A-Infos (en) Never Mind The Ballots!

[Sabate Anarchist Collective <sabate36@juno.com>]

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      A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
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"To be GOVERNED is to be kept in sight,
inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven,
numbered, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at,
controlled, estimated, valued, censured,
commanded, by creatures who have neither the
right, nor the wisdom, nor the virtue to do
so..."
-Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

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Never Mind The Ballots!

The fake democracy that the ruling class uses to
control us will prove once again this fall that
we have no voice in their political game.
Corporate sponsorship of political events,
donations to campaigns and enormous lobbying
efforts have disenfranchised us, and still, the
bureaucrats, politicians, and capitalists
continue to campaign with the fervor of used car
salesmen, badgering us to vote for their
candidate. With the presidential election fast
approaching, the charade continues and the
insanity increases. The democrats yell at us,
warning of impending evil should we vote for
Green Party candidate, Ralph Nader. According to
these hacks, every vote for Nader solidifies
George W's chances of making it into office,
which, they claim, would actually mean different
policies than Gore. More progressive liberals
like the Greens rant about Al Gore and his
wrondgoings, proclaiming that voting for Nader
can actually bring positive change.

We should have no more illusions about our
democracy. The political system of a capitalist
society like ours has one major function; to
enforce property relations between the ruling
class and the rest of us. Consequently, a vote
for any candidate is a vote for not only our
continued exploitation but also for increased
and expanded misery throughout the world. Our
choices in this election, as in the past ones,
are meaningless because our vote (no matter who
it is for) will be a vote for more of the same -
institutionalized racism, sexism, cutbacks,
police, wars, prisons and ecological
destruction.

Certainly, the most important thing to recognize
amidst all this political fury is that, at no
time in history, has positive social change been
achieved by the election of a politician. In
fact, all laws and policies enacted by
politicians that aren't in the ruling class's
interest come into being because we put enough
pressure on them through our struggles in our
neighborhoods, and workplaces. Elections are
simply the ratification of hard fought for
victories through social struggle. When we
organize ourselves along truly democratic lines
- by taking grassroots initiative, refusing
leaders and personality cults, using open and
participatory methods that put us on a face to
face level - to struggle for improvements in our
lives, and even to further radical demands we
possess a power that is frightening to the
ruling class. If we take that organizing further
and create serious economic and political
consequences we can make demands and see to it
that they are achieved! This is our historic
realm - not theirs - and we should not
compromise in these situations. The ability of
the politicians to spin-doctor and speak to our
concerns in a seemingly genuine way should not
be underestimated. Remember, 'they will always
promise us heaven before the elections, and give
us hell after them'!

Appearing before us like a two-headed monster,
George W. and Al Gore have dispensed with nearly
all attempts at upholding the illusion that they
represent different politics. Having both
received significant and similar amounts of
bribes from the same corporations and
organizations, it should come as no surprise
that they stand on the same side of about 90% of
the issues. They are unanimous in their support
for the laws and policies that will continue to
keep us down; use of the death penalty, welfare
reform, tough on crime legislation, militarized
borders and murderous immigration policies, wage
decreases, HMO control of our health, increased
military spending, decreased social spending,
rollbacks on environmental protection, and we
know the list could go on.

While Nader tends to stand out with his rhetoric
of a 'fair' minimum wage and free healthcare
coverage for everyone, there is next to no
chance at all (even if he were elected) that
those kind of laws would ever pass. We might
well face the national guard before congress
would concede such needed and costly benefits.
The main difference between these politicos lies
in their strategy to maintain a stable class
society. The only difference between the
democrats and republicans are that the democrats
have a little more fear of the working class. We
can see this in the more conciliatory approach
that both Clinton and Gore have taken with their
policies. Gore's speech is laced with well-
crafted statements about his allegiance to the
poor of this country but if one looks closely at
the policies that have passed while Gore has sat
as VP, you begin to see a different story.
Nationally, welfare benefits have been rolled
back with devastating results. Their tough on
crime legislation and zero tolerance drug policy
has ended up putting more people behind bars
than even before. Access to abortions has been
reduced to hospitals and clinics in only 14% of
US counties. If any of these repressive measures
had been introduced under Republican leadership
we would have been in the streets every weekend,
but when a democrat signs them into law, we
accept it as the best deal possible.

The Democrats and even more progressive liberals
like the Greens take a social democratic
strategy to maintain both their power and
capitalist stability to keep us content. They
throw us crumbs while more severe measures are
passed right over our heads and behind our
backs. The Republicans use no such pretense.
Their strategy is to push us to our absolute
limits and when we defend ourselves against
their attacks, they are prepared with prisons,
the National Guard and brutal cops. As divergent
as these strategies are, the results are the
same.

Rather than willingly grant any of these
criminals the authority to rule over us we
should force them to concede to our needs and
desires by raising the social cost in the
streets. Class struggle brings change with fewer
compromises and in less time. Whether those
changes are improvements in our struggle to
survive or changes that take aim at the whole
system with the intent of replacing it with a
more equitable libertarian society will depend
on our demands in the street, not the candidate
in the office.

---------------------------------------------------
Sabate Anarchist Collective (NEFAC)
PO Box 230685, Boston, MA 02123
email: sabate36@juno.com
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