> The anarchists are a spectacle for
>the media and their libertarian theories continue to resonate with romantic
>intellectuals, but they no longer represent anything of real significance in
>Western political life. I doubt their theatre either attracts or drives
>people away from the left. These decisions have deeper roots.
The public vandalism strategy isn't designed to convert people to the left, but to recruit existing leftists to the anarchist fringe. In terms of this strategy, it isn't a problem that it alienates the wider community. In fact this would seem to be useful, in the sense that this lack of community support gives the cops freer rein to use more brutal tactics against left activists, which achieves the purpose of radicalising them. If driving a bigger wedge between left activists from the wider community is the object, then driving the public further away serves just as well as drawing the activists closer.
It isn't dumb, at least not in terms of the narrow short-sighted strategy being being pursued. It seems a viable strategy to me. Leftist demonstrators who get beaten up by cops are very likely to be more receptive to anarchist arguments. As you say, most are unlikely to be driven from the left by the response.
Of course its a problem for the wider left, in the sense that the purpose of the larger demonstrations often subverted by Black Bloc tactics are undermined. That wider left strategy of course is to generate public support for various particular causes. The anarchist Black Bloc is at odds with that because its demonstrations are not aimed at influencing the public, but the participants in the demo. They are preaching to the choir.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas