Electoral Boycott Campaign

[Lugh Ildánach 2,352]

An important part of direct democracy is the rejection of its antithesis, the representational electoral system.

 

Boycotts of elections have been common practice across the world at various stages, and of course have a long history in Ireland. Recent attempts in Ireland to boycott elections have however been an abject failure. I see the main cause of this is that prospective voters are offered no alternative revolutionary structures. They are offered an abysmal choice between the system and not voting. Those advocating a boycott campaign, or as has been the case recently, a spoil your vote campaign, portray their campaign as a positive choice, but the reality is that they offer nothing positive.

 

And there are huge swathes of the country that already consciously boycott the elections. At least 30%, and on occasions up to 50% of the electorate do not vote in elections as it is. The majority of those that do vote do not really believe that their decision will make any difference. The working class are particularly notorious in their failure to engage with electoral politics, and who could blame them?

 

Revolutionaries have laregely ignored elections in Ireland in recent years, and for good reason, but in the process of ignoring elections they have also ignored the people. They have failed to give the people any alternative, any real choice. What we should be doing, in time for the next election, whether local, general or otherwise, is to be able to offer people this alternative. We should not be asking them to not vote, but be asking them to reject meaningless elections and give their support to something else.

 

Not voting is only a political act, if it has the potential to lead to political change. Not voting, or spoling your vote, changes nothing by itself.

 

We should be aiming to work with other revolutionary organisations to organise, even in just one or two districts, an effective boycott campaign, where if successful, the result can only be seen as a vote for a revolutionary alternative.

 

Obviously organisations already wedded to electoralism will not be interested, but there are groups out there that share this rejection of representational electoralism, from the IRSP to the Direct Democracy movement. What is lacking is any kind of co-ordination or co-operation. Leadership is required. Who will step up to the mark and organise an effective electoral boycott campaign?

[Fodla32 3,692]

I think that it would be very difficult to organize an effective boycott, while no effective alternative structure of power, and, particularly, of wealth distribution, is in place.

[Lugh Ildánach 2,352]

Alternative structures would have to play an important part of any campaign. There are other groups out there that believe in alternative structures, I know that Comrade Doire has some involvement in those. We should explore the idea with some of them, to see what can be organised. The work needs to start now, we can't wait for an election to be called.