Korea. Statement by Anarchist Yondae (Anarchist Solidarity) on the upcoming elections in Korea.
Originally published by Anarchist Yondae (Anarchist Solidarity). Translated by The Anarchist Library.
Anarchist Yondae (Anarchist Solidarity)
1. In Korea, the by-election for local governmental heads and local assembly is being held in 10 days from today. And we do not care what is going on during the run-up period.
2. We deny the concept of social transformation through election. Moreover, we do not even believe that changing dominatorâs name by voting has any chance of gradually(and thatâs surely not radically) improving the society. We believe that the only way to radically transform, or to gradually improve the society is nothing else but the direct action of popular masses, who are organizing themselves and fight for themselves according to their interest and need.
3. But this Korean by-election do not even deserve to be opposed logically, or ideogically, for no candidate in this election is talking about improving the society. They donât even bother to tell the popular mass that âWe good. The other party badâ. They do not bother to pretend that they have the âvision for the better society.â They are keep saying of âjudging the governmentâ or âcleaning up the old evilsâ. They are now openly declaring that âWe are lesser evil, so vote for lesser evil.â
4. So, Here we ask, what is âevilâ, basically? We <Anarchist Solidarity> believe that the system itself is evil. It is the system where people are masters of everything just a day in few years, when they are being begged for a vote, while they are degenerated to slaves for rest hundreds days. It is the system where the strike of working mass is suppressed by the police when liberals are in the office, while the strike is suppressed by the riot police when conservatives are in the office. It is the system where whoever is in office, the state violence tramp the poplar struggle, while the capitalists travel with helicopters to save them from even glaring at the struggle. The system is âevilâ by itself.
5. Therefore, the problem of âworst evilâ or âlesser evilâ does not mean the problem of relative evilness for us. We see it as nothing but narrow difference in the way of maintaining the evil system. We do not care whether conservartive parties maintain the system trivial way, or the âNational Revolutionary Partyâ[1] maintains it somewhat âcreativelyâ. It does not make any difference.
6. Should we vote for the âprogressiveâ candidates, or âworking class partiesâ, then? Let us put aside the question of âAre those âprogressive partiesâ, which were trying to be parasites to the conservative party or those who were even denied by the conservatives while doing that, really âprogressiveâ?â.[2] Let us just concern whether it is possible to ignite social transformation, or at least social improvement.
6â1. First off, let us just imagine the day when those progressive parties can be elected by voting counts. The day will be revolutionary day(for it is not possible for those parties to be elected if the day is not revolutionary) when popular masses recognize the need of transforming the society. And it will be the day when the stubborn will of people through voting counts⊠Voting counts? Why should we limit the ability of the people to votes, not organize peopleâs organizations struggling through direct action even when the time is so revolutionary? Those attempt to limit peopleâs ability is nothing but underestimating the ability. For it is the belief that someone has to ârepresentâ people in terms of transforming the society, for it is nearly impossible to do it by the people themselves.
6â2. Otherwise, what if the dayâs tough and progressive parties have no chance to be elected? What can the votes for them mean in this world of ârepresentative democracyâ, where the majority rules and political collusion be the base of political decision-making? Those âprogressiveâ, âworking classâ political parties may have started off wishing to transform the system. But as the system of majority-rule automatically end as the system of median-rule, there can be only two possible future for those âprogressivesâ. First off, shift their stance rightward. Or, be downsized to the point where their existence cannot mean anything. Letâs recall the history. Korean Democratic Labor Party(ëŻŒìŁŒë žëëč), New Progressive Party(ì§ëłŽì ëč), The Unified Progressive Party(í”í©ì§ëłŽëč), Justice Party(ì ìëč), The Labor Party(ë žëëč). They all ended same way. For what reason can we believe them saying âIt will be different this timeâ, when the system is still same?
6â3. What about those self-called âradicalsâ, who are saying they donât expect to be elected, but just using the election for propaganda and organizing? Disregard of the fact that there is no reason to vote for them, for voting count does not affect their ostensible reason of being candidates, we find it essentially contradictable. Why canât they use the expense, the time, the ability of their party to organize popular mass and its direct action, instead of running for the office? Canât they construct workersâ organization just to organize working class struggle, not to recruit the campaigners for the election?
7. The most important thing is, as we wrote above, we do not consider specific political party, specific candidate, or specific ideological group âevilâ. It is the system they are based on which is âevilâ. Therefore, we should always indispensably find and apply the tactic which can strike the âsystemâ effectively, in its essence.
8. The right to vote for our own representatives, or the universal suffrage surely is the institution built on the bloody struggle of popular mass. And it is our precious political right, too. But at the same time, it is an institution that maintains this system. For us, the essence of universal suffrage is simple; creating the fantasy of âthat bastard might have became right-wing fascist, but he is still the bastard we voted forâ; creating the expectation of âwe might have lost this election, but maybe next time we may winâ; and soaking the people into that false fantasy and expectation in order to make the people wait for next election to transform the society, not act directly.
9. Therefore, we <Anarchist Solidarity>, using our precious right to vote, actively and openly choose to refuse voting. As for the question of âWho do you prefer to be your chief?â is being asked to us, we decide our answer: NOBODY. We do not care which one is âevilâ and which one is âlesser evilâ. We refuse to establish âevilâ as whole. It those not mean that we will be submitting invalid votes, for we believe that even the increase of voter turnout can mean that we are still interested in the mean of âelectionsâ. It does not mean that we are abstaining from the vote. We are intentionally neglecting the deceptive mean of elections. We are proudly declaring that the transformation and improvement of a society can only be done by direct actions of the mass, not on the scrap of paper called the ballot.
10. This is an appeal to the members of the <Anarchist Solidarity>, to our supporters, to the Korean anarchist comrades. Let us reject voting; Actively organize this rejection; openly declare the will of this rejection. Let us show those ruling class above, who are believing that the fantasy and expectation provided by the election can stop popular struggle, that âIT DOES NOT WORK FOR US ANYMORE.â
11. Social revolution can not be done by revolutionary political party takes the office. We believe that when we organizationally and concretely neglect the deceptive universal suffrage, it will be the beginning of transforming the society based on it.
Notes
[1] Far-right party of Korea, led by a pseudo-religious leader.
[2] At the time of last national assembly election, mixed-member proportional representative system was introduced into Korean election system. And those âprogressive partiesâ of Korea, which desperately believed that it is their chance to be in the National Assembly, put their candidatesâ name on a conservative(so-called liberal) partyâs party-list. The most hilarious part of this political comedy was that the conservatives âunexpectedlyâ turned their back on those âprogressivesâ for the reason of âbeing followers of the North Korean regimeâ or âregistering transgender candidateâ.
Source: Enoughisenough14.org