I was intrigued by the title of the lead article last issue (PN 2482-2483): ‘Why “why Labour lost” matters to anarchists, anti-cuts activists and climate campaigners’, but dismayed to find this was just an advertising ploy to sell the paper, as there was little related to anarchism.
I have two points about that article. Firstly I think that people are moved not by ‘concrete plans for radical change’ but by seeing actions where people take control of their lives and self-organise.
Secondly, in the analysis of relations between state and corporate business, while it’s true that states constrain some of the excesses of capitalism, business also relies on the existence of the state: both in money, by state subsidy of infrastructure, and in power, by state protection of business interests through police and military.
The right wing are not against the state per se, only against any truly democratic and welfare aspects. Parliament is a corrupt and corrupting system and one day’s voting matters little compared to what we do all the other days between elections. Do you imagine that a Labour government would not pursue ‘austerity’, workfare, privatisation, Trident?