This is where I must admit my own position is particularly confusing. On the one hand, this is exactly the kind of attitude I have been arguing for for years. I like to describe myself precisely as a “small-a anarchist.” That is, I believe in anarchist principles—mutual aid, direct action, the idea building the new, free society in the shell of the old—but I’ve never felt a need to declare allegiance to any particular anarchist school (Syndicalists, Platformists, etc). Above all, I am happy to work with anyone, whatever they call themselves, willing to work on anarchist principles—which in America today, has largely come to mean, ***a refusal to work with or through the government or other institutions which ultimately rely on the threat of force, and a dedication to horizontal democracy, to treating each other as we believe free men and women in a genuinely free society would treat each other.*** Even the commitment to direct action, so often confused with breaking windows or the like, really refers to the refusal of any politics of protest, that merely appeals to the authorities to behave differently, and the determination instead to act for oneself, and to do what one thinks is right, regardless of law and authority.
On Oct 20, 2011, at 2:02 PM, Bhaskar Sunkara wrote:
> What? The argument is the argument that we were discussing in this thread,
> an ideological opposition to making demands on the state. The possible
> structural problems of "consensus" (versus majority decision making) in
> allowing a small minority to potentially block a decision like this -- what
> Richard brings up -- is a real concern.
>
> 2011/10/20 Ferenc Molnar <ferenc_molnar at hotmail.com>
>
>>
>> leninstombblog wrote: "Unless there are Tea Party infiltrators,
>> the argument against demands on the state certainly sounds like an anarchist
>> one. This is where consensus decision-making could potentially reach its
>> limits, if a small number of people were able to block this demand."
>>
>>
>> FM: What anarchist? What argument? Please produce an anarchist with an
>> argument from OWS or this is all speculation.
>>
>>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk