How would anti-vaxx protestors like in Australia be dealt with without police?

I mean a lot of the people against the covid vaccines aren't against it just to be dangerous, it's because they don't trust the state in promoting a safe vaccination to the people. If there was no state, I don't think many people would be against it anywhere near as much.

Adding on to this, if you’re at your place of work and people don’t want to get vaccinated, Anarchists would actually be flexible and work out ways to keep those vaccinated and those who are not vaccinated separated if they want. I personally don’t want to work with unvaccinated people but I am forced to and working in the trades, sadly, there are a lot of idiots.

Thanks, good reply!

I understand there’s more to abolishing the police than just removing the institution, since it’s only the tip of a long iceberg.

I heard this argumentation before on other matters in this sub. The idea that boils down to “under an anarchist society, there aren’t any protests like this one”. That’s certainly a valid argument. And historic examples seem to show that internal disagreements in many near anarchist societies resolve without violence or the desire for some kind of crowd controlling storm trooper to put them down for the sake of “law and order”.

Do you feel though that this avoids the question a bit? Hypothetical scenario, the anti-vaxxers are given the choice to vaccinate and they choose not to. In Zapatista lands (as an example, not meaning to use them specifically), decisions are made via consensus, often in large meetings. So unless the society decides to exclude those unvaccinated folks from those assemblies and gatherings where decisions are made, their very presence in those meetings raises risks of transmission and medical consequences for all in the room. I could imagine there being protests or other forms of discontent in this scenario either from the anti-vaxxers who are possibly excluded from these consensus building decision assemblies (or say restorative justice meetings) or from people who don’t want them there given the added risks - a mirror of our current predicament.

There would be no prevention of the establishment of spaces and communal areas for individuals not wanting to be vaxxed either. The protests would never take place because there would be no state restrictions on freedom of association, just individual decisions on proper process and mutual respect between groups and areas with differing opinions (one would hope).

Thanks, thoughtful answer!

EDIT:

Btw it's New South Wales

HAHAHA, sorry friend, that was auto-correct :)

Anarcho-Melbournite here.

You're largely right on your second point. I think it's just bitterness at the right generally. Plus a lack of vaccine skepticism in our spaces (we're generally like liberals in being "pro-science"*). Although that kind of subconscious bitterness is toxic and has gotten be unlearned, it has created a lot of problems for me personally and politically.

Mapping out a kind of anarchist analysis of COVID-19 is gonna be interesting. I know of the argument that states and capitalism worsened it, but I don't exactly think anarchism will be immune from pandemics.

*Not disputing vaccines effectiveness, I just find it annoying when liberals say BELIEVE THE SCIENCE for vaccines but ignore research around worker co-ops or dismiss the CIA overthrowing democracies to be a conspiracy. Liberals are fucking annoying as usual, even if they mean well.

Yes good point. The “why” is important. A lot of these folks are complaining about legit things, what I like to refer to as the material conditions of covid vaccinations and measures. They’re not all ayndroids

Why do you think I’m asking this here? Obviously so I can understand how an anarchist would answer the question. And luckily I got a lot of really well thought out and insightful answers.

The Aussies are protesting against primarily lockdown measures, and probably more broadly against COVID vaccines, "vaccine passports", and so on.

I get they're also protesting against corporate greed/profiteering, double standards, heavy-handed measures by the government, etc, and we will assume in an anarchist society these are no longer the case.

In an anarchist or near-anarchist society, there are public spaces. If people who are not vaccinated are not welcome in those spaces, or if their ability to enter and use those spaces is restricted (such as in an example to another post above, a Zapatista neighbourhood assembly), those people would not take kindly to being restricted.

I like to cook, let's say I like to run a cafeteria on my street for my neighbours, where they can stop by and eat a soup or curry or whatever I made that night, together in a friendly setting. Angela, my immediate neighbour, is a 75 year old with an auto-immune disorder and I don't want to exclude her from the neighbourhood caf because of her age and condition. But Roberta down the street also wants to join in the neighbourly meal but she is adamant that vaccines are foreign substances that don't belong in her body. Given that vaccines have been shown to reduce spread of COVID, I uninvite Roberta from the nightly caf because I don't want Angela to be excluded. Roberta has been getting this a lot lately – the neighbourhood caf isn't the only place she's been uninvited from. The book repository down the street run by George also want to create a safe space for the Angelas of the world, and same with Alex the coffee wizard who roasts, brews and chats people up down in the next street. But there's quite a few Robertas – about a quarter of the neighbourhood is also anti-vax. They start to get frustrated at the way they're being excluded from these spaces. They want their feelings known and they march, they try to protest, they try to enter those spaces despite being uninvited, etc. Do you see where I'm going with this? There is no government telling them to not enter restaurants or gyms, but they're excluded all the same.