Forum Post: Voters' Strke

I propose an extension of the Occupy Wall Street demonstration to be a Voters' Strike for 2012. If we withdraw from a fraudulent and corrupt electoral process, refusing to engage in a Washington scam, we will send a message more threatening than any other. To not vote is to speak our minds out loud, in our own terms. Voting is the card the ruling class always has up its sleeve. We are told to "fear the other side will win" -- as a matter of fact, there is no "other side." It doesn't matter who wins. The policies are decided by the oligarchy, bypassing Congress and related to the clone in the White House, dribbling down to the citizen. The US considers itself the greatest democracy in the "Free World." How would it cope with a population that stayed home on election day? How could that be explained away? Laziness? Perhaps. But in the quiet and in the dark, after all was said and done, the rulers would know. And fear. And they would be right.
After Not Voting, of course, comes the real work of establishing alternative democratic organizations, workers councils, etc., to carry on the important jobs of society - many of which are not being taken care of at the moment. Governing ouselves would not be so difficult. We live, therefore we feel, we think, we are not fools. We can do anything necessary ourselves, for ourselves. Man has for centuries. Nothing is without struggle, but all life is struggle and growth and poetry
Marx has been mentioned in these posts and I urge everyone to read at least Capital 1. David Harvey of CUNY has a wonderful on-line free course to guide you. Capitalism is not God-given and always has a self-destructive aspect because it has conflict built in. Unfortunately, the working men and women suffer the most as it fails -- as we are seeing. Together we can progress.