David wrote:
> Turnout in elections is certainly falling and will probably fall further
> at the next general election, but IMHO this represents not a rejection of
> the 'parliamentary road' than a rejection of the possibility of any kind
> of change.
Yes I agree. I may actively abstain from election but I am greatly in
the minority. The mass of the working class either just see all
politics as beside the point or think of partys that 'they're all
the same'. Only the anarchists and those Marxists who have always
opposed the Labour Party actually reject it (either permanently or
temporarilily
> As far tactics go, elections seem the high point of political activity.
They seem to be the high point of media interest in politics. And we
mistake our interest in it for it actually being important.
> British trade unions are in process of becoming insurance salesmen and
> student politics is concerned either with issues of narrow self-interest
> (like tuition fees) or with politically correct causes like Tibet. What
> would you suggest for some alternative to contesting elections?
I agree with that too. As i said i would look to the new movements
which have sprung up separate from the Labour Party (and
largely from the Left). The Anti-roads protestors, animal rights,
campaigns against deportations, anti-racist and anti-fascist groups,
prisoners rights, those anti-capitalist demonstrators, etc. People
using new methods of stuggle and not relying on the offical Labour
movement to pass motions and make election promises.
If one compares the 'parliamentary road' to the non-parliamentary one
then one can see how litlle progress the former makes. From the
miners candidates of the 19th century who, as soon as they got into
office we won over by the privelege and new lifestyle.
The first Communist MP, R B Cunningham Graham, just spent most of his
time being thrown out of the chamber. He raised various issues but
was fustrated at not actually being able to DO anything in
parliament. And John Burns MP great achievement was the march into
the West End of London and throw bricks through all the windows. I
don't know of anything he did in Parliament itself. In the 20th
century the Communist Party only got a few MPs elected and they just
operated as a left-wing section of the Labour Party (and seemed
quite satisfied in doing so).
Whereas outside the narrow confines of electioneering we saw the
movement for the 10 Hour Day, the General Strike, the mass unemployed
movement, the suffragettes, the fight against the Fascists,
the Irish hunger strike, the Gay Liberation Front, the 1981 and 1984
uprising in the prodominantly black communities, Greenham Common
women, the miners strike, the Poll Tax movement, the Strangeways
revolt, opposition to the Gulf War, the anti-deportation campaigns,
the anti-roads protests, the anti-capitalism demostrations. There are
probably thousands I've missed. But these seem to me to be key to
building a mass movement with the possiblility of leading in a
revolutionary direction in a way that electing a handful of people to
a bourgeoie talking shop just doesn't seem to.
I honestly cannot see how one goes from elections to revolutions
(without repeating the disasterous mistakes of Allende in Chile).
Others may argue that electioneering is just a part of the struggle
but in practice it does seem to overshadow all else.
John Walker
John Walker
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