{"article":{"id":104216,"heading":"Don't Just Vote, Get Active","author":"campaign organizers","created":"2004-03-03 15:55:03","modified":"2004-03-03 15:55:03","last_modified":"Wed, 03 Mar 2004 23:55:03","article":"

Nationwide Call to Action:

Don’t Just [Not] Vote, Get Active

http:\/\/www.dontjustvote.com<\/a>

We are calling for a national campaign

to take advantage of this election year

to emphasize the power of direct action

and to present direct democracy as

a viable alternative to representation.

This campaign will include literature

distribution, postering and stickering,

demonstrations, educational events, and

other forms of community outreach, both

in our own communities and around the

Democratic and Republican National

Conventions. It will culminate in a

nationwide day of direct action on

November 2, election day.

On this day, people across the country

will come together in groups both

large and small to demonstrate the

effectiveness of direct democracy as a

way to make decisions without mediation

or hierarchy, and of direct action as

means to implement those decisions

and create the kind of communities we

desire. Those who wish to take an hour

out of this day to cast a vote are

welcome to do so; but we urge you to

spend the remainder of the election

day in creative experiments in

self-determination and cooperation.

At the end of the day or in the weeks

that follow, people can reconvene and

compare which approach was more rewarding

and empowering: ballot-box voting or

direct engagement without representatives.

Why This Campaign?

Elections in this country are the reddest

of red herrings. Liberals have been so

fixated on them as to forget most other

means of applying power; losses in

elections have demoralized and

disempowered the Left in general.

Anti-authoritarians, on the other hand,

while claiming not to recognize the

sovereignty of any officials, elected

or not, have nonetheless developed

their own mythology around voting,

attributing to it the mystical power

to \"legitimize\" authority figures thus

elected. But it is not voting that gives

power to politicians, just as it is

not not-voting that could take it away

from them; they have power because we

place our power in their hands, because

we fail to apply it deliberately

ourselves.

Quite a bit of energy is squandered by

liberals and radicals debating the old

question of whether or not to vote;

the answer, of course, is that it’s

the wrong question. For people to be

able to focus on getting power back in

their hands, the terms themselves have

to be set anew. To sidestep the entire

issue of voting, and instead focus all

attention on the alternative ways to

apply power, might save everyone a

lot of wasted energy, and unlock the

vast potential dormant in our

communities, our relationships,

ourselves.

The Strengths of This Campaign

As a national campaign, this has

strengths going for it that few others

do. First of all, it addresses a

subject that is already foremost in

the public mind. By refusing to take

a stand on the false dichotomy

presented by the media, or even the

other false dichotomy presented by

traditional radicalism or apathy,

it evades thoughtless dismissals.

A campaign that declines to take

sides but instead raises entirely

new questions can be provocative

without being alienating.

Second of all, it’s both global and

local. We don’t have to try to get all

concerned activists to come to one city

to demonstrate around this issue;

on the contrary, this is a perfect

time for people to act where they live,

while feeling connected to a nationwide

campaign. The election is an event of

global importance that takes place in

every neighborhood, an excellent

occasion for us to develop a

corresponding political practice.

Third, the broadness of the general theme--

direct action and direct democracy--

is such that participation is open to

anyone, with any preferred style of

tactics, at any desired level of

engagement. This is a campaign that

everyone in a community can participate

in: from a chapter of Food Not Bombs to

a senior citizens group demanding better

health care, from a high school global

justice club to an animal rights action

group. It is a campaign that can include

numerous types of direct action and

direct democracy: from free schools at

the polls to guerrilla gardening

that remakes or rebuilds local parks,

from community monitoring of otherwise

unaccountable police to civil

disobedience that shuts down military

contractors. As with direct action and

direct democracy in general, and in

stark contrast to electoral politics,

harmony is the only goal that must be

sought between participants; unanimity

on specific strategies or objectives

is unnecessary.

Election day will be a flashpoint for

many concerns and desires this year.

Afterward, we can be sure that people

will retire from civic engagement in

despair or relief--unless they’ve had a

positive experience to remind them how

much more they can do outside electoral

politics. This is our chance to emphasize

the political power everyone wields in

their daily lives.

Join us, with your friends and neighbors,

in whatever ways you see fit, in

emphasizing the great things we

can do when we cut out the middleman!

Don’t just vote--get active!

The idea is to dream up and practice

the many ways we can take power out of

the hands of the elite, be they elected

or unelected, and redistribute it to

everyone through a network of free

communities and neighborhoods. We do

not do this to gain control over

others, but to attain control together--

over how we provide each other with

shelter, education, art, and information,

over how we resolve conflicts, over how

we share resources and ideas, over how we

determine our own lives.

Like they say--if voting could change

anything, it would be illegal!

...and that goes for not voting, too.

Invitation to Participate

This is a decentralized campaign. It

belongs to no one, but all are welcome.

Any individual or group that desires

to participate is encouraged to take this

text, rework it so it best expresses

their views, and circulate it under their

own name with their own contact

information. The more different groups

participate with different takes on the

general idea, the better. Join in also

via the \"Just Don't Vote, Get Active\"

Web site at http:\/\/www.dontjustvote.com<\/a>.

<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"www.dontjustvote.com","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Nationwide Call to Action","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2004\/03\/104216.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}