Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 15:20:23 +1000
From: rws-AT-comserver.canberra.edu.au (Rob Schaap)
Subject: M-I: Re: Elections under a bourgeois system


In reply to Retynaldo's question:  I have been trying to put the
proposition that a Marxist can either vote or revolt, or do both - and
still be a Marxist.  The dilemma for me can be summed up by these two
questions:

* if I refuse to vote in this (unarguably) distorted and essentially
undemocratic election, what will happen to most people's lives as a
consequence of people like me not voting for the reformist party?  

* if I do vote, am I helping legitimise a fundamentally obscene system of
social organisation whilst also delaying capitalism's moment of crisis by
voting in a party committed to ameliorating capitalism's excesses?

In short, either I (as one of, say, a significant number of torn lefties)
do indirect damage to people's lives by allowing the privateers into
government, where the social democrats would clearly have done less/slower
harm - or - I sustain the system by doing my electoral best to give it an
essentially illusory 'human face', thus helping to delay the
thrilling/ghastly moment of Capitalism's traumatic death throes.

My personal answer is 'vote'.  Standing back while people's lives worsen,
in the hope of quickening a possibly revolutionary social trajectory (which
is at least as likely to be a fascist path at this juncture) is the worse
of the two evils.  

Better still, work at the establishment of a new 'social democratic' party
which is as far to the left as it can be while remaining comprehensible and
accessible to the constituency.  At least that'll help keep left-wing
discourse on the public tongue - doing the revolutionary movement no harm,
and proffering a coherent alternative for those who might otherwise kneel
at the feet of the new Mussolinis and Hitlers.

Watch out though, anyone who takes this route is to be condemned, it seems,
as a menshevik.  I've made my choice and I shall have to wear the label.

All the best, Rob.











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