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Title: Why Vote?
Author: Renzo Connors
Date: 2020
Language: en
Topics: anti-voting, individualism, Ireland
Source: *El Errante*, Spanish language anarcho-individualist magazine, issue 13
Notes: WORDS BY: Anarcho-Cynicalist Renzo Connors

Renzo Connors

Why Vote?

“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” — Emma Goldman

“People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want

and the courage to take.” — Emma Goldman

“Anarchism stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion

of religion and liberation of the human body from the coercion of

property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. It

stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals…” —

Emma Goldman

I am against the state and all its institutions, which includes the

institution of representative democracy. I want to see these

institutions totally destroyed and done away with. These are tools of

slavery used by the elite class to pacify and domesticate everyone else.

The illusion of having hope in a “democratically” elected new government

and council representatives is a dangerous decievement that helps manage

and keep this murderous and savage system intact.

The theory of tactical voting that is being peddled by some anarchists

does nothing but help to reproduce these very same state institutions

anarchists have always wanted to destroy. I would never vote in any

election whether for left or right politician. Their aims are the same,

for power to implement their ideology. Why would I take part in

something I am against (i.e. representative democracy)? No one can truly

represent me and my wants and needs. Like all individuals only I myself

can know what my wants and needs are. No politician is truly going to

have my back. Their main concern is themselves and (or) their party,

what they can gain, what support they can win, and building their

career. Politicians always have an ulterior motive.

All those that run in elections want to use and apply power over people

whether for good or bad. I want freedom and autonomy over my own life, I

also want to see everybody have this and live their lives how they wish.

By voting and taking part in these oppressive institutions I would be

handing over my individual autonomy to someone else letting them make

decisions that will affect my life.

It’s pretty clear to see no politician can be trusted. A lot of people

hold this view and don’t bother to take part in the voting process. But

despite the pessimism many still take part in it.

Politicians make deals, create policies without consulting their

constituents. The selling off of public owned land across Ireland to

property developers is a pretty clear example. No one was ever notified

or asked their opinion on why the state and councils stop building

council housing. Over the last decade the different governments under

Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, the Labour Party, and the Green Party sold off

publicly owned resources, again no was asked about whether they agreed

or not.

As for the socialist and left parties they haven’t gotten the chance to

fuck people over as badly as the parties mentioned above. But

nonetheless they still managed to fuck people over. They deliberately

withhold and sit on information they gain through their counselors and

only make it public when it suits them. They infiltrate and manipulate

grassroot struggles to suit their own goals. The clearest example of

this is the housing campaign “Raise the Roof”. The leftie groups formed

a coalition with the Labor Party (who played a major role in what’s

known as the housing crisis and implemented many neo-liberal policies

that many people have literally died from) and trade unions (who have a

record of selling out struggles). When confronted about their joining

forces with Labor the lefties were evasive and dishonest. The left

groups have proven they cannot be trusted.

Like the left, the far right obviously cannot be trusted. They want to

implement policies that further exclude the already excluded people in

this society. The far right are racist, anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigration,

and even bizarrely anti-unicorns. They peddle absolutely bonkers

conspiracy theories from chemtrail mind control to the coming “mass

migration” that will destroy “Irish culture”. They want a world of

exclusion and concentration camps for anyone that is not one of them or

suit their narrative of who and what is acceptable in society.

But what about the power to create positive change through referendums?

Referendums are just as much of an illusion of the state as voting for

councilors and changes of government. On one hand, rights can be granted

and made legal by the state. But on the other hand, while one right is

won many others are took away or not implemented at all. Referendums

feed into the delusion that we all actually have a say on how we live

our lives, that the state actually works.

All states are oppressive, whether democratic, dictatorship, red, green,

fascist. States and governments are used to control and regulate

people’s lives. It gives people selected options to pick and choose from

what’s acceptable or not. All governments, parties and politicians say

they want and are fighting for a greater good. But for who is this

greater good for?