[Peace-discuss] what I like about the anarchists

Mon Nov 21 16:52:19 UTC 2016

The leading anarchist political thinker it the US today wrote long ago,  

'A French writer, sympathetic to anarchism, wrote in the 1890s that “anarchism has a broad back, like paper it endures anything” — including, he noted those whose acts are such that “a mortal enemy of anarchism could not have done better.” There have been many styles of thought and action that have been referred to as “anarchist.” It would be hopeless to try to encompass all of these conflicting tendencies in some general theory or ideology. And even if we proceed to extract from the history of libertarian [IN THE EUROPEAN - NOT IN THE CONTEMPORARY U.S. - SENSE] thought a living, evolving tradition ... it remains difficult to formulate its doctrines as a specific and determinate theory of society and social change…” <https://chomsky.info/1970____/ <https://chomsky.info/1970____/>>.

The task for anarchists - and everyone serious about politics in the U.S. today - is to find how to oppose the neoconservative (more war) and neoliberal (more inequality) policies of the political establishment - the 20% of the population who support the Democrat and Republican parties. 

The election of a president who - however unclear himself - is not an neoliberal nor a neoconservative provides an opening to reverse those military and economic policies. 

—CGE

> On Nov 21, 2016, at 10:05 AM, Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> You know what I like about the anarchists? The anarchists are straightforward on the question of electoral politics. If you try to get the anarchists interested in electoral politics, they're like: nope. Not going to do that. Don't believe in that. Takes five seconds. They're not deceitful about it at all. They don't pretend to be interested in stuff that they're not interested in. So they don't waste your time, and you don't waste theirs.  
> 
> No reasonable leftist, sitting with an anarchist in a bar or a coffee shop, is bringing up the electoral politics thing, because everybody knows exactly where the conversation is going to go. Nowhere. 
> 
> On the other hand, the anarchists are smart and creative and hardworking and have great ideas and are skilled at carrying them out. And, as long as you don't ask them to do stuff that they don't wanna do, they're very good at cooperation. 
> 
> Occupy Wall Street was an anarchist idea, initially implemented by anarchists, using the anarchist toolbox. Without anarchists, Occupy Wall Street is never happening, never spreading all over the country. 
> 
> I think that nationally, the reformists and the anarchists should be having very serious conversations right now about how to cooperate in the coming period without tripping over each other ideologically.  
> 
> I think that if that happens, lots of wonderful and useful projects will be possible. 
>  
> ===
> 
> Robert Naiman
> Policy Director
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.justforeignpolicy.org&d=DQMFaQ&c=8hUWFZcy2Z-Za5rBPlktOQ&r=tfHzwZBcTLEveiewRiq0OdhFmfRmlvZjpIBS0AUJ2v0&m=oaLsG4Vb-WD4OJzbcbzNXE7mR_aApTBZIhoKfmigYaw&s=6x-eGnm9dVpIPRAqswV8MPu4xH-EVEyy_W3nd3H3LZI&e=>
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org <mailto:naiman at justforeignpolicy.org>
> (202) 448-2898 x1 <tel:%28202%29%20448-2898%20x1>
> 
> 
> 
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