Every so often we get enquiries from AA members offering not only their support but also wanting to get more involved in our campaign - that is to rid Alcoholics Anonymous of its extremist, dogmatic and abusive elements, to keep our Fellowship healthily disorganised, and operating moreover in accordance with our Traditions (see About Us section for more details on this). In response to these requests you might wish to consider the following:
a) Within the context of AA meetings as such it is not really appropriate to raise these issues – that would be contrary to the stated purpose of these gatherings as indicated in our Preamble. However outside this context there is absolutely no reason why the website should not be discussed, and the issues that it raises debated by the AA membership. This may take place in group consciences, business meetings, Intergroup and Region meetings and indeed at AA Conference level (or are we just being grandiose here......), and of course at any time between individuals who wish to exercise their fundamental right to freedom of speech. These are all entirely legitimate forums for such discussion and any attempt to censor this should be opposed. Whereas the site itself is evidently not run by Alcoholics Anonymous the views expressed therein are those of AA members (except where an outside source is cited eg. articles, research etc), and therefore qualify (if not on that ground alone) for consideration by other members of the Fellowship.
b) Knowledge is power: One thing at least that we have discovered during the last three years the site has been running is that what the cult most fears is EXPOSURE. They dislike intensely having their activities brought into the full light of day, with their misrepresentations of the Fellowship and its programme examined (and then refuted), the unmasking of their systematic abuse of newcomers (this conducted under the guise of “sponsorship” of the worst kind - that is if it can be called sponsorship at all!), together with their discriminatory conduct towards those AA members who are dual diagnosis (this leading to further suffering for those concerned, and, in some instances, contributing to, if not actually causing, their untimely death), and lastly their manipulation of AA guidelines, Traditions and Concepts to serve their own ego driven ambitions rather than the welfare of AA members (it is worth bearing in mind here that the cult are particularly fond of running so-called “workshops” (advertised both within AA and outside the auspices of the Fellowship) to promote their own mangled “version” of these principles). Finally our efforts - together with those of other similarly concerned AA members - are starting to have some impact on the cult in Great Britain. A number of their meetings have either closed or been removed from the “Where to Find” (a decision undertaken by local intergroups), or in at least one instance denied access to an intergroup for being “too controversial”. A number of other groups (those more amenable to criticism) have recognised their breaches of the Traditions and guidelines and have (following upon group consciences) revised their conduct accordingly. All of the above has been sustained by the flow of information which has indeed proven to be a potent weapon in our campaign against the cult's activities.
We reiterate: knowledge is power! When AA members have full access to what is going on in other groups they are then in a position to remedy (where required) any abuses that might be taking place. We have no problem at all with the notion of AA members and AA groups 'policing' AA. Indeed we would argue that under Traditions One, Four and Five (and contrary to the position taken by cult groups in their frequent misrepresentation of these guidelines) other groups not only have a right to take action to correct the dangerous conduct of cult groups (those purporting to act under the umbrella of AA) but even - we would assert - a duty to intervene, that is if there exists a genuine concern to ensure both “our common welfare” and protect the newcomer against this most insidious and malign influence within the Fellowship. These flows of information need not specifically be directed towards aacultwatch itself (although we will always happily review any evidence sent our way) but rather between AA members, both individually and locally, either within the formal service structure or via (and just as importantly) informal networks. Such conduits should no longer be obstructed by 'hiding' behind the Yellow Card (the confidentiality statement, which by the way has no legal or applicable ground to support it) or relying on collusion and/or denial within the Fellowship to ensure their perverse activities go unchallenged. AA is an anonymous organisation - not a secret one. We are in fact not only “responsible” for our own Fellowship but also accountable to a wider public, and from which after all our membership finally derives. In line with this we would argue that AA should operate altogether more transparently, and moreover that AA members have both a moral and a social obligation to speak up and expose cult groups wherever and whenever such abuses occur. Freedom of speech and freedom of action do not simply happen – they are rights that have to be actively defended or they wither and die, and we are left then subordinate to the fascist condition perpetrated by the cult groups (the terms “Step Nazis” and “Taliban” more than adequately express a sometimes intuitively grasped recognition - that this is precisely where the cult groups will finally take AA if they are left unopposed)
c) Similarly such debate can take place in online forums (incidentaly we have been reliably informed by AA members that instructions have been issued by some cult groups to their members that these latter should not view the aacultwatch website (an indication in itself of their fear of exposure even amongst themselves!). Our own forum (http://forums.delphiforums.com/aacultwatch) exists to promote such discussion, and without wishing to blow our own trumpets (but we're going to anyway) we have already successfully challenged one anti-AA advocate (going by the bizarre tag “Agent [a citrus fruit]”; we have no intention of giving him or his website any more publicity here) and his adherents to produce verifiable evidence to support their claims. Of the eight or nine points raised they were only able to produce one piece of supporting documentation which might even approach meeting that simple criterion. The rest was mere propaganda or the recycling of misrepresentations about AA from other sources on the web. Their other claims were challenged effectively by AA members who, citing in every instance the relevant guidelines, were easily able to confute their arguments. In like fashion the advocates of the cult position have been challenged by AA members to establish the moral legitimacy of their approach, something which this extremist element has so far entirely failed to do. Other online forums of course provide a means by which these debates can be conducted, and this without necessarily mentioning aacultwatch explicitly (although to do so usually saves quite a lot of time in explanation).
d) Finally of course AA members may themselves directly confront and challenge cult supporters and adherents wherever these seek to promote their fallacious doctrine (and this even in an AA meeting where cult members may attempt to exploit the opportunity afforded therein), and expose their lies and misrepresentations, and this by the simple expedient of questioning their dubious interpretations of the principles and guidelines of AA (an approach which we ourselves will most certainly continue to apply). In order to do this AA members will themselves need not only to familiarise themselves with the relevant literature but ensure moreover that they have fully “imbibed”, as it were, the spirit of the Fellowship. The cult may be quite adept in manipulating such former sources to serve their own personality driven ends but they fail entirely to distinguish the essence of AA which underpins its every action, and wherein lies its sole purpose; that is liberation – liberation from the tyranny of alcoholism, and this by means of liberation from the bondage of self, whether this last manifests itself immediately, or derives indeed from some other source – that is another “human power”. “Self will run riot” is the fundamental flaw upon which the cult rests, and which finally will be its downfall – and the sooner the better!
Cheerio
The Fellas
