> <<<<The difference between an anarchist approach to organizing a march
> and typical authoritarian leftist and liberal methods is that the latter
> seeks to control the actions of the participants, often squashing
> attempts at direct action. Authoritarian leftist and liberal groups
> favor routine, symbolic protests and beg for reforms from the ruling
> class.>>>>
>
> And that reminded me of how far many (probably not all) current u.s.
> anarchists are from anarchist movements of a time when anarchism had
> some base -- it evoked for me a NYT headline during the Spanish Civil
> War: Anarchists keeping order in Barcelona.
> Most anarchist movements of the past were rather more tightly
> disciplined than were most 3rd International CPs.
By definition, they had to be more self-disciplined, since they were foregoing the discipline of coercion.
Historical anarchists were trying to prove that you didn't need authority and coercion to maintain order and prosperity in society. Cooperation and mutual respect would be sufficient.
Today's black bloc style "anarchists" seem set on proving the opposite, probably convincing more people that without a strong state, people would just run wild in the streets and break things.
So in that sense, the actual message delivered by black bloc style anarchists (as opposed to these unread communiques) is the exact opposite of the anarchists of old.
nathan