anarchism

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Sam wrote, commenting on the Hal Draper quote posted by Mike Yates:
>They
>reject the *means* by which these goals are accomplished in bourgeois
>society: through the state and coercion. The anarchists just believe you
>can have democracy, equality, security and freedom without a state,
>market or formal legal system. The state and market "corrupt" human
>nature, which is essentially benevolent, co-operative and social. Laws
>and restrictions on positive and negative freedom cause crime.

I agree that the above sums up anarchists' thoughts on the state.  Given
this, though, one might say that anarchists took part in the anti-WTO
protest _despite, not because of_ their professed philosophy.  Most
protesters with whom they stood side by side in Seattle -- trade unionists,
environmentalists, Public Citizen types, students against sweatshops, etc.
-- are in favor of state regulations, not against them, in the areas of
labor rights, environmental protection, consumer safety, capital control,
defense of local cultural practices, etc.

How do anarchists respond politically and philosophically to the neoliberal
agenda (less social investment by the government, less regulations of
capitalists' freedoms, etc.)?  Chomsky, a self-identified anarchist, said
that anti-statism in the era of neoliberal attacks upon the past gains of
workers is idiotic, I recall.  What of other anarchists?

Yoshie