electorial politcs, was: Re: AUT: a rejuvenated communist

[commie zero zero <commie00@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Few anarchists would see getting rid of the state
> without ending
> capitalism as the answer.  Overthrowing the state is
> seen as somehow
> a means to ending alienation. Looked at closely that
> sort of thinking
> is seriously flawed.

this doesn't seem right either. or is too general.
many anarchists i know work in the assumption that the
state is part and parcel of capital, and that
destroying capital means destroying the state, and
vise-versa... leaving part alive (kinda like a worm)
enables the rest to come back.

> The real difficulty I perceive is the fundamental
> aversion of
> anarchists to electoral politics and political
> activity in general.

yer whole analysis here is skewed due to what seems to
me a real limitation on what you perceive as
political. the word "political" comes from (i believe)
the greek "polis", meaning (i think) community. thus
politics would be the affairs of the community.

now: the anti-electorial notion that i (and many other
commies) share with anarchists is, in part, based on
the notion that electorial politics is itself
anti-political (i.e. against the affairs of the
community) because it is the rhelm of capitalist rule.


> It is part of the anti-state philosophy. Of course
> the political
> state would be redundant in class-less society, but
> it seems a
> mistake either to think that this means destroying
> the state is
> enough to create a class-less society, or even that
> the state
> politics in capitalist society is not a useful area
> in which to
> agitate for social revolution.

the notion that electorial politics is a good place to
agitate for social revolution is flawed on many
levels: 1) the capitalist nature of electorial
politics makes it difficult to actually get an
intellegible word in edgewise. 2) the vast majority of
people in coutries with voting don't pay any attention
to elections, don't vote, and are rather jaded on the
whole mess. 3) the basic contradition inherent in
using the state to advocate otherthrowing the state
(as part of overthrowing capitalism)... you can not
forget that the medium is the message.

much like "revolutionary" bands who get on major
labels to "get to a larger audience"... for example,
rage against the machine... yes, their music is heard
by more people, but the majority of people who attend
their shows just like to "fuck shite up", beat one
another up, get drunk, and ignore the words... they
hold up their beers to sing along to "fuck you i won't
do what you tell me", and then go home and rape their
girlfriends.

this mistake (on the part of the band) is also due, i
think, to their lack of spectical analysis. advocating
making use of electorial politics seems to me to
betray the same lack of analysis. electorial politics
is a spectical designed to give the illusion of
popular power. participating in this spectecal
recuprerats yer ideas into the spectecal...
reinforcing the notion that electorial poltics is
really a form of polular power, cause, look, we even
let commies have their say.

> What the latter ignores is that state politics,
> electoral politics in
> particular, is the main arena for debate in
> democratic capitalist
> societies.

this is not true. in my experience the main arenas for
debate are workplaces, schools, homes / porches,
coffeehouses, bars, show spaces, etc. electorial
politics is generally ignored by most people.

> This is where political ideas are openly
> debated and
> considered.

uhm... on what planet? hell, the frickin' debates are
staged and basically scriped. this is pretty common
knowledge. hell, they even did an episode about it on
"law & order" (a fictional melodrama on nbc, for those
who don't know).

> More importantly, this is where ideas
> for social progress
> are put to the test of public opinion.

nah... this is like saying the corporate media is the
expression of public opinion.

> By shunning
> this, anarchists
> effectively show contempt for the will of the
> people.

i've yet to EVER in my 25 years see the "will of the
people" expressed in an election. even people that
vote just vote for the "lesser evil" from their
perspective. they are resigned to this. they don't
like it, and i've yet to meet anyone dumb enough to
think that who they vote for acctually represents
their will.

> Anarchists believe that electoral politics is a
> barren field for the
> revolutionary, that "direct action" is the only area
> that serves any
> purpose. This view is often expressed but as I
> demonstrated a few
> days ago on this list it is a view that is unable to
> survive even a
> cursory analysis.

i must have missed this... but the reason direct
action (in all forms: propaganda, dual power, concrete
protest, etc.) is prefered over electorial politics
(aside from the reasons i've already delineated) is
because only direct action ever works. in all my years
doing this kind of work now, i've yet to see even a
minor reform come about thru electorial political
crap. but i have seen governments give in to the "will
of the people", as expressed thru direct action, and
make some changes. and i've yet to see anything
rigorously enforced by a government, except thru being
forced to by the "will of the people" as expressed
thru further direct action.

the other advantage of direct action over electorial
politics is that direct action builds solidarity,
enanbles people to directly express their will, gets
people pracicing doing things themselves (as opposed
to relying on a leader) and collectively, etc. etc.
etc. these are condusive to building (communal) dual
power, building communism here & now.

while electorial politics just maintains people in a
leader / led metality. this is condusive to
capitalism.


=====
commie00
---------------------------------
http://www.geocities.com/commie00
---------------------------------

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