OscailtAnarchist-Communism and ElectionsThis article was written back in 2003 and was part of the Chilean discussion on the coming local elections at the time and the way many comrades wanted to dedicate the bulk of our resources (both financial and human) to anti-electoralism. As well, there was a debate as we were starting to run into elections in universities, schools, trade unions and community organisations and some said that anarchists were against voting in any form. Some of the issues involved in these debates appear again and again, and they reflect deeper political questions. This article was originally published in the Chilean anarchist-communist magazine "Hombre y Sociedad", No.18-19, second term of 2004. [http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=8565] [http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=8407]2008-04-05T01:20:56+08:00Anarkismoanarkismoeditors@lists.riseup.nethttp://www.anarkismo.net/atomfullposts?story_id=8528http://www.anarkismo.net/graphics/feedlogo.gifInterestinghttp://www.anarkismo.net/article/8528#comment84152008-04-05T01:20:56+08:00PhebusThat's an interesting article. It's good that sometime we revisit the reason for...That's an interesting article. It's good that sometime we revisit the reason for traditional practices. <br />
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This article look at it from the traditional anarchist angle. It's good. Another angle worth looking at the issue from is the tradition leftist angle. In the course of a debate with the left, the Lyon local of Alternative libertaire issued recently a statement on local (municipal) elections. In it they revisit why they dont present candidates but from an usual perspective (at least for anarchists)...<br />
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Have a look (it's in french):<br />
<a href="http://al.lyon.free.fr/spip.php?article371">http://al.lyon.free.fr/spip.php?article371</a>reseñahttp://www.anarkismo.net/article/8528#comment84162008-04-05T01:28:37+08:00Lucas CifuentesRecomiendo para aportar a la discusión sobre los anarquistas y el voto o las ele...Recomiendo para aportar a la discusión sobre los anarquistas y el voto o las elecciones el texto titulado 'El voto y el sufragio universal' aparecido en el libro "La voluntad del pueblo" (con traducción al francés) de Eduardo Colombo. El texto en español al menos está disponible en la web.<br />
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Salud y RS!<br />
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Lucas.Great piecehttp://www.anarkismo.net/article/8528#comment84452008-04-05T13:13:30+08:00Adam W.Great piece, this should be put on the front page of the site. Does the author h...Great piece, this should be put on the front page of the site. Does the author have an email that he can be reached at? thanks.he fights he votes , he votes he fightshttp://www.anarkismo.net/article/8528#comment84632008-04-06T04:20:38+08:00ajohnstoneajsc21755 at blueyonder dot co dot ukRather than repeat the views of the Socialist Party of Great Britain , i would r...Rather than repeat the views of the Socialist Party of Great Britain , i would refer readers to the comments sections of another Anarkismo article which also engaged in discussion of the the issue of elections and voting .<br />
It can be read here <br />
<a href="http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=7681&condense_comments=false#comment8256">http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=7681&condense_comments=false#comment8256</a><br />
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What i think is the danger is the throwing out of the baby with the bath-water when it comes to the importance of the vote and contesting elections as one tool and one tactic amongst many which will be applied during the struggle . <br />
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i think it is worth once again quoting James Connolly . <br />
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"...I am inclined to ask all and sundry amongst our comrades if there is any necessity for this presumption of antagonism between the industrialist and the political advocate of socialism. I cannot see any. I believe that such supposed necessity only exists in the minds of the mere theorists or doctrinaires. The practical fighter in the work-a-day world makes no such distinction. He fights, and he votes; he votes and he fights. He may not always, he does not always, vote right; nor yet does he always fight when and as he should. But I do not see that his failure to vote right is to be construed into a reason for advising him not to vote at all; nor yet why a failure to strike properly should be used as a gibe at the strike weapon, and a reason for advising him to place his whole reliance upon votes..." <br />
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<a href="http://www.marxists.org:80/archive/connolly/1914/05/changes.htm">http://www.marxists.org:80/archive/connolly/1914/05/changes.htm</a>buen artículohttp://www.anarkismo.net/article/8528#comment85192008-04-07T12:18:52+08:00javierestá en español cumpa?está en español cumpa?original version in Spanishhttp://www.anarkismo.net/article/8528#comment85842008-04-08T05:45:55+08:00Chacalónsee linksee linkanother article about participation in electionshttp://www.anarkismo.net/article/8528#comment87682008-04-11T04:55:50+08:00javierMy french sucks but this one seems interesting to me too. A critique to municipa...My french sucks but this one seems interesting to me too. A critique to municipalisme libertaire.<br />
