"all you anarchists do is organize book clubs and get into fights with chuds, how are you a proper Leftist movement" was a question I got asked by a pro-state leftist earlier today. so let's talk about the visibility (and invisibility) of anarchist work.
About the value of invisible “work” done by anarchists behind the scenes
I think it goes farther than that. All the anarchists that I know that have a strategy for change and they pursue it never define themselves as anarchists unless forced to. The ones too attached to the identity and symbols tend to be more ineffective and irrelevant. We call them “the targets” because they play the very useful role of making people believe anarchism is about reading and writing about irrelevant stuff and smashing some windows occasionally just to spend 20 years in prison for it.
I think it goes farther than that. All the anarchists that I know that have a strategy for change and they pursue it never define themselves as anarchists unless forced to. The ones too attached to the identity and symbols tend to be more ineffective and irrelevant. We call them “the targets” because they play the very useful role of making people believe anarchism is about reading and writing about irrelevant stuff and smashing some windows occasionally just to spend 20 years in prison for it.