I voted in the last elections here and I intend to keep on doing so. Because fuck, if we're going to have a state then I'm going to do my damn best to make it sure it causes the least harm possible. I am very aware that this makes me partly responsible for the violence that the state perpetrates but I still believe that it's better than letting the right wing have all the say.
If anyone has ever listened to the spoken word album Machine gun in the clown's hand by jello biafra there's a track that talks about local politics that is pretty interesting and relevant to this discussion. if anyone's interested here's a download:http://www.mediafire.com/?fhotgm24ggj The track is 12 steps to corporate-free sobriety in part three, enjoy!
Been thinking about maybe voting this year since sweden is in sort of a special situation with sverigedemokraterna, an extreme right party consisting to a big part of neo-nazis claiming not to be so but that have been very involved in different neo-nazi groups, having a big chance of getting in to the government. There's naturally no party i would want to vote for but perhaps a vote on anything else can be used as a vote against them. Don't really know though, not yet.
You are not helping to lower the popularity of a party in an election unless you vote for the second most popular party, and we all know that the second most popular party is always disgusting ok lets take this scenario National front has 400,000 voters liberal party has 500,000 voters conservative party has 300,000 voters green party has 100,000 voters you want to counter the national front, so the only way to prevent them from accessing the power would be to vote for the liberal party even if 100,000 peoples vote for the green party,it won't change anything to the fact that national front is still leading.... UNLESS green party receive 400,000+ votes and become the leading party.... and we all know there are more chance a revolution will happen before green party gets elected. i don't know why a lot of peoples think voting for small ethical partys can make a difference to counter the big partys, because it is illogical... In other words, you choose between a Cancer or AIDS
Bullshit...just vote informal...go in, get your name ticked off and get the fuck out of there or if you want write something nasty on the ballot paper and drop it in the box.
True, true, although the green party here already are in the government even though they are far from the ruling party, so a vote for them would still make one less for the nazis bastards. But i also completely agree that what ever horse is in the race is bought so to speak so i don't want to contribute to the justification of their system, so it's a bit of a difficult situation. Normally i'd just not vote but now as i said, i'm not so certain of what i'll do yet. Very willing to hear others perspectives on it.
Depends on your electoral system. For example, in the last election I voted for the Green Party because a) they best represented my own values; and b) they explicitly stated that they would form an alliance with Labour if the opportunity arose. A vote for the Greens was just as much a vote against National as a vote for Labour would have been. If you like. I'm going to be getting one or the other so I'd rather have a say in which it's going to be than not.
Yep, Queerpunk is right. You are obliged to show up and that's it. I just piss off again after doing so, though you can just donkey vote (number 1- say 8 straight down), write propaganda on yr ballot, just basically if you fill out yr ballot incorrectly it will not be counted. Further, you only have to show up (and will be fined if you don't) if you actually enrol in the first place. It isn't illegal not to enrol, but once yr on the list you can't get off!! So don't do it!
Yeah I made the mistake of enrolling, sigh. I was ignorant and thought you had to enrol or you would be fined, so after the 4th letter I got asking me to enrolled, I did it. ughh Oh well, At least I can draw pretty pictures on my ballot, I am always in the mood for drawing.
But how is a vote for labour or green party having a negative impact on national front votes ??? it doesnt lower their popularity and they keep their position unless you vote for a party that actually have chances to beat them (so it's probably a nasty party) you are encouraging a party, not voting against a party... anyway, if i ever lower myself to the level of voting for a political party. trust me i will be so ashamed about it that i will not start a topic on an anarcho forum to brag about it
Don't do that. Insert an extra box and tick it and write next to it, "I have no confidence in the voting system or the running candidates" In countries like Argentina they have a no confidence box, indicating that they don't like any candidate. Here in Australia, its called a null or void vote. The preference vote system in Australia, has got to be one of the crappiest systems of electing a government. A party that in theory gets the least of the primary vote can still be elected into office.
Seriously? This is what you have to say in your first post? If this is in any way representative of what we might expect in the future, i am hoping there won't be many more posts from you.
hahahahahaha oops i forgot to delete this post, it was me, i created a new account with a random name and i had to post something because i am testing a new feature... sorry
Labour are the party who have the chance of beating them. Sorry, I should've said; Labour and National are the two major parties here, Labour are centre-left and National are centre-right. So voting Green was giving Labour a better chance of being able to form a coalition government, which is better than a Labour majority-led government and a hell of a lot better than a National-led government. A Labour-Green coalition brought us decriminalization of prostitution and civil unions for homosexual couples, both things National voted against. Now they're in power, what do we get? Tax cuts for the rich, privatization of prisons, tougher sentencing laws. Increasing the gap between rich and poor and then when the poor have to resort to crime to get by, chucking them in prisons run by profit-hungry capitalist scum. There IS a difference between these two options and it IS a difference that matters to anyone who cares about freedom and equality. But I do feel like a dick talking about party politics on an anarchist forum so I'm gonna shut up now
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) sent me some letter asking me to re-enrol...I find this odd because I haven't changed address and I enrolled in late high school....hmmmm
