#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #FRANCE #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) France, UCL AL #327 - Politics, Elections: a tool to prevent democracy (ca, de, it, fr, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Having become unavoidable, the election of a representative is not synonymous

with good democratic health. Libertarians refuse to use this tool which
depoliticizes and leaves the field open to politicians. Rather than through the
ballot box, politics must be done in collective action, directly, without a
representative. ---- It has now become common, even within the struggles of
far-left organizations and even among libertarians, to use the expression
"representative democracy" to describe the political system of the Fifth
Republic. It is unfortunate. Just as we refuse to speak of social "charges" or
prefer the term "social conquered", it seems to me that we should denounce the
misuse of the word democracy.

In these electoral times when the hopes of a large part of our social camp have
been pinned on the coming to power of a left-wing candidate and have been
disappointed, it is perhaps important to question the democratic character of the
election, without even mentioning that of our electoral system.

The election is choosing the chosen one, the best of us in order to entrust him
or her more or less blindly with the responsibility of deciding on behalf of the
group. This person would be endowed with skills - innate or acquired according to
beliefs - which would allow him to know better than the collective or the people
concerned the decisions to be taken and to be followed.

Conversely, democracy is political equality, when power is distributed as fairly
as possible instead of being concentrated in the hands of a ruling class under
any pretext whatsoever. The election is therefore inherently anti-democratic.

Just as we contest the necessity of a revolutionary vanguard, we must refuse to
call democracy a representative system. If we cannot emancipate others in their
place, it is also not possible for individuals, collectives to exercise their
political power by entrusting it to others.

To be a political subject
Undemocratic, the electoral vote is also depoliticizing. While it can be a tool
employed in a collective political strategy, we cannot underestimate the dangers
of pinning our hopes on it. What is someone looking for who decides in the voting
booth on the latest polls ? What do those who formulate and relay voting
instructions want? Find a collective meaning in an act that is purely individual
and isolated. Placing a paper in an envelope and then slipping it into the ballot
box is not a political act or so little.

A procession, an occupation, a strike, a rally on a roundabout are much more so.
If through struggles it is possible to become political subjects again, the
election carries with it a passivity and a wait-and-see attitude that distracts
the forces of protest. We must beware of the temptation to already offer the
legislative elections as the next prospect rather than May 1st.

Rolling back electoral belief, whether you vote or not, this is the challenge of
the UCL counter-campaign. We know that it is urgent to redirect investments and
hopes in other ways. The election will only be successful if we manage to
mobilize in the streets those who went - or did not - to the polls to express
their desire for change. And for that, constantly remember that the essence of
politics takes place outside bourgeois institutions wishing to pass themselves
off as democratic.

Melissa (UCL Orleans)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Elections-un-outil-pour-empecher-la-democratie
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