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–3 votes
I already know my own answer to this question (most questions I ask on here aren't generated by actual ignorance, tbh), but I'm still interested in what people have to say.

In case "cuts" didn't clue you in enough, I am referring to advocacy for a collaboration with austerity measures to reform the leading partisanship of the current political establishment that means to cut welfare services and State-owned institutions; instead of doing so, the State would be popular-protested into applying its strategies to other institutions not conducive to whatever an anarchist may understand as tenable and normal living circumstances for the working class—particularly the police.

Just for context, cuts to the police are already on the table and the Ecuadorian State's implementation of them led to riots. So… preaching to the choir and all that jazz.
by (2.8k points)

3 Answers

–1 vote
Interestingly theres a theory going about that the police allowed the student riot at Millbank (London) recently as a protest against there budget cuts. Not sure if I agree but hey...

No I don't think its a good idea to advocate state policy much less in the context of austerity measures.
by (710 points)
+2 votes
yea. not interested in being part of the process of negotiating with state power. just seems like a losing proposition.
doing grass roots, human level work on problem-solving that does not involve the police is much harder and much more relevant than engaging in any level of discussions about police funding or reform.

since you have your own answer, you could also say what you think, rather than just poking the internet monster.
by (53.1k points)
–2 votes
My own answer to this problem is that it is effectively an argument for class collaboration. Regardless of the nature of the police and anarchist's repudiation of it and them, advocacy for what might be understood (in ignorance) as a less reproachable application of State power—in this case economic reforms already taking place meant to create a budget for the State through attacking people's livelihoods—is advocacy for collaborating with the ruling class. The rationalization being that cuts being more thoroughly applied to the police will provide leeway for some institutions and amenities regulated by the state to avoid the axe and this, somehow, will amount to a general increase in the quality of life for working class people. I'm confused as to how that conclusion can be reached; the original proposer of this scheme seemed to collect a bunch of miscellaneous State owned services and employers that they deemed as being conducive, overall, to an easier life for proletarians and other dispossessed peoples. Libraries, trash collectors, etc.

Even if I didn't have such a strong inclination towards a given set of principles I'd still be unable to figure how this pro-austerity strategy would be justifiable or reasonable. Obviously, regardless of how clean the streets are and how available the library is the proletarian is still faced with alienation from production and the rule of ownership. And no application of the State's systemic power over human life and the options & decisions available to us is justifiable; even if the victims are militarized employees of State bureaucracy like police.
by (2.8k points)
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