Anarchists' Convention Debates Voting

[quaoar]

Bis is so bad, even anarchists want to go to the polls to get rid of him.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040816_302.html

ATHENS, Ohio (Aug. 16) - A group of anarchists is taking an unusual step to make its political voice heard - going to the polls.

Anarchists generally pride themselves on their rejection of government and its authority. But a faction of them fed up with the war in Iraq say they plan to cast anti-Bush votes this fall.

The voting debate was just one of the topics explored at the three-day North American Anarchist Convergence, which brought about 175 participants to Ohio University.

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"Ultimately, those who are voting are either bad anarchists or not anarchists at all," said Lawrence, a "Californian in his mid-40s" who declined to give his last name. "No one can represent my interests. We reject political professionals."

[Bluzmann57]

1. Doesn't a convention go against anarchism?

I mean they supposedly don't believe in rules and such so a convention goes against the code of anarchy. Conventions usually have rules and regs. Boy I'll bet the anarchists convention is a wild one. Lampshades on the head type of fun.

[Teaser]

3. That's not what anarchists believe

The simple "no rules" notion of anarchism is an error, and its one propagated by those opposed to the idea to mock anarchism as a non-viable political movement.

A better description of anarchism is to term it as a program dedicated to the establishment of a non-hierarchical society, one in which all *institutional* power must be consented to by the individual.

An example: anarcho-syndicalism, in which the means of production are owned by large unions, governed democratically, subject to no state. Society is run more like a series of city states (or in this case, industry states) that cooperate as they see fit.

Some anarchists don't see "anarchy" as a state of being, but as a "direction" to aim towards. The platonic ideal by which the "justness" of a society is measured is the hypothetical anarchic state (or anti-hierarchical state). Programs that move society closer to this state (even if it is, itself, unachievable) are ethical. Those that do not, are unethical.

[NashVegas]

2. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x754159