Anarchist Anti-election campaign gets underway

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday April 25, 2002 12:30 by Andrew - WSM

Details of first Dublin event and leaflet text with PDF file

Yesterday Bertie tells an empty Dail that he has decided to grant the people their five yearly ration of ?democracy?. We already know the result of the election, a coalition dominated by either Fianna Fail of Fine Gael. Can anyone tell us what the political difference between these two parties is? We already know that various promises will be made in the course of the election campaign only to be ignored by the party that actually gets into power.

On Saturday the first event of the WSM anti-
election campaign will get underway with a
distribution of our ?Call this choice?? leaflet
at 13.00 outside the GPO in Dublin. We are
making the point that this farce is not real
democracy and that anarchism offers the only
alternative to the current system of bosses and
rulers. We are encouraging all anarchists to
use the opportunity of the elections to make the
argument for anarchism and we invite you to come
along to the GPO and help us distribute the
leaflets. Afterwards we will be taking part in
the ?Freedom for Palestine? at the Garden of
Remberance, Parnell Sq. at 15.00.

If you can?t make it along but would like some
leaflets to distribute either contact us or
print out your own from the PDF file on the web
page. The election web page also contains lots
of background articles on Anarchism and the
Elections. It is at
http://struggle.ws/election.html

PDF file of leaflet
http://struggle.ws/wsm/pdf/leaf/ele02choice.html

Text of the leaflet follows

Call this choice?

What they say

In their election campaigns all the parties say
the same things. They are all for a "properly
funded health system", "affordable housing", a
"modern and efficient public transport system",
"investment in schools" and so on. They present
us with a set of wild promises for achieving
these goals, supported by vague and implausible
plans. Then four years later they're back with
the same policies, the same promises and the
same problems.

After years of economic boom we are left with a
disastrous health system, a chronic housing
crisis, an underfunded, demoralised education
system and gridlocked transport. Still, all of
the major parties continue with policies which
are virtually identical. Their only real
disagreements are on trivial differences in
their vague spending promises. Supposedly, we
live in a democracy and in a democracy, the
people have the power. But what power do we have
when the only say that we get in how our society
is run, is a choice between a few nearly
identical parties every five years?

It's only in the personalities of individual
candidates, or on local issues, that we can see
any difference between the 'choices' in front of
us. But even these minor differences are more
imaginary than real. In this contest of
personalities and rhetoric, those who can ensure
the most sympathetic media attention win. Voting
in the election is no more empowering than
voting for 'popstars' - whoever puts on the best
show wins - they're all selling the same thing.

No matter who we vote for, we have no say in any
of the major decisions that affect our lives. We
have no say in how our workplaces are run, we
have no control over the distribution of our
society's wealth. Elections are supposed to be
how the ordinary person has a say in the running
of society. Yet it seems that somebody else has
already made all of the important decisions -
without asking us.

What they do

Over the last decade in Ireland all of the major
parties have been in government and they all
pursued nearly identical policies. If you
noticed any major differences in the way the
country was run during the last two governments,
you must have been smoking something strong.
Their policies are largely dictated by the needs
of global capitalism and its international
institutions like the EU, IMF, World Bank, NATO
and G8. Whichever government gets in after this
election, you can be sure they'll happily
continue this neo-liberal agenda and continue to
keep corporate tax low, keep wages down,
privatise whatever they can and try to make
people pay for essential services such as water
and bins.

Even on the relatively minor issues where we can
see some difference between the parties, our
vote is hardly that powerful. We have no control
over those who we vote for and there is no
guarantee that they will do what they say. There
are thousands of recent examples of politicians
'changing their minds' as soon as they get a
sniff of power. For example, in their manifesto
for the 1997 election, Fianna Fail stated: "We
oppose Irish participation in N.A.T.O. itself,
[and] in N.A.T.O.-led organisations such as the
Partnership for Peace". Two years later they led
Ireland into Partnership for Peace.

If you think that we can solve our problems by
voting and waiting for politicians to sort it
out, you are fooling yourself. Politicians look
after themselves and their powerful friends. If
ordinary people want to have any say in the
running of society, we need to get active,
organise and fight for ourselves.

Take the power back!

Real power in our 'democracy' does not lie in
the hands of the people. The bosses of the media
companies and other large corporations wield the
power. In Ireland, Tony O Reilly has more
influence over important decisions than hundreds
of thousands of ordinary people combined.
Unfortunately, changing this is much more
difficult than simply going out to vote every
few years.

