And by U.S., you mean the government, and all international institutions it's a member of? Would you advocate working with the isolationist right?
>It is by building movements *against* (e.g., by opposing
>the existence of the World Bank or IMF or WTO rather than proposing
>reforms) that the left can create itself. This is one of the reasons that
>for the present I've ceased wrangling with the anarchists.
I'm sure the anarchists are breathing sighs of relief.
>However
>hopeless anarchist politics are in the long run, they are often a good
>place to start in building a leftist movement.
I'm curious about what you think about the anarchists having such a high profile lately. I'd guess that part of it is the misreporting of the mainstream media, and as bad as it was, the New Republic article that Pugliese posted had a few intersting points along these lines, such as the fact that punk music is infused with anarchist politics. Chunk0 agreed with the article's point that anarchists are often bold and fun.
Which reminds me of the time after college when I sat in on International Socialist meetings and was subjected to repeated browbeatings by their know-it-all leaders. This was at the U. of Texas in Austin where the other major radical presence on campus was an anarchist group.
On the other hand, last weekend I caught a CNN segment on the independent media which featured a young International Socialist at one of the protesters' computer/media centers in Washington. He was quite charming and humorous and admited to being blown-away by how many people came out of the woodwork after Seattle, people who wanted to get involved.
Peter