stevedtrm/anarchism

From the page: "No Such Thing As Majority Rule
Posted by Thomas L. Knapp on Sep 6, 2009 in Commentary • 6 comments



Government claims, as its source of legitimacy, �oethe consent of the governed.” Its most sacred ritual for for demonstrating that consent is the periodic election of public officials and, in some areas, referendum voting on particular issues.



In a recent column, I examined claims of elections as a basis for claims of representation and found them wanting. Buried within the information upon which I based that analysis was the core of a far more damning finding upon which I�ll now elaborate. Simply put, not only do elections not provide meaningful representation, they also fail to make the case for anything approaching universal consent to accept representation at all.

...

Per the 2000 census, the population of St. Louis County was 1,016,315.



Of those more than one million inhabitants, only 726,325 �" 71.5% �" were registered to vote.



Of those 726,325 voters, only 488,400 �" 67.2% of those registered, 48% of the county�s population �" turned out to participate in the ritual.



To put it a different way, 28.5% of the county�s population boycotts elections entirely by not registering to vote, and 52% (including nearly a third of registered voters) boycotted the 2000 election in particular.



From this fact we can derive two conclusions, one indisputable and one debatable but reasonable.



The indisputable conclusion is that because a majority of the population didn�t vote in that election, neither a single politician elected to office nor a single measure put up for public ratification can be honestly advertised as having secured majority approval.



The debatable but reasonable conclusion is that in declining to vote in the 2000 election, 52% of the population withheld consent to be bound by its outcomes or ruled by its winners.



The conventional wisdom has it otherwise: Refusal to participate in an election, we�re told, constitutes consent to be bound by that election�s outcomes and ruled by its winners. Silence is consent �" especially since non-voters make use of �oepublic services” delivered to them through the whole process. Non-voting is a sign of �oeapathy” or �oelaziness,” not of alienation or opposition.



This is akin to saying that by slamming my door in the face of a magazine salesman, I�m consenting to pay for subscriptions to Time, Scientific American and Playboy … and that proof of this claim may be drawn from the fact that when those magazines begin to arrive, I read them rather than sending them back or throwing them away."

Capitalism is not the problem. Fraudulent claims to ownership of land and fraudluent currencies are the problem.

UK anarchist federation.

From the page: "According to Chomsky, the region has the capacity to unite and form a "peace zone" in which foreign militaries are forbidden to operate. "Venezuela can help to advance this proposal, but it cannot do it alone," he said.



"The transformations that Venezuela is making toward the creation of another socio-economic model could have a global impact if these projects are successfully carried out," said the renowned author. "

From the page: ""When we lost the war, those who fought on became the Resistance. But to the world, the Resistance had become criminals, for Franco made the laws, even if, when dealing with political opponents, he chose to break the laws established by the constitution; and the world still regards us as criminals. When we are imprisoned, liberals are not interested, for we are "terrorists"....""