Don't Vote for Imperialism!

MIM's bourgeois elections page


This page was created to promote MIM's line on bourgeois electoralism under imperialism.

MIM's elections slogan can best be summed up as "Don't Vote, Organize." Oppressed people everywhere and the revolutionaries who work in their interest are not distracted by the billion-dollar smoke-and-mirrors campaigns of imperialism.

The majority of white Amerikans support or participate in the electoral system. The system overall represents their interests, though it favors the rich among them. Still, their choices are limited and they are constantly grumbling and protesting by not voting.

If some candidate throws Amerikans a bone--a tough crime bill with lots of new prisons, some protectionism against foreigners, a war or two--then they may get temporarily excited and go pull some levers. But their elections are not what changes the direction of the country. They rubberstamp the decisions made by international patriarchal capital, and they get paid to do it.

Revolutionaries act on the belief that people are bigger than individual votes, and that improvements within the Amerikan system are made at the cost of increased exploitation of the oppressed. Every day wasted on these elections means millions more death sentences for the oppressed.

Read more about MIM's general line on imperialist elections here: Don't vote for imperialism

Lenin on Elections (from State and Revolution):

"To decide once every few years which member of the ruling class is to repress and crush the people in parliament -- such is the real essence of bourgeois parlimentarism, not only in parliamentary-constitutional monarchies, but also in the most democratic republics." (chapter 3, sec 3)

"People think they have taken quite an extraordinarily bold step forward when they have rid themselves of belief in hereditary monarchy and swear by the democratic republic. In reality, however, the state is nothing but a machine for the oppression of one class by another, and indeed in the democratic republic no less than in the monarchy." (chapter 4, sec 5)


What should you do instead of voting?

If you've read through this web page and agree that organizing people to vote in imperialist elections is a waste of time, then you've got a responsibility to do something better with your time, something that really challenges imperialism! Here are a few ways to get involved:

  • Join the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League (RAIL), a mass organization led by MIM
  • Download, copy and distribute one of these anti-imperialist elections flyers: The Enemy Chooses a Leader or Amerika Votes for Terror or Butcher Nations Elect Butchers
  • Pick a campaign and get out on the streets organizing people.
  • Help distribute MIM Notes and build public opinion against imperialism.
  • Still not sure what to do? Try reading this.

    Articles, letters and other reading material

    2008 elections
  • A president Lugar would have elected McCain
  • "Three Cups of Tea" and Obama
  • Obama destroyed gay marriage in California
  • Obama victory: Progress or decay?
  • Election update November 2 2008
  • Sources: Obama plagiarised MIM article
  • How to tell if we're making progress: Bush steals pseudo-left thunder
  • Progressive corporatism?
  • Obama cruises
  • The white vote in 2008
  • Oppressed already helped out Democrats more than they deserve
  • The difference that understanding gender makes
  • NOW and Sarah Palin: Feminism is not about biology after all
  • U.$. elections: tangent alert
  • Why we need legal protection for Third World lobbying: media psy-war and the vicious circle
  • Democrats: Ugly people in the mirror
  • WARNING: Campaign season dirty tricks
  • Reality about Democrats and the Iraq War

    2006 elections

  • MIM's stand on the elections to Congress

    2004 Elections Watch

  • Banana Republic III: Knowing what to ask for in a debate about election poll statistics, posted November 17, 2004
  • Banana Republic III: Did Kerry win?, posted November 16, 2004
  • Depression, cynicism and escapism: Keep the faith but make it internationalist, posted November 7, 2004
  • Banana Republic II: A Stolen Florida Vote?, posted November 6, 2004
  • Bay Area reflections on election day, posted November 4, 2004
  • It's the lifestyle, stupid: It's not really politics, posted November 4, 2004
  • Learning assorted lessons about money and demographics: How to fight for change, posted November 3, 2004
  • The white man has spoken: It's Bu$h!, posted November 3, 2004
  • Democrats partly to blame: Amerika, Banana Republic, posted November 1, 2004
  • Don't Vote Organize Campaign event in Berkeley featuring Black Panther Kiilu Nyasha October 29, 2004
  • A Maoist review of the Socialist Workers Party candidate for president, October 29, 2004
  • A Maoist review of the Libertarian for President: Michael Badnarik
  • Going on the record: Ruling class divisions to come to fore
  • Republicrats red-bait themselves
  • Song from The Used Johnnys opposing the war and war-mongering candidates
  • Agreed, nuclear proliferation is a worthy problem to solve
  • Review of John Pilger's journalism -- includes good articles on why Bush vs. Kerry is the wrong debate
  • Review of the The I Hate Republicans Reader: Why the GOP Is Totally Wrong About Everything
  • People from ex-fascist countries criticize United $tates: NY cops need something to do
  • Pre-Democratic National Convention anti-war rally July 25 2004
  • Greens for Kerry show up at Boston Social Forum July 24 2004
  • Noam Chomsky endorses John Kerry
  • Review of Nader's Crashing the Party & Leopold Kohr's The Breakdown of Nations plus interview refused by Nader campaign ***See also our page reviewing Greens in the links section
  • Kerry opposes gay marriage
  • Ralph Nader, bourgeois Green candidate, runs for president again
  • A Message to Howard Dean activists: Lessons from the Democratic nomination contest
  • John Kerry, Candidate least offensive to Amerikans among most offensive to world's majority
  • From the MIM Notes archives: Senator Kerry war monger
  • Howard Dean, a candidate who represents Amerikkka
  • Dennis Kucinich, progressive sounding rhetoric but ultimately just another imperialist candidate
  • Dennis Kucinich on letters page, reader is offended by MIM's criticism of Kucinich

    General Electoral Politics

  • Can local elections be useful to revolutionaries?

    Past elections

  • 2003 California recall election
  • 1998 California Governor's election
  • 1998 Massachusetts Governor's election
  • 1996 rally and discussion of Greens and Libertarians
  • 1996 Native Hawaiian vote is just imperialist tool
  • 1996 Democratic convention
  • 1984 Democratic nominee Walter Mondale in the very first MIM Notes

    Related questions

  • MIM's page responding to "conservatism"
  • FAQ on why MIM opposes "democracy"


    DON'T VOTE, ORGANIZE!


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