Sweden's upcoming elections

national | miscellaneous | news report

Thursday August 15, 2002 07:43

by webkom - SUF

val at suf dot cc

- an anarchosyndicalist view

The Syndicalist Youth Federation of Sweden is doing a national campaign under the slogan "We Know Who'll Win the Election". The following is a translation of a flyer from this campaign. The national elections are taking place the 15h September - the same day a number of Reclaim the ity parties are going to happen in some of the larger cities.

You can't vote away the capitalists! - A view on the elections from the
Syndicalist Youth Federation

Now it's election time again - but think things over before you run away to the voting booth to busily do your part for the parliamentaric democracy for the next four years.

The last three years we as citizens have not been allowed to partake in the political decisionmaking process - TV, newspapers and radio have only let through modest glimpses of what is happening in the corridors of power. But this year something is happening. Suddenly we are supposed
to be interested in politics and those who practice it - even if this only applies to the party-political agenda. Smiling old men with a friendly glimpse in their eye meet us on billboards and posters, telling us to vote for just them and their party. What we never really get to
know is why.

The truth is that the chance in reality for politicians to really effect a thoroughgoing change is equal to zero. This is something the politicians realize - they admit it themselves, even if they formulate this in a different way. When Göran Persson [Swedish Social Democratic Prime Minister] assert that "one must take the economic interests into consideration" this is in practice a clear explanation of how things are really like - the political power is secondary to the economic power. Politicians can make and change laws and restrict our freedom, but the most fundamental - the economic system - is always left untouched. The political system is totally in the hands of the big corporations who have more power than the politicians themselves. And all this is taking place in an air of pleasant mutual accord between the two.

We already know who is the winner of the election. Without even being available as alternatives on the ballot capitalists like Peter Wallenberg, Antonia Ax:son Jonsson, newly retired Percy Barnevik and the other fat cats are the ones who make up the real government. And they have always won. Fat stock-portofolios weigh heavier than the votes of
millions of workers.

Sure, you can vote in the elections. But to really change things we ourselves need to hold the power. Politics isn't just about a bunch of grey old men in suits who discuss state finances - it's also about the everyday life of all of us. This is why it is most disturbing that rich people control eight hours of our time, five hours a week and are able to seriously affect the lives of thousands of lives with a swift decision. The road to a society in which we decide our lives for ourselves goes through struggle in our community: in the residential area, in school, at work and the street were we walk every day. Simply put - the struggle must be waged where we live our lives.