7/31/2019 Last Hours Ballot Box Poster

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While our rulers claim to embrace democracy witha dangerous fervour, its probably fair to say thatmany of us have rather less enthusiasm for theelections that come around with such regularity.

Most people have ew hopes or ears or what achange o government can bring, and the commonattitude towards politicians and politics in generalis one o cynicism. Perhaps at most you might thinkone party might be slightly less bad than the others?Te best o a bad bunch? A ter all, i youre actually involved in one o the parties, youd be one o a tiny minority, and i you even bothered to vote in somerecent elections youd have been in a minority too.Has it always been this way?

Perhaps people used to be more passionate aboutelections. Te end o 18 years o Conservative rule in1997 provoked at least a whi o enthusiasm be orethe inevitable reality o business as usual set in - thebusiness o inequality, exploitation and war underNew Labour. But who has i llusions o great thingscoming rom the contenders or our votes now?What will come rom the captains o industry whotalk o a green economy, the war-mongers who talko airness, or rom the petty racists o the ar rightand bickering chie tains o the ar le t who pose asthe radical opposition? Most o us know the answerto that all too well, and it shows in our apathy to thewhole charade.

Is this grey, cynical weighing up o the least badall that political activity can be? We think not, andbelieve us, we dont want your vote either. Politicshas become a dirty word through the grubby pretence our rulers go through every ew yearso allowing us to choose between Pepsi or Coke

avoured government or the next hal a decade. Buteveryday li e is political too, whether we call it that ornot. Every day that we go to work through fnancialnecessity, unable to control what we produce, thatis political. Every day our taxes are collected andused to wage war is a political issue. Every piece o sexist or racist abuse shouted on a street is political,no less than the advertisements were surroundedby, the contents o newspapers, o V programs,o websites. So much, rom the large scale to thesmall, is pervaded with ideas o power, o control,

o exploitation. Tis is very much political, and so iswhat we do or dont do about it. But i everyday li eis political, then everyday li e is also where politicsmust be discussed, worked out and sometimes

ought over, not separated o into a specialisation, apro ession, or an institution.

Limiting politics to the separate realm o electionsand institutions serves to turn us into passiveconsumers o politics rather than active participants,much as were supposed to be in the rest o ourlives. Under capitalism and democracy were seen

If everyday life is political,then everyday life is also wherepolitics must be discussed,worked out and sometimesfought over.

The

politicsof

lifeas individuals with the reedom to choose, whetherwere choosing which car to buy, or which party to vote or in an election, or even whether to go onstrike according to the allowed legal procedure.But how much power and in uence do we haveas individual- reely-choosing citizens in oursupermarket society o choices? I nothing else,the act that joining campaign groups and charitiesis popular shows that we mostly know the answerto that question. But i isolated individuals have

no power over their own lives, no power to makechanges, then the kind o coming together o isolatedindividuals you get in most campaign groups isntmuch better. Join the group, receive the newsletter,maybe elect the leaders i youre lucky, and mostimportantly, dont orget to pay your dues. Sound

amiliar? Perhaps its time to remember that we cantchange things or the better with a weak imitation o the structures that are busy making things worse.

We only stop being isolated individuals, stop beingpowerless, when we come together ace to ace tomake decisions and act together. Whether its at work,in our communities, or maybe out on the streets to

protest, we reinvent politics when we come togetheras equals and take action over the things that matterto us, and then see who else will come along with us.Instead o waiting or 51% o people to agree to ourtheoretical plans, we can start by doing.

Creating inspiring examples has a momentum all o itsown: blocking a residential street used as a high speedshort cut, occupying and running a nursery closedthrough council cuts, demanding better pay or just

more respect at work and then going slow or walkingout to get it, setting up a community garden where asupermarket wants to set up, stopping those who try and divide us with race. Tese are just a ew examplesaround us right now o the kind o politics that canbuild confdence and collective power, getting resultswhere delegating our power away gets us nothing, amultitude o starting points with the potential to growand link up. And who knows where that could lead?

I you still eel the need to vote or the least badoption then go ahead. Who knows, maybe it really will be slightly less bad. Just remember that realpolitics lies elsewhere...

You can fnd more subversive material like this at

www.lasthours.org.uk

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7/31/2019 Last Hours Ballot Box Poster

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The ballot boxcannot containour desires.

and believe us, we dont want your vote either...

Government isnot the limit of our imagination.

not or fyposting