[L-I] Open letter to the Landless People's Movement on voter registration

2.12.03

 On the call by the LPM for no voter registration
 We salute the work done by Landless People's Movement, LPM, in taking up the plight of the landless and the their exposure of aspects of the land question. We wish to engage the LPM on their position on the elections. 

 On the 28th October the LPM, issued a press statement calling on voters not to register. We as the Workers International Vanguard League, WIVL, do not agree with this call and its consequences. Firstly, this call has led some people to attempt to disrupt the registration process. Now, we in the revolutionary movement are all in agreement that parliament will not bring fundamental change. The point is how to expose this to the masses. This is a difficult process. We should at no stage confuse our own understanding with that of the broad masses. Yes, it is true that millions have seen through the parliamentary process, but several millions still have illusions in parliament. What a disruption of the registration process does is put worker against worker. How does one convince a worker that his vote means nothing if one prevents him from registering? He will just see our conduct as undemocratic and close his ears to us. 

 

What is especially important now is that there is no mass uprising and no credible working class party who will expose the parliamentary process, possibly through participation, at some stage, as part of a broader strategy of mobilizing the working class against the capitalist class and their state.  

 

What do we see as the process from here to reach out to those who still have illusions in the parliamentary process? Besides exposing the full extent of the hardships that people currently face, there is a need to put forward a list of demands from which to measure the parliamentary parties. These should include maximum democratic demands as well as transitional demands. We are still in the process of finalizing our position on the elections, but we see this process of exposure and placing of demands as going up to the period just before the elections and then possibly making a call for an active boycott [possibly in the form of voters going to the polls and spoiling the ballot].  The placing of demands will enable us to expose the parliamentary parties in their multitude of election meetings and from platforms where the masses are.

 

In this way, those who still have illusions will remember our words, even if they still vote for the parliamentary parties. They will exert political pressure on their leaders and the exposure of the parliamentary parties will be sharpened and further lay the basis for the working class to take the only road to fundamental change, ie through mass action. Of course , many will be convinced by us in the ru-up to the elections, but the comradely exchange with them will lay the basis for broader working class unity in action in the future. 

 

On the basis of the above we appeal to the LPM to reconsider its stand on voter registration and for there to be a broad national discussion to reach consensus on a unified approach for the elections. As much as this is important, it is all the more important for the working class formations to seek ways and means of co-operating in our struggles against the capitalist class and their state.



Workers International Vanguard League
1st Floor, Community House
41 Salt River rd
Salt River
7925
South Africa

ph/fax [27] 21 4476777
email [email protected]

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