Don't bother to vote again, it only encourages them.

Itsme | 28.04.2008 06:23 | Social Struggles | London

You can't change a play by shuffling the players. It is in the interests of government to maintain status quo instead of trying to improve our outmoded system. At the last general election the present government only received 22% support from the electorate and more than a third didn't bother to vote at all. How can that be claimed as a democratic mandate to govern?

Probably what politicians fear most is a low turnout as it undermines their democratic credibility. Among the many reasons not to vote it has now been revealed that there have been at least 42 convictions for electoral fraud in the UK in the last seven years. We all know too about the various scams MPs use to line their pockets. As soon as one form of sleaze is discovered another seems to take its place. Here's a thought too, under modern legislation, which also limits freedom of assembly and expression, the Suffragettes would undoubtedly have be classed as terrorists.

For more information see:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/04/368818.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7370025.stm

Itsme

Comments

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womens guilds,suffragettes were fighting for voting

28.04.2008 08:34

yes voting once every 7 years is dumb, it should be every year or so with returnable delegates & as much consensus as possible. Vote green to make this happen,then respect or labour,even though I agree with some of what you say this is called tactics especially with BNP on the rise.
Now lets get out there& get some zapatista coffee

greens syndicalist, cooperative worker, sherwood, ICA,IWW

timewasting.

28.04.2008 09:21

"womens guilds,suffragettes were fighting for voting" in another era. Policy now is dictated really by corporate intetrests/blackmail. We don't have a manufacturing base to speak of. The government just seems to decide on now rukles to keep trhe population down. Vote Labour my arse. Is this what Indymedia has come to? I see a lot of people puproting to be anarchist nbuit they are not really are they? Expect more angry bullshit replies. Are we wasting our time on the internet? Re the BNP we are already in a ( corporate )neo fascist society and I hear the same dumb arguments on Indymedia time and time again, the sdame reformist and liberal shit - it ain't trolls. Just Labour/Tory political machine is slicker. But then there is no real debate with this shitwe. GOODBYE Indymedia. Goobye to political careerists. Goodbye to listening to dumb propaganda masquerading as anarrchism ( some of you fuckers havve got a nerve to show up every October :) ), goodbye to your bourgoise bollocks and pro party political bollocks and pro statist shite. This is not indy any more.

nodebates

So you want to stay in a little hole in the ghetto?i don't

28.04.2008 10:44

fine, dont waste our time with same tired argument,& then slander us by calling us tories or labour.The suffragettes had to deal with imperialism as worse if not far worser than today.

Nestor Godwin

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Missing the votal point

28.04.2008 10:57

Pray tell us, what is your alternative to "democracy" that would be better?

There is no point telling us over and over about the many flaws of democracy -- and particualrly THIS flaw, that in a situation where the populace is divided into a zillion interests groups that do not feel they have anything in common, that are unable to successfully negotiate/compromise to come up with a common platform, then those relatively strong/compact interest groups that CAN manage to do this, to go along to get along, get to run the whole show cutting the rest out.

The "pro" side in the deomcoracy vs other forms debates keeps stressing "better than the alternatives". If you have some alternative you think that would not apply to, don't be shy, tell us about it.

REMEMBER --- arguing that it would be better if everybody agreed with YOUR little faction and its friends (and so the people all united) doesn't hack it. When suggesting that "it would be better if the people all united in a single platform" you need to make that case of "better" assuming that every plank of that platform is somehting that YOU oppose.

Mike Novack
mail e-mail: stepbyspefarm mtdata.com

elections

28.04.2008 11:47

I think people should vote with illusions. the state grew up under capitalism, and firmly represents capitals intrests, any attempt to reform it from above has lead to nothing but supposed pro worker parties attacking workers etc or in many other cases coup's by the military.

However a few things stand out. When a government is left wing (relative to the mainstream not revolutionaries) it pushes the political debate to the left, so in Venezuala people talk about community and workers councils, whereas before Chavez was elected not to privatise natural resources was considered left wing.

We must stop the BNP no matter what, with a mixture of tactics, one of which is ensuring that people turn out to vote against them. Any high vote for the BNP is a victory in which they can claim they represent "white" people.

Revolutionaries can use elections as a platform for their views on the world.Furthermore to provide an electoral challenge to the mainstream parties can divide the "protest votes" of people who are disillusioned and might vote BNP.

Marxist?

I for one am not voting.

28.04.2008 12:52

Don't have a choice, becuase the deadline for registration for this election was 12 days ago :)

Even if I was registered (which I am tempted to wait until the council threaten me with a £1000 fine), I would have spolit my ballot in the absence of a Green or non-Labour, non-Respect socialist candidate, either way, makes no difference in the end.

disillusioned with the sham which is party politics

Don't Vote!

28.04.2008 14:18

"womens guilds,suffragettes were fighting for voting" in another era. Policy now is dictated really by corporate intetrests/blackmail.

Ditto and it lame how many times I heard women going on about I have to vote because of the suffragettes etc. Then how about voting by writing on the ballot paper No Vote instead of the letter x. Simple

loppy

vote

28.04.2008 16:00

Cardiff Anarchists had it about right with thier 'vote nobody' campaign I reckon. Vote nobody, cos nobody cares.

http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Politics&F=1&id=11088

nobody

And if we don't vote ...

28.04.2008 19:06

... what godforsaken animal is going to crawl into the void our absence of votes leaves?

I can certainly appreciate the tactical voting side of things, but ... unless the political system is changed from a First Past the Post and/or the mainstream voting electorate decide to spoil their ballots en masse, our little refusal actions will amount to diddley-squat.

It makes more tactical sense to exploit the system as it is and throw our small but not trivial weight behind the least deplorable of the politicians/parties until the system can begin to swing (vaguely) in the direction we prefer. Once that happens, then fine let's re-evaluate the situation and consider tactical non-voting. The UK is not ready for such radical tactics yet. That's presumably why most of us - the self-proclaimed anarchists - haven't totally disrupted the social order yet. Our numbers are as yet too small to create a critical mass. But, those numbers are growing ... slowly but surely, as each successive reign of government sells us out down the corporate and toxic anti-life river.

As Sun Tzu would have counselled: there is a time to act and a time to act without moving. Right now, we are probably better off adopting the second option, until the time is right to act with full movement.

Doubting Thomas

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