Don't get me wrong, the point you have raised is an important one. But waiting to be told what to do is a complete contradiction of everything Anarchism stands for!
A possible awnser to this is the national Anarchist movement confrence being held in London on the weekend of the 6th and 7th of June. I'm sure that the topic of how to present the Anarchist movement to the British public as a viable solution to the state we curently live in will be disscused at length. I know that it is like saying do something about it yourself but rather than wait to be told what to do attend, here what others have to say and contribute yourself... Just food for thought!

Despite having to be 'told what to do' its seems like quite a good idea you've come up with there... I wasn't at the last 'sack parliament' (actually i first heard about it via mark thomas) but i'm thinking in the current climate it would have a much wider appeal than just those that already identify as anarchist/libertarian/etc.

How about sack the square mile (or the new stock exchange, or some simaler symbol of uk capitalism) followed by a march on the commons. Maybe a 'welcome back' from the MPs (rather long) summer holidays, failing that roll on 05/11!

 http://www.crimethinc.com/texts/selected/asfuck.php

For alot of people you only need to live in this system to know that it is fucked, they dont need converting.

Maybe we should take some advice from Crimethinc and actually try to make politics relevant to people's everyday life.

Just a suggestion.

There is also this on saturday:  http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/sack-parliament-kettle-the-cops-saturday/

though I did think it is the fault of anarchists that there hasn't been a massive response. If you look at just three examples of working class and students taking action (Visteon in Enfield/Belfast, Schools in Glasgow and London Met Uni Occupations) there were anarchists involved in all of these. The question is not 'why anarchists aren't doing more' its why aren't the majority of working class people not doing anything more?!! I mean 40,000 people lost their jobs at walworths with no fucking response. At the end of the day we are just ordinary and powerless people we can do so much.

I would however plug the conference on june6/7 - it is for anarchists serious about learning from mistakes to come together a create new ways of develop our movement.

i think that the proplem of "why the british public don't get anarchism" is largley due to the anarchist movement and the actual ideological nature of anrachism- its moralistic and abstentionalist charactor.
In my expirence most anarchist i come across, whilst being lovely people, have a abstentionaist take on working class life, so for example a disproportionate amount of anarchists will pursue "alternative lifestyles", this is fine.
However it does massivley hamper with your abillity to engage with the revolutionary class, and actulaise their revolutionary potentail through agitation. So for example, chossing to abstain from capitlaist society and create an "alternative" detaches you from the one force capable not just of making some cliquy bubble and but actually destroying it, refusing to take regular employment, again im not saying all anrachist do this, or that they have no right to, makes it very difficult to actually relate to the class and lead a workplace struggle. Annoyingly revolutionaries need to work really hard to; one, gain the respect of work mates, and two, defend themsleves from victimisation from buerocrats and bosses.
I understand that alot of what i've critised is essentially the basis of proudhonism, but that is where the proplem lies- well i think so.
Alot of anarchists don't make serious attempt to actually go out and find people and engae with them, so whilst for example many will rip the "trots" for selling papers they don't see how essential this basic activty is to arguing with people, gainig knowlage of what issues the class is facing and falsifying the ruling class ideaology.
finailly some anarchist i've meet, again most are lovely, will be needlessly hostile to others due to their politcal affiliation, or disagreement on a certain issue, this obviously doesn't help the case for a higher social order based on mutual respect and all that jazz.
i wont be a dickhead to an anarchist cous i think their wrong they're still comrades, i'll argue the nesscity of a party and protertrain dictatorship with them not hurle insults at them, i reckon there more likely to be persuaded if im not a dick.
sorry that was quite long, good luck with the anarchist movement an all that.

gfghdgshuffrsekogfdxdszgjggd

...Middle class tourists who have only fear and loathing of the average British punter is and has been the problem with the anarchist movement.

racy similar to that in ancientGReece & an improved version of canton system in Switzerland is somthing interesting Chomsky talks about as roots of & examples of working anarchism as well as spain.But chomsky ignores oligarchs running Bilderberg because he had no access to proper info & its been hushed up for along time.
Many People loved us for G20,though lets show our cooperative face more than masked ones

I think there are two main reasons why anarchy is disregarded in the UK. First, anarchists are almost never given a mainstream-type platform to explain their views or even to say what anarchism is! The second may be the actual word 'anarchist'. It's lazily used by media and government to stand in for violence, aggression, chaos, yob. It's been a pretty successful smear campaign and we can either continue trying to reclaim that word (I know I spend a lot of energy trying to), or we can use words like autonomy.
I know some people will say it's just semantics but I've seen how faces switch offf when they hear the word anarchist.

A - crimestinc personify everything that is wrong with the @ movement in my opinion. much of their writing is absolute rubbish.

until anarchy is restored.

So what do you propose? Where are we heading then? I don't agree with crimethinc on everything but at the moment the anarchist movement is not focussing on what is relevant to people.A hell of a lot of people are struggling at the moment, maybe we should be foccusing helping these people on the basis of mutual aid.

Well, to be honest you only have to read some of the posts here on Indymedia to find some answers to why people don't 'get' our politics more - claiming things like the army stopping dog fights in Afganistan as an action, and that lunatic Gender thing, to mention only 2 of the maddest...

A damn good start would be getting rid of the link between anarchy/anarchism and fuck-useless punks who think anarchy is synonomous with not washing and drunkenly shouting teenage slogans; mentalist animal rights idiots who think that people who eat meat are 'eeevil'; and eco-angel reformist greenies who think that people that fly on holiday are responsible for climate change.

From a vegan ex-punk green anarchist.

I assume by the "lunatic Gender thing" you are referring to this hidden article here?:
Communique from the Gender Liberation Front
 https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/05/430857.html

It was clearly a satirical article based on the number of pollutants in our lives that have physical effects on sex and/or gender.

The "action" about the army stopping dog fights in Afghanistan was a bit strange, I admit. Maybe a soldier was involved in it outside of official capacity and emailed someone to tell them about it?

While agreeing with the previous two posters, I liked the lunatic gender thing, some of the IMCistas should accept a few humourous articles every now and then. It was making a serious point - that transgender people are wrongly viewed as medical aberrations - on the back of a serious medical issue that the tabloids have misrepresented through bad science.

I propose 'The Chris Morris test' for IM articles, can controversial but intelligent satire exist on the newswire or will it be hidden for fear of being taken at face value?