There is a federal election tomorrow. A few people have asked how I intend to vote, or if I intend to vote.
The standard line you will get from most anarchists is “Don’t Vote! It only legitimizes the bastards!”. The Anarchist FAQ spills some 18,000 words to this effect. As a position it misses the point.
Anarchists are utterly marginal within the Australian polity. The decision of a couple of hundred people to abstain for this reason or that, or to vote for this reason or that, is utterly without consequence. Even if we were a sizable political force, the legitimacy of the state rests on a hell of a lot more than the overall rate of participation in this or that election. States do not miraculously collapse when electoral participation rates fall below some magical number.
Whether you vote or not is of little consequence. If you do vote, you have no effective control over the representatives you participate in electing. The choices you are presented on the ballot are no choice at all. The major political parties operate as a cartel to lock out rivals, and only parties that accept the logic of the capitalist status quo gain access to the financial resources and media time necessary to compete. This includes The Greens.
The most important question is not who you voted for on election day, it’s what you do every other day of the year. Playing by the rules of the established political process is a mugs game; the deck is stacked in favour of the existing bourgeoisie political parties. If you want to change the world, don’t just vote, get organized and get active.
Join a union or start one. Go to a protest, sit-in, occupation, strike or demonstration. Join a political group, if there isn’t one that reflects your politics, start one. The social force necessary to effect real change has to be built, it can’t simply be voted for.
Further reading: Errico Malatesta, Reformism.
A few thoughts about tomorrow…
Acknowledging that voting or not voting is, by itself, unlikely to have any impact on anything, here are a couple of thoughts about your options tomorrow.
1. Whether you vote or not, you can decorate your ballot. So long as your drawings, obscene slogans and hashtags do not obscure the boxes, your vote will still be counted (so long as the boxes are numbered). The AEC keeps stats on the defacement of ballots.
2. If you refuse to vote, consider casting a blank ballot rather than staying home. Not only does this avoid the fine, statistics on spoiled ballots make it possible to estimate how many people are consciously refusing to vote.
3. The harder it is for a major party to form government, or to pass legislation, the better. If you do vote, I’d recommend putting the Liberals and any other fascists running at the bottom, then Labor, then the Greens, then any left wing party or independent.
4. The Greens are NOT an anti-capitalist alternative and they are NOT good enough on asylum seekers. That said, if you decide to vote, the Greens are still a better choice than Labor.
5. If you are voting Green in the Senate in Victoria, consider voting below the line. Richard di Natale is at the top of the Greens senate ticket. He shouldn’t be at the top of yours.
Tomorrow’s poll will not bring about significant change. Climate change will not be addressed, capitalism will not be challenged, and gross inequality will not be overcome. It is up to us to build the social force necessary to achieve any real change in our society.
I still intend to vote. I’ll vote cynically. I intend to preference the Greens then Labor because it is easier to make the case for their inadequacy when they are in power. And I will vote for any left of centre independent or minor party, simply because the more chaos and gridlock there is in the parliament, the better.
After that, lets eat a sausage and get back to the politics that matters, on the streets, on the campuses, and in our workplaces.
Strangely, I agree with nearly all of that! I’ll be handing out HTV cards for the Greens just because I want to make sure we kill off Soapie Horribella’s attempt to slither back. But I’m not happy with a lot of Green policies, mainly their refusal to fashion any real sort of population policy that will reduce A’s population to what ecologists consider sustainable, ie 10-15million…..
I can’t help to point to the contradiction in the piece, Kieran – you are putting Greens at top, and Labor second, but in point 3. you’re saying Labor and Greens should be 2nd and 3rd from the bottom respectively. Knowing and understanding your political persuasion I understand that you would prefer the left leaning parties, but if majority of people would vote that way then we’d have back the Labor dominance like there were under Hawke – not exactly a pretty picture I might add… Contradictions are everywhere, dilemmas are part of life, do we go for a sustainable population policy (Mick’s point above) while welcoming refugees that inevitably increases the population…?