There appears to be substantial numbers of people on the left who view election boycotts as a next significant "action" against the takeover of the government by capitalist elites. This article also contains a sub-post of an article posted this past summer from Black Agenda Report entitled "Making the Case for an Election Boycott" which also argues this.
An organized election boycott has the potential of channeling the mistrust that most left-leaning folks have with the US imperial state into concrete political action. Instead of electing city council members, let’s confront our municipal officials that are hell-bent on selling neighborhoods and assets to the corporate ruling class. Let’s confront our elected officials in Washington for their service of empire and corporate power. The left’s most important task in this period is to take principled positions against US imperialism. Electing “third party” candidates into this machinery won’t do this, but campaigns such as an election boycott give us a chance to fight for transformation of the imperialist system we so desperately need.It seems to me that it is questionable that arguing an inaction--not voting--qualifies as a political action, and that it will by itself lead to a "transformation of the imperialist system". As has been reported earlier in the article, many people are already not voting. On the affirmative side, one could argue that it could be a way of consciousness raising about the phoniness of capitalist formal democratic institutions. Yet, I cannot go along with this proposal by itself. It could also encourage more passivity by citizens who are already very demoralized. It also can be argued that by occasionally voting for a less fascist candidate, we can slow the descent into outright fascism which provides us more time and latitude to engage in truly progressive organizing.
What I think is most critically needed are real radical actions taken by and for the people of this country. As I've always argued, what we need to start the ball rolling is for us to quit sucking at the poisonous tit of corporate media and establish our grass roots media. This we can do over the internet by organizing many separate activist websites and bloggers into a more organized network to report the real information about events in the world and to serve as an antidote to all the capitalist propaganda used to distract, dis-inform, and divide us.
Then the next desirable action would be to replace the ideological components of public education with our own classes that teach such courses (history and social studies) from a working class point of view. We also must join hands with similar movements all over the world. These national boundaries only serve to divide us while the same boundaries are being erased to the benefit of capitalist gangs.
These actions must be, once and for all, organized around a set of principles that recognizes the inherent root of so much of the evil and disasters we see in today's world--capitalism. No, I am not referring to a certain type of capitalism--they are all in the basket with some more advanced than others. This especially means that in such a project there would be no room for liberals and other reformers writing long articles and books merely complaining about how "neoliberalism" and "deregulated" capitalism is wrecking our lives and destroying our "democracy". This new movement must endorse in an unqualified manner its opposition to the system of capitalism, and begin the long-range work of constructing a new system. This means that we must not include any notion of, or people who advocate, the reform of the existing capitalist system. Let them waste their time while we build something new. When they become sufficiently frustrated with their vain attempts, they will join us.
