Brothers and sisters, the time has come to make a decision. I don't mean that choice between Old Coke or New Coke, Democrats or Republicans, I mean the time has come to decide what to do about the fact that it doesn't matter who wins the election.Whether Bush wins or Gore wins or Ralph Nader wins or Donald Trump, it won't matter. It won't matter because when you go back to work the next day, you'll have the same boss and the same landlord running your life. Nothing Bush or Gore or Ralph Nader or anyone else can do will change the fact that you'll still have the same boss and the same landlord. And if you quit your job or quit your home, you'll sure enough have another boss or another landlord telling you all the same things you heard before. Same thing with a President. When you're the one being bossed around, it just doesn't matter much who is boss.
What matters is who loses elections---and, brothers and sisters, it's working people like you and me who lose elections every time around. The bosses and the landlords will do just fine no matter who wins the elections. They OWN the elections, the elections are their private property.
The majority of people in America don't bother to vote.
Last presidential election, 51% of American people said to hell with it, it doesn't matter. These people, the majority of Americans, they didn't vote because of apathy, they're anything but apathetic about lousy working conditions, forced overtime, forced part-time, less benefits, no benefits, threats of layoffs, wage-cuts, less staff, more work, small chance for a better job. Working people care very much about those sorts of things. But working people don't vote because those issues never get dealt with by elections. Ever.
Elections are just a game show where the winners and losers are all picked out in advance. Presidents are nothing more than ventriloquist dummies sitting pretty in the laps of the board of directors who really run the country. Tell you the truth: the election already happened: Alan Greenspan won and his cabinet hasn't changed one bit, your boss is still one of Greenspan’s petty lieutenants.
51% of the American people know this. That's why they don't vote. They're not apathetic. They're REJECTING the choices. And they don't want to be blamed for whoever wins the day after election day, either. When people don't vote, they are saying that the choices presented to them are UNACCEPTABLE.
They want new choices. They want better choices. They want to make the choices in the first place!
Karl Marx once called America the 'model country of the democratic swindle.' How little has changed! The black man got the vote shortly after the Civil War, some 130 years ago, yet after all the voting in the world, the black man still earns---job for job---a full one-third less than a white man. Tell him that he ought to vote! Tell him about his freedom of speech! Tell him that things will change!
Things will change for working people only when we change things. No politician will do that for us. Change is our task, if we don't do it, no one will do it for us. Don't expect change to happen through reforms. Ask George Washington about waiting for reforms to make things better.
It is up to working people to take control of their workplaces. The workplace is the only place an 'election' will have any impact. Vote the boss out; vote working people in.
We need to organize and spread the word. Start with the people who don't vote. Let them know that they are a group, a majority, a movement. Let this group grow into a mighty movement, a movement millions of people strong, a movement of millions of people who say to hell with the elections, they don't count anymore. When as much as 75% of the American people boycott the election, that's the time to ANNUL the election and sound the gong on the gong show that is American politics. That's the time to have REAL elections where they count: in the workplace.
So this November, don't be a bozo and vote Bozo; vote BOYCOTT and let your boss know the next day why you don't believe in elections anymore.
All Power to the Workers!
None.
