lock glueing against general election
anti-apathy | 08.05.2005 13:32 | Culture | Repression | Social Struggles | World
on the eve of the general election, locks in leeds were glued up with quick metal to help sabotage the democratic system.
On the night before the general election a few people who share a critique of the politics of government went out to Belgrade House, in Leeds, where postal votes go and the place where the returning officer is based. The locks were glued up with quick metal (available from all DIY stores and Woolworths). we hoped this would make the count take longer and be more difficult as well as causing financial costs. some posters were flyposted in the area and in other places in Leeds.
The posters explained that voting was a farce and it makes no difference what overpaid twat is waddling around the house of commons "representing" us.
in case anyone who uses indymedia is still suffering the impression voting is a political act, rather than an act of compliant co-operation, please note:
- the system of government was historically forcibly imposed on the people through terror, through torture, through genocide and through other systems of control such as prison. it has been extremely successful in conditioning a population into believing that it is a valid and sensible system, that voting once every four years is political empowerment. yet to all free-thinking people industrial nation-states ruled by an elite (democracy) are strikingly similar to other industrial nation-states ruled by an elite (dictatorship). "democracy" is as much "choice" as choosing between McDonalds and Burger King. which is why the same history also reveals a constant rebellion against the system, by anarchists, rebels, vagabonds, romantics, nature-based cultures and others not fooled by the myth that this is freedom.
and on a personal note:
- as a woman opposed to voting i take my lead from the militant sufragettes who, after "winning" the vote through a campaign of sabotage, arson, and criminal damage came to the realisation that voting changes nothing. Sylvia Pankhurst herself came to this realisation after her own intense involvement in suffrage, as did many other class conscious radical women. she never failed to be pleased by her direct action though and continued to be political outside the slim forum of legitimate politics.
power to you all.
The posters explained that voting was a farce and it makes no difference what overpaid twat is waddling around the house of commons "representing" us.
in case anyone who uses indymedia is still suffering the impression voting is a political act, rather than an act of compliant co-operation, please note:
- the system of government was historically forcibly imposed on the people through terror, through torture, through genocide and through other systems of control such as prison. it has been extremely successful in conditioning a population into believing that it is a valid and sensible system, that voting once every four years is political empowerment. yet to all free-thinking people industrial nation-states ruled by an elite (democracy) are strikingly similar to other industrial nation-states ruled by an elite (dictatorship). "democracy" is as much "choice" as choosing between McDonalds and Burger King. which is why the same history also reveals a constant rebellion against the system, by anarchists, rebels, vagabonds, romantics, nature-based cultures and others not fooled by the myth that this is freedom.
and on a personal note:
- as a woman opposed to voting i take my lead from the militant sufragettes who, after "winning" the vote through a campaign of sabotage, arson, and criminal damage came to the realisation that voting changes nothing. Sylvia Pankhurst herself came to this realisation after her own intense involvement in suffrage, as did many other class conscious radical women. she never failed to be pleased by her direct action though and continued to be political outside the slim forum of legitimate politics.
power to you all.
anti-apathy
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