Anarchists Launch Anti-Election Campaign

This election season, members of the Northeast Anarchist Network (NEAN) will launch a campaign across the region aiming to discredit representative democracy and to promote truly democratic alternatives. Like most people in this country, we are tired of the same political game: two parties, and no good choices. For 2004’s presidential election, the rallying call was “The lesser of two evils,” and even though Bush clearly stole that election, nobody cared enough to do anything about it because Kerry only sucked a little bit less. Now the wingnuts are coming out of the woodworks again, kissing babies, debating the hot topics and making election promises that no one expects them to keep.

More and more, US voters are realizing that there is really only one party—the corporate party—which makes sense as candidates need millions of dollars in campaign contributions and airtime on corporate media to even have a fighting shot.

We may have a female candidate, we may have an African-American candidate, hell we even have a Mormon, but you will never see a poor or working-class candidate. Even if you did, it wouldn’t matter because for you to have ever heard their name or seen their face, they would have to have sold out to the rich. Why do we let the greedy capitalists bastards trick us into thinking we’re using democracy, and then pick our candidates for us? In a real democracy, we would vote on everything: whether our communities should have more schools or jails, whether companies should lessen their environmental impact or continue to destroy the earth, whether we should send soldiers to die for corporate greed or not, whether our cities should let developers bulldoze our homes, etc. There is a reason we DON’T get to vote on these topics: the rich know they’d lose! We know how the politicians vote on these issues, for they vote with their wallets and not with their hearts. The good news is that in a real democracy, we don’t need politicians! I kid you not, my friends, another world is possible. Throughout much of human history, people have lived in well-organized societies without politicians or government. Anarchists have worked to build such societies for centuries, writing thousands of books and essays, projects, organizing communities and experimental societies, and launching countless revolts and revolutions. Even today, thousands of people throughout the world practice true democracy—including some in our neighbor to the South (See Mexico’s Zapatistas and the Popular Assemblies of the People of Oaxaca). They don’t need politicians to make decisions for them, and neither do we! So this election season, vote or don’t vote, it won’t make a lick of difference either way. Dedicate your thought, time and energy into building stronger communities in your neighborhood, at your job, in your school. Find cracks in the political machine, the places where true democracy can grow, and fill those cracks: encourage your friends and peers to work together to make your own decisions. Strive to build a movement for popular democracy, so that 4 years from now, when they once again try to trick us into thinking we are using democracy, we will laugh at them and run the politicians out of office. For a true democracy, Viva La Anarquia, Muera Toda Autoridad!

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Members of the Northeast Anarchist Network have initiated a two-tiered campaign to discredit representative democracy and promote direct democracy and anarchy. Armed with centuries of failure of representative government, we will be creating and distributing propaganda that undermines the credibility and attacks the legitimacy of the U.S. political system, while at the same time introducing alternatives such as local autonomy and neighborhood assemblies, highlighting their successes in other parts of the world.

We welcome others to distribute this material as it is made available. Furthermore, we call upon anti-authoritarians to creatively and effectively target all upcoming speeches, caucuses, debates, votes, and everything else related to this electoral sock puppet show. We also encourage the planning of public events, forums, and community discussions to achieve the aims described above. Let’s make our presence known!