Vote Labour
...well, vote, anyway. If you're in Wales, or Scotland, or in a local authority up for election. Vote. And by that, I mean anything that involves you turning up and being counted. Spoil your ballot (cock alone knows I've advocated and done that for years). Vote for the party of your choice - yes, even the BNP, if you're a viscious fascist I want to know it by you sticking your neck out and voting your colours. I'd rather you weren't a viscious fascist, so stop it, then you won't have to prove you're a fascist coz you won't be. If you see what I eman. But I suspect most of my readers aren't fascists. I hope.
To continue vote - Tory or Lib-Dem (although, Lib-fucking-dems, I mean, come on, what are you thinking? Remember, they sup of the devil's jism). But were I you, in your shoes, able to vote this time round, I'd give it to Labour. Volte face, I know, but hear me out.
Capitalism isn't going away soon. The no matter who you vote for,l the government gets in. Voting shouldn't and can't be about a quid pro-quo gift relationship where you swap your vote for political favours (as Shaw put it, the party that promises to rob Peter to pay Paul can count on the support of Paul). It is about who rules, the inclinations, affiliations and accesses. Governments must make cuts, they don't have a choice, but would you rather have a government for whom cuts are easy, or dificult?
Put another way, the social wage is part of the class struggle, we defend it all we can, and until something comes along to promote democracy and abolish the quckery of government, a vote for Labour is a slight defence against the worst. I've lived under two councils that fell to the Yellow Tories in alliance with the blue, t'ain't pretty. You can stop it.
Labels: Elections, Labour Party, Local Government, Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly
posted by Bill at 09:13
7 Comments:
a vote for Labour is a slight defence against the worst
Yes, I remember the 1980s too.
OK, some individual Labour councillors are conscientious and trustworthy, but the days when you could vote Labour against cuts are long gone. Voting Labour means voting for Best Value, for PFI and for the evisceration of local democracy through elected mayors and salaried 'cabinets' - these are the things Labour has actually done, and if we endorse them they'll do more of the same. The Lib Dems are unprincipled, untrustworthy chancers - a leftish Liberal friend of mine once explained to me how it was in fact a principle for them to be unprincipled, untrustworthy chancers, although he used different words - but even they are well to the Left of New Labour. Even the Tories are criticising Labour from the Left as often as not these days.
So yes [raises voice to address the masses reading Bill's blog], do vote. But for the love of William Morris, please don't vote Labour.
Incidentally, I'm not blogging at Actually Existing any more - if you want to blogroll the new gaff (The Gaping Silence) that'd be great.
Or, alternatively, vote for the SNP (if you life in Scotland that is). They want to replace council tax (Neo Labour don't), abolish Trident and spend the money on public services (Neo Labour don't), restrict the use of PPP so that tax money goes towards public services rather than shareholders' profits (Neo Labour don't), abolish the 'graduate endowment' and reintroduce student grants (Neo Labour don't). I could go on like this for awhile yet.
Of course, whether someone votes for the SNP or not will probably be determined by whether or not they support independence (even though there would have to be a Yes vote in a referendum before that would happen), but portraying Neo Labour as the 'most socially just' party in these elections is just silly.
David,
you can't ignore the petty nationalism of the nats - they're a tory party in waiting - they'll trim any course to win a majority to promote their first objective - independence. As I said, it's not about policy, that's a fight for anotehr day (and some of those nat policies are bunkum).
"it's not about policy"?
So you're ultra-left enough to think there's no real difference between the capitalist parties, but sentimental enough to prefer Labour anyway.
Fair enough - but don't call it 'realism'.
Phil,
as I said in the article, no I don't think democracy is a quid-pro-quo I give you my vote, you give me that policy gift, it's about the balance of social forces and engagement. Whoever gets in, the government is in charge, but they way they rule, their paths of least resistance, etc. do change and do matter. teh difference between a party that has to make cuts and the one that wants to make cuts is telling.
"the way they rule, their paths of least resistance, etc. do change and do matter"
This is precisely why I don't vote Labour, and haven't done since New Labour took over. New Labour is "the party that wants to make cuts" - and I don't trust local Labour councillors to move that far from central party policy.
The damn technical faults and complications of ballot papers resulted in thousands of spoiled ballot papers up here , a 100000 they estimate ...now my world socialism scrawl on the ballot papr has just become an anonymous election flaw ..curses.
A comrade claims those spolied papers was a breakthrough for the SPGB , convinced they all had socialism written across them ;-)
Post a Comment
<< Home