If you want to have any hope of taking the power
back, you have to get active. This means
organising with those around you to take on the
power of the corporations. It means organising
in such a way that everybody has a say over the
decisions that affect them. It means refusing to
accept what the government tells you to do and
taking direct action instead. Whether you
participate in a protest, help to produce an
alternative news service, or disobey an unjust
law, you are taking the power into your own
hands, not waiting for somebody else to do it
for you. Although our tiny voices of protest can
seem insignificant in the face of the might of
global capitalism, we are not alone. In the last
few years a global movement has emerged which
has seen hundreds of thousands take to the
streets all over the world to oppose the summits
of the global elite. One of the slogans of these
protests has been "think global, act local" and
this is exactly what we need to do.

Want To get Active?

Here are some good places to start, campaigns
and groups supported by anarchists:

Workers Solidarity Movement - Irish Anarchist
organisation involved in a range of struggles
for a free, socialist world. 087-7939931 or
http://struggle.ws/wsm.html

Campaign against the bin charges - Opposing
unfair double taxation. For info on groups in
your area phone: 087-6277606.

Gluaiseacht - Organising in a non-hierarchical
way around environmental and social justice
issues. They have organised a number of protests
against Sellafield. http://www.gluaiseacht.org/

Reclaim the streets - Reclaiming public space
for the people to party! 087-9425422 or
http://www.indymedia.ie/rts

Indymedia - An international network of
alternative news services, against the corporate
monopoly of media: http://www.indymedia.ie/

Residents Against Racism / Anti-Fascist Action -
anti-racist groups email:
Residents_Against_Racism@ireland.com /
afa@ireland.com

Cork Peace Alliance - Organising against war and
imperialism The CAZ, 4 Knapps Square, Cork.

Anarchists & Elections

The famous anarchist Emma Goldman once wrote
"participation in elections means the transfer
of one's will and decisions to another.."

This sums up neatly one of the main reasons why
anarchists argue against taking part in
parliamentary elections. The very act of going
into a polling booth and putting a number beside
someone's name is in itself an act of
disempowerment; it is an acceptance that someone
else has the right to make decisions on our
behalf.

When a decision has to be made there are
essentially two basic choices - either the
people directly involved make the decision for
themselves or someone else makes it for them.
Anarchists argue that, rather than choose who
should make decisions for us, we would be better
off spending our energies in attempting to build
a new society in which we can make those
decisions for ourselves.

One of the best examples of this is the issue of
local authority service charges. A campaign is
now under way throughout the country aimed at
the abolition of service charges (refuse
charges). Householders in Dublin, Cork and
elsewhere are refusing to pay what is rightly
seen as an unfair double tax. Not one single
candidate in the last local elections actually
wrote in his/her manifesto that he/she was in
favour of the imposition of this tax. Yet it has
been introduced by politicians, and PAYE
taxpayers are expected to pay up yet again -
while at the same time the rate at which tax is
levied on the profits of big companies such as
the banks continues to be reduced.

Given the level of opposition to the tax, the
obvious way to defeat it is simply not to pay.
If everyone stands together and refuses to give
in, the Councils and the government will
eventually have to give in. Just as we defeated
the water charges over 4 years ago, so we can
also win on this issue by standing together in
solidarity. We don't need to vote for anyone to
win on this issue - what we do need is simply to
stand shoulder to shoulder with our neighbours
in our refusal to pay.

On a wider basis, what we need to do as a
society is to look to developing ways of
tackling the 'democratic deficit'. All of us are
aware of the fact that politicians are totally
out of touch with the needs of working class
communities. We are also aware that we have
absolutely no mechanism for ensuring that the
politicians that we vote for actually carry out
the promises for which they are elected.
Anarchists want to develop a system of true
direct democracy, which will ensure that these
issues are tackled. That is why we reject
participation in the sham of parliamentary
elections.

Ideas and Action

Irish Anarchist Gathering - Dublin
- May 18th - All welcome

From Resistance to Change

Saturday May 18th, 11.am, Central Hotel,
Exchequer Street, Dublin 2

1. The Anti-Capitalist Movement - Think Global,
Act Local

Speakers on Anti Bin Charge Campaign, Save the
Old Head of Kinsale Campaign, Critical
Mass/Reclaim The Streets

2. The North - the challenge of building a broad
successful anti-sectarian movement. Speakers
from WSM and other anarchist organisations.

3. Sellafield - From Protest to Closure -
Speaker from Gluaiseacht, and a speaker on the
successful anti-Carnsore campaign

4. The anarchist solution and organising to
achieve it

For further details or if you are travelling
from outside Dublin and will need accommodation
contact us at wsm_ireland@yahoo.com Phone/SMS
087-7939931

The election web page contains lots of
background articles on Anarchism and the
Elections. It is at
http://struggle.ws/election.html

PDF file of leaflet
http://struggle.ws/wsm/pdf/leaf/ele02choice.html