Yes lets get some action outside every town hall on election night. Spend the night drinking heavily in local taverns and troll down to the town hall to give the politicians some grief.What more do you want. Use the Vote nobody site to detail local actions at your town hall. REmember vOTE nOBODY

The election is pre-ordained, Blair will win, but he addressed his election speech to school-kids because they are the only ones gullible enough to be believe his pledges and promises, and they can't even vote! Even the 'Greys' have deserted the false democracy, and I mean the elderly not the aliens. They can shove their Manifesto where the sun don't shine. Boycott elections!!

It was Blair's comment about 'spurious causes' that finally made me shake off any residual loyalty I had as a woolly socialist to the New Labour project.

It looks like there will be even fewer dissenting voices from the dominant pro-corporate consensus in the next parliament. It must be a significant sign of the crass culture of the House of Commons that the next parliament is likey to be the first where fewer women are elected. Tony Benn's retirement (I like his comment about retiring so that he can be involved with real politics again)seems depressingly symbolic. Blair's pledges announced today are so timid (£4.20 minimum wage .. pleeeeeese!)that they've become the policy equivalent of rattling a charity tin - a very cheap salve to the conscience and the opposite of a policy that alleviates poverty.

What I hope will be exposed is that our 'representative' democracy has become entirely cosmetic. As a voter, I'm not given a real choice to even vote for some mild form of redistributive socialism. I'm also unconvinced that PR is our electoral saviour - it doesn't stop the basic problem that politicians feel they have a mandate to represent us and make no attempt to collaborate with or be accountable to us, their constituents.

I'd like to see us work towards a 'participtory' democracy instead. I think that this is a mature and practical anarchic strategy. Our current system produces posturing, macho politics where uncertainty is seen as weakness. A participatory democracy would actually welcome the mutual learning that can be achieved through listening and dialogue. Wouldn't it be more effective for individuals not to involve themselves in a political process seeking self-glorification or to play out personal psychological problems - but to locate problems, express their feelings about issues and work together towards practical strategies. As a citizen, can't I involve myself politically without having to stand up and defend a position? Can't I just be involved because I'm passionate about improving life for my fellow human?

So, we're a long way from that... But the first step is individuals involving themselves with their Union, school, community organisation etc. Discussing issues generously but rigourously - doing the simple things that can be achieved (let's stop eating slave-chocolate for start!)

Which leaves me with the problem of how to respond to June 7th. There' a bit of me that reckons that there is an opportunity to make some impct through the ballot box - whilst recognising that the system is now designed to provide the people with the real power validation through the appearance of democracy.

Of course there are political parties that have policies that oppose the right-wing New Labour/Tory consensus. The Lib Dems at least pledge to tax the rich a bit and offer some old-fashioned redistributive policies (although I don't trust them, given their record to be like all the rest in local govenment). The Greens could make an impact (they've got some electoral success in UK and Europe, after all) and the socialist alliance give good old-fashioned socialist rhetoric (although they look a bit too like the Totskyist factions that take over marches to me.) And of course, the other option is the mass 'spoiled ballot paper' option that is popular with apathetic radio phone-in folk at the moment. Perhaps what each constituency needs is a handy web-based guide to the best tactical voting for an anti-globalist (i.e. anti New Labour/Tory)in a particular constituency. It might be quite something if, say, 10,000 people in a constituency spoiled their ballot papers in protest at the lack of democracy!

My guess is that it's too late for something of this nature to be organised this time round And that the array of alternative parties and those who will stay away through apathy will conspire to give the impression that there much less support for the 'new' politics than is, in fact, the case.

There is however a realistic scenario where the Tories go the way of the Whigs and cease to be the major opposition - being exposed as racists, xenophobes and weirdos. Then we may get an opposition to the left of New Labour.


My instinct is that there is at root widespread support for a greener more compassionate politics that puts human values before materialism. Indeed, support may come from the most unlikely quarters - across the old class, gender and cultural divides. Not just from 'activists' - but maybe those people motivated by spiritual beliefs (mny of whom, are basically anti-materialit) and those whose independence of thought has led them to doubt old certainties about politics through recent experience. Perhaps this election will see some kind of shift in national feeling, even if Blair gets his landslide second term.

