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I know I am going to encounter the wrath of most Marxists on this list, but what the heck. Elections to parliament in Western "democracies" are, per se, anti-revolutionary. And by that I mean that they foster the belief that any given candidate can "make things better". Thus they encourage workers to give a certain candidate their "confidence" to change things. Instead of taking matters into their own hands . That is a essential flaw in the emancipation of the working class. Representative democracy WILL ALWAYS BE a farce. By its very essence, it deprives workers of a CONCRETE say in how things should be managed. It encourages workers to think "this is all too complicated, let's give our vote to Joe X or George W."It depends on the division of labour and on the feeling of helplesness citizens feel when confronted with the intricate workings of a modern economy. Voting for a Member of Parliament, in the present bourgeois democracy, is bound to end up with the ruling power extracting surplus-value from the "toiling masses". Why and what would be better ? Because in a bourgeois democracy, a ) representatives are elected for a four to seven-year period. They should be elected every year b) they can be re-elected as often as they please. Such privileges (contact with "higher politics") should be restricted to a one one-year term in office, no more. The more workers get to exercise such powers the better. So there should be a continuous rotation of mandates. c) Representatives should be subject to a confidence vote at the end of each yearly mandate, before returning to their ordinary job. Such a vote should establish whether the representative has faithfully represented the mandate of his constituency. d) Representative should be subject to immediate recall by a General Meeting of their constituency if they fail to represent the people's will e) On any controversial subject, the representative should first get a precise mandate from his constituency before engaging in any talks in the name of said constituency. Well, basically, it all boils down to the Council Communist/Libertarian Communist principle of direct democracy as opposed to representative democracy. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
