billbartlett at dodo.com.au:
> How would you see society formally making such a decision then?
> If it isn't going to be imposed, then some kind of ballot on the
> question would be necessary, yes?
In a liberal society, where the liberals actually play by their own rules, it is materially possible for anarchists to set up alternate, anarchistic relations, institutions and practices into which people can migrate, withdrawing their labor from the capitalist system. Any sort of commune, cooperative or labor union can become the focus of this sort of activity. Eventually the capitalist shell would be abandoned, or perhaps would be continued as a kind of sport.
Of course, liberals seldom play by their own rules except when they're winning. So various other strategies might be required. Sometimes it might suffice to hire a smart lawyer; this would probably have saved the Dukhobors, at least for awhile. Sometimes things might get a bit rough. If the movement were able to lie low until it became widespread, attempted repression could be met with boycotts, a general strike, sabotage -- there are many strategies.
I don't know what the right approach to opposing an overtly authoritarian regime would be. One might have to cooperate with liberals to overthrow the fascists or whatever, and then proceed from there. If the authoritarians had socialist pretensions, one might be able to subvert them by tricking them into believing and performing what they professed.
In any case, I don't think a sudden transition to anarchy is likely to work; about the best you can get with sudden transitions would be something like the hippie movement, where people enact certain aspects of anarchism without understanding what they're doing or being able to preserve and extend their culture or organize a serious economic basis. Instead, I envision the new society growing up "in the shell of the old" by gaining voluntary adherents, working from the ground up. As I've said before, if people don't want to do it, it isn't going to happen; if they do, they don't need the State.
-- Gordon