So maybe, what we can each do in our small way is to talk to eachother during the election and be part of a mood swing away from the right-wing dominance of electoral politics. Why not be unashamedly passionate (most overated virtue - being dispassionate!). My favourite tactic at the moment, is to ask people how they felt when they realised that most of the chocolate we eat is the result of slavery? How about sweatshop labour? Does it upset you? Does it make you angry? And I'm no expert - I have no pat political solution. So, let's talk about what we can do - and who knows, something might change.

Whoever wrote the comment above has obviously done a lot of thinking. They've covered just about all the points, and there spot on with their comment about another Tory defeat hopefully ending an era of rightist elitist politics - we all need to work towards that. I also liked the bit about asking people whether they were happy knowing that chocolate companies use slave labour.

The only point i'd like to make on it is the bit about participatory democracy. First, let me say that, ideally, if everyone were taught about the way capitalism works and how propaganda works then it would be great. Unfortunately, most people either don't know or don't want to know. This is what big business relies on. Sadly, it seems that most people can be bought remarkably cheaply.

Look at California. They instituted a sort of participatory democracy there, where major issues went to a ballot, and anyone collecting a petition with over X,000 signatures could force a ballot. It sounds great. What actually happened though is that big business and vested interests pumped out vast amounts of propaganda. So, when people were balloted about whether they wanted reliable and (relatively) green electricity - at a cost - or cheap electricity, they went for cheap electric. Which, as we all know led to the current fuck-up in the system, which essentially means that the taxpayers there will end up having to bail out the utility companies with millions of their own dollars.

If you read up on the history of Britain and America, you can see that where big business couldn't bribe the politicians, it frightened and propagandised the voters into getting its own way. It's a shame how many people will take their thirty pieces of silver ("The Tories will cut your taxes") and not even think about the consequences of what they're doing.

Still, there's another good line: "How much do you cost?"

This comment(see below) is not entirely true, I am a school kid and I can't say I believe much of anything that Tony Blair has been saying recently. :)

A vote for 'Apathy'
by Ann Archy 5:02am Thu May 10 '01

The election is pre-ordained, Blair will win, but he addressed his election speech to
school-kids because they are the only ones gullible enough to be believe his
pledges and promises, and they can't even vote! Even the 'Greys' have deserted
the false democracy, and I mean the elderly not the aliens. They can shove their
Manifesto where the sun don't shine. Boycott elections!!

We can do better than this!

What's the point of simply doing stuff on June 7th the neo-liberals will be pumping out their propoganda 24-7 until then and we should do the same. Turn up at photo opportunities and ruin them, write to papers, hold protests etc.

Also we do not have to campaign on a solely negative basis. Our predecessors (the radicals of the past) fought and died to give us the right to vote and not to use that is both disrespectful and somewhat self-defeating, Blair won't care about us if he knows we aren't a danger to his reign. Go out and support the Socialist Alliance or the Greens or some alliance that wants to legalise cannabis or any organisation that is prepared to stand up to the neo-liberal rubbish of the main parties. Lets force them to listen to us by putting at risk the one thing they hold dear: their power and all it entails.

Let us not forget that American indymedia sites and activists helped Nader so we would not be alone in the radical community in our support for a poiltical party.

Check out these sites:

www.greenparty.org.uk
www.socialistalliance.net

www.vote-environment.org.uk - check out what the parties intend to do about the environment.

To quote the Zapatistas: Democracia! Libertad! Justicia!

I can't see how voting for a party that has no hope of gaining a seat proves anything. Perhaps those of us opposed to Global Capitalism should be planning another (Mayday style) action to highlight our concerns and our alienation from the "so called" democratic party. Some high profile actions spread across the country followed by a "Real Political Party" with sound systems et al might be a way of havimh our say?

Of course, one of the other contradictions to embrace is that much of the current anti-capitalist movement is classically reformist - lobbying business to be more ethical etc. It is deeply ironic when the AGM of a multinational appears more democratically accountable to shareholders (including Greenpeace and the like) than our national election!

Let us take comfort in small, local - but significant - time-limited changes. Isn't trying to come up with the BIG ANSWER FOR EVERYONE falling into the same old authoritarian traps?