The Chance and Need to Boycott the Election Process

This blog post and general idea was pulled/inspired from a blog posted by a supporter of the RCP-PCR here.


First I think it is important to point out that only about half to fifty five percent of the nations registered voters vote in the presidential elections. While only 37% of people that are legally able to vote participate in the midterm elections (1).


Considering that almost 45% of this nation does not vote in the biggest election in this nation I think that is a good sign that the average American is fed up with the US government. Further more I would place a bet that if we got all third parties to boycott the elections that the turn out would be lower that 50% for the presidential election.


The fact that 63% of the US population (that is of age to vote) does not vote in the mid term elections tells us a few things;


1) That the election process is unappealing to the masses in the US. If the people really thought elections were a real way to create change then they would participate more in local elections because that is where your votes have the most effect.


2) That people who wish to play entryism are wrong when they claim their correctness by quoting Lenin saying; "we don't separate ourselves from the mass working class organs". The fact that over 60% of the people in the US do not vote proves them wrong that the election system is a gateway to the masses. Not to mention that by participating with a current, or wanting to create a new imperial-capitalist party to take over an established one, you are still participating in imperialist bourgeois democracy and have no right to claim you represent revolutionary politics.


3) That a boycott could actually motivate more people for your cause than getting the "other" vote could. With a boycott we could measure the amount of support the government really enjoys from the masses. If we boycotted the presidential election and the percentage of people who vote dropped bellow 50% we could declare the election a victory. If we called a boycott and only 45% or less voted than we could make a legitimate claim that the US government does not enjoy popular support.


If someone really wants to know why there is little to no revolutionary consciousness in the US we must first look to the majority of the "socialist" groups in the US. How are the people in the US suppose to develop a revolutionary mid set when all the groups who claim to be revolutionary support nothing but reformist tactics and attack any groups calling for real revolution ultra-leftist? How is calling for revolution ultra-leftist? How is calling for revolution while denouncing revolution and participating in the imperialist elections anything but reformist and social-democrat-esk?


I fear that most groups in the US are fake paper tigers. They use the call "revolution" for opportunist reasons only. But in reality they support this imperialist-capitalist system by organizing and participating within it. These groups help the capitalist system by legitimizing it by trying to reform from within rather than destroying it from without or even by just not participating in the elections. By participating the legitimize the bourgeois democratic process. This obviously sends the wrong message to the most important group coming into the socialist circles, and that is the young people. The number of young people who say things like "we are real revolutionary socialist" followed directly by "wanna buy our paper or a book or some stickers or pins, how about a donation, vote for this person" makes me so sick to my stomach. Specially when you see these people wearing Che shirts and hear them quoting Lenin, Che, Marx yet then tell me how ultra-left I am for advocating for a uprising lead by the working class. Maybe the left is taking a turn to the right?


I think it is a no brainer that any revolutionary working class group should not be participating in elections while imperialist-capitalist is the only possible out come. We need to be providing an alternative ideology to this fake bourgeois democracy. Not giving the fake illusion that the elections give us any real chance at creating change. Boycotting an election may not be in itself revolutionary but it is the correct tactic for any group claiming we need a new system. Also for reasons already pointed out above a boycott would show the true number of supporters the US government has and would expose the real number of possible revolutionaries.



Written by: Dustin Slagle


(1) http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html (their source is the turnout for elections sided with population of people 18 and older)

The New Red Scare!

It was apparent as of last night on Nov second that the second republican revolution was underway and that American politics were about to shift back to neo-conservative in control of the house and a much more favorable number in the senate. But why did this happen? Was it because the young voters stayed home? Was it because America is coming down off of its hopeamine high? And what does this mean for the communist and other leftist in America?


So why did the republicans win so big in these midterms? The answer is easier than most would give. The simple answer is that when the democrats were in charge of all of the major branches of government they still didn't accomplish anything other than selling the masses out to the medical insurance companies and bailing out big banks before bailing out the people. So really the democrats are the ones who demotivated their base and even to a point encouraged their base to stay home on election day. Not to mention the fact that most people in this country are fed up with the system all together.


The Tea Party should also not be discredited with the role they played in this election cycle. The tea party energized and motivated the ultra right wing (along with some ignorant moderates) back to the voting booth. These are the same people who didn't go to the polls during the Obama election because they thought McCain to be too moderate. This coupled with the self de-motivation of progressives and leftist with in the democratic party clearly explains the huge loss suffered by the democrats.


Is the country just coming down off of their hopeamine high? Yes, when Obama ran for president he not only had his main democrat base excited but he also had many moderates, progressives and even some people on the left excited about his campaign. But it didn't take long for that high to wear off. Many progressives and leftist were in disarray when Obama followed Bush in bailing out the Banks and leaving the people to starve and go homeless. Shortly after that the health care bill came up. And the more and more the democrats and Obama compromised with the right the more and more progressives started fleeing from the Obama/democrat camp. The democrats took less than a year to prove to the voters that thought they were voting in a party of the people and change that they were in fact voting into power nothing more than corporate party with no back bone. The people felt and still feel betrayed by the democrats. This is a lesson that the masses will hopefully not soon forget though I feel that it will take little to no time for the voters to forget the democrats betrayal.


What does this mean for communist and other leftist in the US? Well that is up to us, we can keep doing what we have been doing, (which except for a few groups) and keep doing things that have proven to be ineffective. Or we can really start to unite the different parties and organizations and start to have one party with different tactics. Because as we are in this country (all separated and using different tactics) it is obvious that one tactic or the other by itself will not do the trick. We need a united party that works in the activist circles, that works in the unions and on peoples empowerment issues. All we have right now is a bunch of different parties all running in different directions claiming they have the right tactic, but since none are gaining any real ground it doesn't matter. And the few that are gaining ground as parties or ORGs (meaning members wise), they mainly are gaining members with false and liberal slogans.


If the left ever needed to unite and fight together then this would be it. But I'm sure that that will not happen due to different believes in what happened and should have happened in Russia in the beginning of the 1900's. But remember that this is our future and if we don't unite and fight back than this is what we can look forward to: