Plea to the Left

national | eu | opinion/analysis Friday May 14, 2004 13:42 by Desperate

An open letter to Anarchists and Sectarian Leftists

I’m not an Anarchist, but I have always more or less agreed with their position that voting in elections is a fairly pointless exercise. I haven’t voted in an election since 1997 when a friend of mine was running and I could hardly say no. Generally, there aren’t any candidates or parties that appeal to me and I am frankly dubious about their promises.

So why am I writing a piece not only explaining why I’ll be voting, but asking other people to do so. The reason is fairly simple. In a couple of months, we will have a referendum on the proposed European Constitution. While I might not vote or campaign in elections, I campaigned against Nice on both occasions. I’ve campaigned against every EU Treaty since I got interested in elections.

When this referendum comes up, we need to be as strong as we possibly can to defeat it. Does anyone, of whatever politics, seriously think it will be easier to beat the EU Constitution if Royston Brady for example is an MEP and Patricia McKenna is not? Like it or not (And I don’t for the record), having MEPs, people who can articulate and defend the arguments against the Constitution, have a certain level of respect by virtue of their experience and tens of thousands of people who listened to them enough to vote for them in the first place are imperative to beating the Constitution.

So, come June 12th, I’ll ignore the things I don’t like about the SP, the Shinners and the Greens and vote for all of them. (Higgins first, then McDonald, then McKenna in case anyone’s interested. Until the Greens take a position I’m dubious)

I know Anarchists might see this as the slippery slope to electoralism, that this argument could be used for all elections, but I think the EU Constitution is such a fundamentally important threat to progressive forces across Europe, that we have to resist it with every weapon and tool at our disposal. If this means voting for, or transferring to a party you don’t like but is opposed to the European integration process from a progressive standpoint then my advice, my plea, is swallow your pride and make your vote count.

Not because the Shinners, the SP or the Greens will ever deliver us a revolutiopnary workers state, but because like ir ot not, they’re the best weapon against the EU Constitution we have.