Illusions in Democracy

We are publishing a statement by sympathisers of the ICC in the area of the ex-USSR about the demonstrations against electoral fraud which brought together tens of thousands of people in Moscow, St Petersburg and nearly 80 other cities last December.

The slogan ‘democratise capitalism’ appeared on the side of the Tent City University at the St Paul’s occupation, provoking sharp debates which eventually led to the banner being taken down.This outcome shows that the occupations at St Paul’s, UBS and elsewhere have provided a very fruitful space for discussion among all those who are dissatisfied with the present social system and are looking for an alternative.

On March 25^th, Stephen Harper’s minority Conservative government fell, losing a Liberal Party confidence motion in the House of Commons, after having been found in contempt of Parliament by the speaker just days prior. The stage is now set for federal elections to take place on May 2^nd, marking the third time in five years Canadians have been called to the polls. Already the media machine is in full swing reminding Canadians of the importance of voting to the health of their nation’s “democracy.”

At the close of 2011, for a brief period of time, the “WikiLeaks affair” was at the center of every news media outlet in the States and, presumably, the whole world over. Although by now the barrage of media coverage of WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, have become a trickle, there is still a need to make some remarks about this event that has so much shaken the bourgeois media world.

When workers are faced with unemployment, wage cuts and harsher working conditions, the question is posed of how workers' struggles can develop. With a  UK general election round the corner, the media tell us that this is an opportunity to use our democratic rights. However, democracy is not an abstract principle,  it is an integral part of the current order of things.

People go into bourgeois politics for diverse reasons, but few are able to resist the opportunity to use their membership of parliament or government as a way of lining their own pockets.

All this turmoil in the world of official politics is the expression of a deeper malaise. Capitalist society is rotting on its feet and offers no perspective for the future. The ruling bourgeoisie increasingly resembles a bunch of petty gangsters out for number one.

The revelations about MPs expenses have confirmed what a lot of people suspected. Whether our representatives are cheating or just bending the rules it certainly looks like the Westminster porkers have their snouts in the trough.

Twenty years ago, seven weeks of demonstrations that took place in more than 400 Chinese towns and cities met with brutal repression from the Chinese state. The repression in Tiananmen Square on the night of 3-4 June 1989, in which hundreds (or possibly thousands) of people were killed was condemned internationally.