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<a href="http://oclibertaire.free.fr/upl/OCL_municipalisme.pdf">http://oclibertaire.free.fr/upl/OCL_municipalisme.pdf</a>The Power of X is a fantasy (South Africa)http://www.anarkismo.net/article/8528#comment88542008-04-18T22:25:48+08:00Michael SchmidtOn a couple of occasions over the past two weeks [September 2005], I've sat at n...On a couple of occasions over the past two weeks [September 2005], I've sat at night around a candle with a group of black "squatter camp'' youth and listened to talk of the forthcoming local government elections.<br />
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The less-than-weatherproof, concrete-floored shack we met in was far away from the Matrix-style world of groovy youth of the "Power of X" advert promoting voter registration on television.<br />
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The government pays so much to persuade people to register for local and national elections because South Africa is experiencing a very real - but officially denied - crisis of confidence in paper politics.<br />
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No I'm not talking about Armsgate, Travelgate and Oilgate - or even about floor-crossing.<br />
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Those national issues were far from the minds of the group of four young women and 12 young men squeezed into the gloomy shack.<br />
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What concerned them was the lack of development in their settlement over the past decade.<br />
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Last year [2004] the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) claimed a 76,7% turnout in the national elections. <br />
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The Landless People's Movement - which had conducted a "No Land, No Vote" campaign - replied with a stinging critique that broke this figure down, noting that the IEC's own figures claimed 20,7 million people registered to vote, yet only 14,9 million actually did so.<br />
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This showed, the LPM argued, that only 72% of registered voters actually voted - and that almost 28% of registered voters chose not to embrace the "Power of X". <br />
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In addition to this, more than 26% of eligible voters did not register to vote: the IEC said 20,6 million registered, but even ignoring a 2% per annum population growth, the latest census showed at least 27,4 million South Africans aged 18 and over were eligible.<br />
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So with one in four eligible voters having failed to or having chosen not to register, and with almost one in three registered voters having failed to, or having chosen not to vote, in real terms, the ANC government garnered only 10-million votes - a shoddy 37,3% of eligible voters.<br />
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Party spin-doctors performed damage-control rain dances, as did scores of policy wonks and media pundits, most of whom spewed hot air, laced with cognac fumes, about the "laziness" of the country's "depoliticised" youth.<br />
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The more honest of them were only prepared to admit that South African voting patterns were settling downwards in the direction of the "normal" (read: abysmal) poll levels that mark most "mature democracies". <br />
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The rest simply pretended the crisis did not exist - and made it seem that the ANC had achieved its desired "two- thirds-majority" mandate.<br />
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But the youths I was listening to, unlike the gravity-defiant youth in the "Power of X", have their poorly shod feet firmly planted in the mud. They are active and political - and they were debating whether there was any real power in "X".<br />
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They subscribed to the gamut of political allegiances, from anarchist-communist to ANC. But common cause among the youth clustered by candlelight was that the current ANC ward councillor was a useless, ne'er-do-well bastard who was never available to speak to the community or to receive its petitions for development.<br />
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Also common cause was that the lack of development is dire: there are no proper houses, no electricity, sewerage, schools, in fact no facilities other than a muddy soccer field and library built by the community.<br />
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Beyond that, there were two blocks of opinion among these earnest youth: one that favoured the election of their own councillor, under community control, taking orders directly from mass meetings of residents; and one that favoured surrendering the hard-won right to vote in favour of a militant protest boycott.<br />
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Last Friday, on the eve of voter registration, a democratic community mass meeting decided in favour of a boycott. <br />
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This was despite the pleas of the faction that argued for electing a "controllable squatter camp councillor" - and despite the late arrival of the ANC councillor, flanked by police thugs, who ordered two youths arrested for "intimidation" (apparently they walked away from him while he was trying to speak to them).<br />
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Come voter registration on Saturday the turnout was deliberately, defiantly, exceptionally low. <br />
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Beyond the flicker of the wafer-thin world of television, thousands of residents of this shabby, but proud squatter camp, young and old, played their game of noughts and crosses. <br />
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The game was won by participatory politics, by the "Power of O".