluctance to implement a less, collective structure stemmed from their misunderstanding of collective leadership. They thought, as many people do, that collective leadership means everyone must participate equally and have equal influence in the group. But as George Iechika-McKinney noted about API FORCE, "Hierarchy is based on level of involvement. We want to acknowledge that people who do more work should be valued." This statement recognizes that within any volunteer organization, some people are more willing or able to take on responsibility and leadership. And these people will have more influence on the direction and activities of the group; that is, they possess more "legitimate power" based on, among other factors, commitment, hard work, and political experience. What does need to be guarded against is when individuals gain "unearned power"--influence ascribed because of, for example, social status or friendship--or when individuals are shut out of leadership positions because of structural forces such as sexism or the lack of childcare. But sometimes it is difficult to disentangle legitimate power from unearned power. In ASIAN!, the most politically experienced person is also the only professor among its predominantly student membership. And in API FORCE, where highly committed members have become friends, there have been times when organizational work was done through friendships rather than through organizational mechanisms. Here, API FORCE, ASIAN!, and ACTION are aware of internal power dynamics and have changed their structures or otherwise worked to reduce unearned hierarchies.