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Once, I was at an indigenous-initiated road blockade action, where some friends and I (settlers) were asked to remove our masks by someone from the indigenous community we had been invited to for this action, so that we'd appear a little less threatening to the police that were present. Some people removed their masks. Others went and discussed the issue informally with a small group of indigenous participants/"organizers". Our reasons for wearing masks were explained and understood. In this discussion, someone from the indigenous community told us that it was up to us whether to keep our masks on. There was no "shared decision" on this, but many settlers present kept their masks on, and no one was asked to leave.

Elsewhere, on land where indigenous communities are reclaiming their traditional territory and life ways while blocking development projects, different encampments rely on different tactical repertoires (and different levels of individual autonomy), sharing a struggle but not generally making "shared decisions about what tactics are appropriate". This doesn't arise from some master plan of "composition", but from different individual desires and analysis, which are in tension and conflict at times.

In both these examples, it seems to be the absence of unified decision-making that enables people to remain in situations of struggle together, combining their forces against a common enemy. The sharing of strategic and tactical perspectives is constructive, but trying to impose one on a group of people isn't. Neither is considering a certain perspective less legitimate because it is enacted by a relatively small number of people (a logic that appears to underlie R & R and its authors' comments here). I can't speak from direct experience for Portland, but more often than not, in demos at least, it's the initiative of a few individuals who share trust and mutual knowledge that is desperately needed. To break with the passivity of hundreds of people who showed up with no plan, or with the routine of repeating what happened at the last 10 demos, while the cops refine their crowd control plans in response to a predictable set of tactics.