Although the website doesn't seem to indicate it I hope this isn't the old National Front tactics of claiming "those who don't vote support us". I think we need to be sure there is no BNP organisation with this site.

Re. Ricks comment about the NF - try reading the None of the Above website - its very clear about exactly what its about. As the contributor of the original article I can assure all that its bugger-all to do with the NF or the BNP or any other political entity.

It was right to have the issue raised. This was a well known ruse by the NF in the 1980s. Tyndall always claimed those who didn't vote supported him. I looked at this site and there is cause for concern. It is difficult to see if these things are a front for the Far Right or just a way of gathering details on people.

Always beware

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/04/288949.html

This type of webpage is cause for concern. We at the Anti Nazi League have seen similar attempts at claiming the "non vote" many times in the past. It was a tactic used by the BNP in Burnley as recently as 2001 where their spokesperson claimed that whites were scared of voting so all non votes were theirs as well.

Fight the Nazis where ever they are

Of course not all people who vote 'none of the above' are pro-BNP. So what are those who are anti-nazi to do when they consider voting 'none of the above' a good way of protesting? Should we stop using certain methods of protesting for fear of being seen as being far-right, or for fear of feeding the far-right? Don't get me wrong, if there is cause for concern then I agree that we should be careful. I take it people are concerned about the people behind this particular website mentioned in the original article above. As for the link to the Dutch Eurodusnie site, there is no cause for concern as this group renounces the far-right and is anti-nationalist, though also promotes a 'blank' vote according to their article, so what do you suggest?

What to do, well I would have thought it was obvious, either:

1) Vote for a person who shares your political viewpoint

2) If no such person is standing, stand yourself and if enough people in the country agree with you and those like you then you will have the opportunity to run the country.

Of course if only a small minority agree with your view then you will not win, but of course that won't happen will it because everyone agrees with you don't they ???

I don't vote as I don't believe in the political system whatsoever, or 'representative' democracy, which suggests you make the world better by voting once every four years for a bunch of people you have never met, and do nothing else politically in the rest of your life.

In western-style representative democracy, for a party to have any real success you have to first get in bed with large corporations and the ruling corporate elite including the largest media conglomerates (e.g. Murdoch etc). If you do not conform to their agenda of corporate control, profit before people and right-wing rascist nonsense, then they will not support you financially or through the media networks they own.

The politicians we are encouraged to vote for tend to be rich, out of touch, disillusioned and sold-out, white, fat and middle-aged. Most have lost any youthful hope, ideology and moral integrity. They are almost exclusively in it for ego, power or cash.

The way capitalism has gone in recent history means that apart from minor domestic issues (e.g a ban on hunting) political parties have no real influence on what is actually happening. The big issues such as privatisation, whether we go to war or not, climate change, economic policy and international law, are largely decided and implemented by our corporate rulers behind the scenes and implemented through the worlds unofficial and unelected REAL governments/institutions: the WTO (World Trade Organisation), IMF (International Monetary Fund) and World Bank. Our national government are increasingly just a tool to rubber-stamp global policy made by the ruling corporate elite and add a little legitimacy to a totally bancrupt global political and economic system.

Our elected governments can never actually act on public opinion and the 'electorates' desires if these desires do not conform to our corporate rulers pre-planned policy.
80% of the british public can demand a ban on GM crops but the government could never enforce it, as it would mess up corporations plans to control the worlds food supply through GM technology and it would halt a predicted global economic boost by the introduction of such crops. If Labour were not corporate cock-sucking wankers (like we might dream the Green Party would be if they were ever voted in) and they banned GM crops, than the WTO would step in on behalf of US corporations and begin a vicious trade war.
Likewise the small majority against the Iraq war (reflected in pre-war polls) plus all the marches in the world, could not stop the war as it was pre-planned policy demanded by oil corporations and global strategic planners as the Wests oil reserves are plummeting.

Put simply: real democracy cannot work under a capitalist political and economic system.

Only REAL grassroots participatory democracy can create positive social change. Voting changes nothing. Change happens when you actually effect some change yourself. If you want the world to be a better place you have to do things globally and locally yourself. e.g...Voting for one corporate cock-sucker or another will not stop climate change...instead of wasting your time putting a cross on a piece of paper, why not try planting trees in your local community and/or joining a climate change pressure group, blockading petrol stations with friends...distributing info-sheets and so on.



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Some facts and quotes:
'Well, i hope to overthrow the American Government and replace it with a freely elected democracy'
-Bill Hicks

'Once in power, therefore, politicians of whatever party effectively have no choice but to remain confined within the policy parameters dictated by global markets and competition. Now subject to pseudo-democracy, the simple conclusion we much reach is that it no longer matters much for which party we vote.' -John M Bunzl

Republican Party donors:
Philip Morris...$2.9m
Microsoft Corp...$2.4m
Enron...$1.8m
Time Warner AOL...$1.6m
Amway...$1.3m
Glaxo Smithkline...$1.3m
Exxon Mobil...$1.2m
News Corp...$1.2m
General Electric...$1.1m

1 in 3 children in Britain live below the poverty line, yet 1 in 3 MP's in Britain are millionaires

The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State. - Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels

The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside. - Allan Bloom The Closing of the American Mind

Wall Street owns the country. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street. - Mary Lease, Kansas Populist, 1890

The truth is we are all caught up in a great economic system which is heartless. - Woodrow Wilson, 1912

Parliamentary democracy is the fig leaf of bourgeois authoritarianism. - Wilhelm Liebknecht

Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.

--Leo Tolstoy

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence. It is force.

--George Washington

America is run largely by and for about 5,000 people who are actively supported by 50,000 beavers eager to take their places. I arrive at this figure this way: maybe 2,500 megacorporation executives, 500 politicians, lobbyists and Congressional committee chairmen, 500 investment bankers, 500 partners in major accounting firms, 500 labor brokers. If you don't like my figures, make up your own...

--Robert Townsend, former head of Avis

what is the point of not voting?
Instead of spending your days pontificating about going to an election booth and putting a peice of paper in a box why not simply do some gardening or take your neglected kids to the countryside.