People need to stop voting so if more of them can't then I don't care
Voter suppression (UK)
- Thread starter brogdale
- Start date
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
So you don't care that the erosion of universal suffrage might increase exploitation and disenfranchisement? Why do you think this ID requirement is being introduced in the first place?
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
I'll also be turning up to the polling station sans papiers and making a fuss.
There's absolutely nobody I can vote for in good conscience so it's all the same to me anyway.
There's absolutely nobody I can vote for in good conscience so it's all the same to me anyway.
People not voting is harm reduction 
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Don't yeh. Can't? Maybe you need to consider your position. Then you can reconsider it.
If you think we have any kind of real democracy with capitalism you're completely deluded anyway. Its the corporations with the real power, they own the political parties and the government etc. Thats who politicians really represent. And corporations are anti-democratic. This is really fucking basic stuff ffs.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
If you'd read my posts you'd know I've never said we have any kind of real democracy, quite the opposite. But this is like your nonsense on the bolsonaro thread, ill thought out poppycock. Where people choose not to vote, yeh, that's grand. Where the vote is taken away from them, do you think that's good? What else do you think a state that does that would do? Do you think it'll be easier or harder to put the case for anarchism in such a state?
What I posted wasn't directed specifically at you personally. At the end of the day the fact is that people's votes don't count for shit in a capitalist society anyway. People need to go beyond propping up this shit system.
And look at Iran and Russia. Authoritarianism and totalitarianism and yet no lack of real resistance, so I don't think your last point is always the case. Meanwhile in this country theres hardly been any real threats to the system for the last ten years or more.
Last edited:
Serge Forward
Just enjoyin' my coffee.
I don't vote and take the view that whoever you vote for, the boss class wins. But when the ruling party seeks to prevent those who might be more inclined to vote against them from doing just that, then that's a different issue and is nothing to be pleased about. It's unlikely to benefit the working class, nor does it revolutionise workers. It's as futile as wishing for immiserisation of the proletariat in the hope of it kick starting a revolutionary movement. The only people disenfranchisement or immiseration benefits is the faction of the ruling class that desires it.
I didn't really say its good exactly. I just don't much care tbh. Because I desire people to do more than just vote in elections, which is what far too many people do.
Last edited:
Yeah rights are always temporary. Maybe people need to do something about it instead of just voting eh? Then maybe we'll actually be getting somewhere.
Serge Forward
Just enjoyin' my coffee.
Agreed. But that's not what this is about.
redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
This.
Criticism of electoralism as a political strategy for the working class should not lead to support for, or even apathy towards, the type of voter suppression measures we are seeing across states.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
There are several things here. If people's ability to vote in elections is attacked, it focuses opposition to the administration on the vote and by so doing will replay the analysis that the vote is important, else why would the ruling party seek to abridge it? It attracts attention away from other avenues of dissent. It focuses protest against it on issues of legality and away from venues in which people can feel empowered. So you ought to care a great deal because voter suppression affects the very communities anarchists seek to influence, to imbue with their ideas.
PR1Berske
Alligator in chains by the park gates.
There is an "enemy of my enemy" thing going on here.
Voter suppression is horrible. It's the theft of votes, not because of any law being broken, or rules being incorrectly followed, but because of opposition to the ruling Government. Even if you do choose to live outside electoral politics, and there's nothing with wrong with that, you can still participate in opposition to people having the right to vote taken from them.
Yes, there are protests in Iran. "Regime change," dare I call it that, has not yet happened. The ballot box is amongst our tools here to work alongside protest.
Voter suppression is horrible. It's the theft of votes, not because of any law being broken, or rules being incorrectly followed, but because of opposition to the ruling Government. Even if you do choose to live outside electoral politics, and there's nothing with wrong with that, you can still participate in opposition to people having the right to vote taken from them.
Yes, there are protests in Iran. "Regime change," dare I call it that, has not yet happened. The ballot box is amongst our tools here to work alongside protest.
mojo pixy
...שלא נמצא בשמאל
As above, I'll be going to the polling station without ID and making a big fuss about not voting (not that there's any choice in my constituency, it's tory or libdems here, and even if it were worth voting labour here I wouldn't any more) but if I can muster the energy on the next general election day, I may spend a few hours down there counting and talking to people who can't vote. If I thought I could manage it, I'd stay all day, but however long I stick around I'll write something about it.
Thats a fair point actually
Fair enough but its still true that people's votes don't really count for anything and that they don't really have a say.
Last edited:
Elpenor
Dancing as fast as I can
Are you still in the same constituency as me? I have seen projections which show Labour doing better than LD.
I am half tempted to get into working elections, it would theoretically fit well with my line at work and could be some extra quids
mojo pixy
...שלא נמצא בשמאל
I think we may well be in the same constituency. To be honest though, I'd really struggle to vote Labour anytime soon despite voting for them in the past and even being a member at times.
Kevbad the Bad
Amiable Bowel Syndrome
If people turn up to vote without ID and make a fuss there should be no reason why they can't come back again in 15 minutes without ID again, and again, and again. If the authorities in the polling station or the police try to stop you entering the polling station they could be accused of interference in the election. So I would have thought.
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
Sounds like a refinement of my plan (not to vote)
Kevbad the Bad
Amiable Bowel Syndrome
Yeah, but this way you get to not vote multiple times.
Leighsw2
strictly off the record
If you add this suppression exercise to the redrawing of parliamentary boundaries - where the Tories get 40 more seats than Labour even if they have the same number of votes - this could definitely tip the balance towards the Tories hanging on (and you would expect things to tighten as we head into 2024 in any case.)
redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
Based on what analysis?
The review probably does give some advantage to the Tories, but I am skeptical it is anything like as nailed on as that.
And with the revised proposals it becomes +10 Con, -5 Lab, -3 LD, -2 SNP, and all this is based on the 2019 results. That voting pattern is not fixed in stone, indeed with the collapse in the Tory vote it is possible the review could end up less in the Tories favour at the next election. It seems plausible, likely, that Labour's distribution of vote will be less concentrated than in recent years.
Last edited:
ska invita
back on the other side
Is anarchism more likely to flourish in a democracy or an autocracy?
(Direct) Democracy is an anarchist principle
teqniq
DisMembered
Oh, what a surprise:
www.opendemocracy.net
Revealed: Voter ID plans not ‘secure or workable’
Electoral Commission chair told ministers their plans are not ‘workable’ or ‘secure’. But the government ignored him
www.opendemocracy.net
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
Similar threads
