hey everybody. just wanted to contribute to this discussion. i can respect other people's cynicism about opposing hierarchy: it seems quite often that people who demand that setup are going to be unwilling to address its consequences. on the other hand, the bike dump has worked this way since its inception two and a half years ago, and we are still going strong, without relying on an insular or cliquey group of volunteers.
i mentioned our subcommittees for dealing with various aspects of the shop's functioning in my last email. it's not always fun: we also rotate who cleans the bathroom among all of our active volunteers!
still, for us it is totally worthwhile to create our shop in the same way we'd like our world to be: minimizing (and hopefully eliminating) anyone's dominance over anyone else, or coercion of anyone else.
as some other people have pointed out, the main roadblock to this kind of setup is accountability. non-hierarchy SHOULD NOT MEAN non-accountability. people need to follow through on what they say they're going to follow through on, and mechanisms need to be developed to make sure this happens. but it doesn't require a boss. at least-- not for us.
one other important thing, though, is that aiming for non-hierarchy and equality does not mean that you can assume people are the same as each other. they're unique. they have different talents, skills, capacities, interests, and amounts of free time. this needs to be recognized in a way that doesn't force everyone into the same mold, which always ends up reflecting the people in the majority or the dominant society. deciding you're "a collective" also is not going to eliminate any informal power imbalances. my class, race, gender, and educational background give me a buttload more power than almost anyone else who works at our shop, no matter how non-hierarchical we say we are. keeping this in the open, and being aware of it when making decisions also goes a long way.
okay, i'm not trying to make myself feel good by being "more leftist than you", or to showboat, or anything, but i think this stuff is actually pretty important, and i appreciate the discussion from all ends.
take care everyone, macho http://bike-dump.ca