Don't Just Vote, Get Active
Encyclopedia
Open
- Philosophy :* Openness, term being used to define the basis of how various groups and organizations operate- Mathematics :* Open problem, a well-defined problem with no known solution in science and mathematics...
, decentralized national campaign in the United States of America initiated by the CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective
CrimethInc.
CrimethInc., also known as CWC , is a decentralized anarchist collective of autonomous cells. CrimethInc. emerged in the mid-1990s, initially as the hardcore zine Inside Front, and began operating as a collective in 1996...
and its allies. DJV was publicly announced at the National Conference on Organized Resistance (NCOR) in 2004 and was an activist-orientated propaganda initiative focused on demonstrating the effectiveness of direct democracy
Direct democracy
Direct democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...
and direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
over political representation
Representation (politics)
In politics, representation describes how some individuals stand in for others or a group of others, for a certain time period. Representation usually refers to representative democracies, where elected officials nominally speak for their constituents in the legislature...
. The campaign was conceived as a counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
to Punkvoter and other anti-Bush
George W. Bush presidential campaign, 2004
This article is about the presidential campaign of George W. Bush, the former President of the United States and winner of the 2004 Presidential Election. See George W. Bush for a detailed biography and information about his full presidency, and George W. Bush presidential campaign, 2000 for a...
voter participation efforts.
Overview
According to one of the 20,000 voter's guides distributed by those involved with the campaign before the 2004 presidential election, "Voting for people to represent your interests is the least efficient and effective means of applying political power. The alternative, broadly speaking, is acting directly to represent your interests yourself." Unlike previous projects critical of electoral politics, DJV deliberately avoided the voting vs. abstention argument that is common in the anarchist milieu.The campaign was characterised by The American Prospect
The American Prospect
The American Prospect is a monthly American political magazine dedicated to American liberalism. Based in Washington, DC, The American Prospect is a journal "of liberal ideas, committed to a just society, an enriched democracy, and effective liberal politics" which focuses on United States politics...
as "a clear inheritor of the spirit of 1968", citing its willingness to celebrate in the street, regardless of the outcome. In the election's aftermath, Don't Just Vote, Get Active endorsed the Anarchist Resistance "call to action" against the 2005 Presidential Inauguration.
Criticism
The campaign was criticised in Green AnarchyGreen Anarchy
Green Anarchy was a magazine published by a collective located in Eugene, Oregon. The magazine's focus was primitivism, post-left anarchy, radical environmentalism, African American struggles, anarchist resistance, indigenous resistance, earth and animal liberation, anti-capitalism and supporting...
for its credulous if qualified endorsement of voting, accusing CrimethInc.
CrimethInc.
CrimethInc., also known as CWC , is a decentralized anarchist collective of autonomous cells. CrimethInc. emerged in the mid-1990s, initially as the hardcore zine Inside Front, and began operating as a collective in 1996...
of offering "a soothing middle ground" instead of outright rejecting statist mechanisms of control. In a reworking of the campaign's slogan, the magazine exhorted readers "don't JUST be active, WAKE THE FUCK UP!" Mark Andersen
Mark Andersen
Mark Andersen is a punk rock activist and author who lives in Washington D.C.. He was born and raised in rural Montana, and moved to Washington D.C. in 1984 to attend graduate school at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies ....
, in All the Power: Revolution without Illusion praised the initially empowering message of the campaign but criticised it for "a slide toward insular subcultural politics", drawing note to the recurrent phrases "tyranny of the majority
Tyranny of the majority
The phrase "tyranny of the majority" , used in discussing systems of democracy and majority rule, is a criticism of the scenario in which decisions made by a majority under that system would place that majority's interests so far above a dissenting individual's interest that the individual would be...
", "living without permission" and "autonomy" which he claimed evinced an "esoteric, self-referential approach" which would turn acolytes into "radical navel-gazers".
See also
- Anarchism in the United StatesAnarchism in the United StatesAnarchism in the United States spans a wide range of anarchist philosophy, from individualist anarchism to anarchist communism and other less known forms. America has two main traditions, native and immigrant, with the native tradition being strongly individualist and the immigrant tradition being...
- Bl(A)ck Tea SocietyBl(A)ck Tea SocietyThe Blck Tea Society was an ad hoc, nonviolent anti-authoritarian coalition whose purpose was to protest the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston...
, an organization created for the purpose of protesting the 2004 Democratic National Convention2004 Democratic National ConventionThe 2004 Democratic National Convention convened from July 26 to July 29, 2004 at the FleetCenter in Boston, Massachusetts, and nominated John Kerry and John Edwards as the official candidates of the Democratic Party for President and Vice President of the United States, respectively, in the 2004... - Criticisms of electoralismCriticisms of electoralismAlthough highly controversial at various points in history, representative democracy has become the modern civics global-standard. Nevertheless, criticisms of electoral politics continue to come from both within the Western world and the developing world...
External links
- Archive of dontjustvote.com circa 2005-02-13, courtesy of the Wayback Machine
- "Don't Just Vote, Get Active" campaign literature from Crimethinc.com
- "Whatever happened to... Don't Just Vote, Get Active!", Infoshop.orgInfoshop.org- History :Infoshop was founded in January 1995 as the Mid-Atlantic Infoshop by Chuck Munson. Having previously co-founded an online archive of anarchist texts, the Spunk Library, in 1992, Munson established Infoshop as a general resource on anarchism, moving to the domain name Infoshop.org in 1998...