Thursday, May 15, 2008
"False Hopes vs. Real Change": New Publication Presents Anarchist Perspective on 2008 Elections
As radicals who struggle to express our power and our voices through direct action, not just voting, how do we respond to the reasons like this that prompt our friends and neighbors to vote, in spite of widespread disillusionment with politics? We may dismiss the 2008 presidential elections as simply another useless media spectacle, and in doing so miss a key opportunity to address how war, race and racism, global warming, and other issues play out in these national debates.
"False Hopes vs. Real Change": New Publication Presents Anarchist Perspective on 2008 Elections and Direct Action
"The president represents our whole country, whether you like it or not – if you don't vote, you can't complain..."
As radicals who struggle to express our power and our voices through direct action, not just voting, how do we respond to the reasons like this that prompt our friends and neighbors to vote, in spite of widespread disillusionment with politics? We may dismiss the 2008 presidential elections as simply another useless media spectacle, and in doing so miss a key opportunity to address how war, race and racism, global warming, and other issues play out in these national debates. On the other hand, we may even feel the temptation to capitulate to the pro-voting consensus... after all, times are desperate. But can we find a way to engage with the increased political dialogue prompted by the presidential elections, while neither ignoring them nor accepting their validity as a path to liberation?
Now, Unconventional Action announces the release of a new publication and election year outreach tool, demanding radical change outside of the empty promises of politicians!
"False Hopes vs. Real Change: An Anti-Partisan (Beyond) Voting Guide to the 2008 Elections" argues passionately for direct action in the face of war, environmental destruction, militarized borders, and the alienation of American life - while exposing how politicians profit from these crises even as they claim to offer solutions to them. Beyond merely telling people not to vote, this colorful, engaging eight-page newspaper offers concrete examples of how to participate directly in resisting oppression and creating alternatives to voting. By responding directly to many of the reasons why people who are disillusioned or cynical about politics continue to vote, the articles explore how our most empowering options for participation exist outside of the ballot boxes. The writers examine the possibilities of direct action, collectives, mutual aid, and anarchy, analyzing their potential as tools to move beyond the constraints of voting, party politics, capitalism, and government. Highly recommended as a tool for explaining anarchist critiques of elections and voting, and for building momentum towards the 2008 Republican and Democratic National Convention protests. Copies are available for free via mail, or can be downloaded in PDF form from www.unconventionalaction.org.
For more information or to request copies of "False Hopes vs. Real Change", please contact:
Unconventional Action Voter Deregistration
PO Box 494
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
falsehopeorrealchange08@riseup.net
"...The president can only claim to 'represent' us in the absence of passionate, visible resistance outside of the electoral process. So long as we confine our participation to voting and accept a system that delegates our power and agency to representatives, we are accountable for whatever crises our government creates, because of our failure to resist them. But when we directly challenge the authority they claim to hold over us, we rupture the illusion that politicians, or anyone else, can speak on our behalf. If we've handed over responsibility for our society and our own lives to our rulers, then we can't be surprised when they act in their own interests instead of ours, as they always have. If ALL you do is vote, you can’t complain!
When were you ever offered a choice about whether or not you wanted to be ruled at all, rather than simply voicing an opinion about which ruler is best suited to appropriate your power? We didn't consent to this system, and we refuse to validate our own disempowerment - but instead of just complaining, we can take back responsibility for our own liberation by acting directly to interrupt injustice and creating different ways to live."
-from "False Hopes vs. Real Change"
Comments:
<< Home
Really? Looks like orthodox anarchism (yup, that's an oxymoron), and intolerant, too. People warned that democracy was akin to anarchism (calling it "mobocracy") when the US first gave it a try. I'm all for direct action, and I've been engaging in it for thirty-eight years. Including support of confrontational community self-defense. But don't be ordering me not to vote (or ordering me anything). Voting is in fact a form of direct action; however, nowadays you need overwhelming numbers as we fight upstream against election-rigging and corporate propaganda.
Jefferson wrote this:
To secure [their] rights, Governments are instituted among People, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed [,and} that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institutute new Government.
Jefferson wrote this:
To secure [their] rights, Governments are instituted among People, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed [,and} that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institutute new Government.
Hi Ellwort...
It's just this groups opinion..I don't order anyone what to do or not to do...
I haven't decided what to do with my vote yet.
-Alice
It's just this groups opinion..I don't order anyone what to do or not to do...
I haven't decided what to do with my vote yet.
-Alice
In my life - I admit - the seductive nihilism of anarchy once tempted me - to the point of Bad Morning After in a jailcell (a freezing castiron cotslab,, the crappiest one-night-stand ever), but through the arrest/indictment phase I sort of felt kinship with the gigantic cop who (understandably, given the initial sforzando of breaking glass) snagged me--press release: I hereby come out of the closet as hetero ("straight") penis-burdened yang guy.
Now I'm thinking about Albert Camus, who begins Myth of Sisyphus with the suggestion that the only sensible thing to do is to do away with yourself - because life is such a painful gyp. You build plans, you come to love people, they love you back, and then death happens.
After the first couple of dozen pages you say OK I'm gonna flush myself down the toilet. Then you notice that the essay is more than two hundred pages long: how did he stave off the suicide impulse long enough to get through all this? That's the point though: that the wonder (and unending trigger of laughter) is extending the entertainment we find in the absurd . like why we still spell the word we pronounce "lafter" as "laughter."
However you spell it, what a great gift to the species we each have to share - for good or ill.
Hey - why don't you dump the "spell the bent-letter word" protocol from the comment procedure? Treebu's geek--able--son did that with the flick of the (several) fingers.
- A (&x)
Post a Comment
Now I'm thinking about Albert Camus, who begins Myth of Sisyphus with the suggestion that the only sensible thing to do is to do away with yourself - because life is such a painful gyp. You build plans, you come to love people, they love you back, and then death happens.
After the first couple of dozen pages you say OK I'm gonna flush myself down the toilet. Then you notice that the essay is more than two hundred pages long: how did he stave off the suicide impulse long enough to get through all this? That's the point though: that the wonder (and unending trigger of laughter) is extending the entertainment we find in the absurd . like why we still spell the word we pronounce "lafter" as "laughter."
However you spell it, what a great gift to the species we each have to share - for good or ill.
Hey - why don't you dump the "spell the bent-letter word" protocol from the comment procedure? Treebu's geek--able--son did that with the flick of the (several) fingers.
- A (&x)
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
