Don't Just Vote, Get Active, also known as Don't Just (Not) Vote (DJV) was an
open,
decentralized national campaign in the
United States of America initiated by the
CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective and its allies.
DJV was publicly announced at the
National Conference on Organized Resistance (NCOR) in 2004 and was an activist-orientated propaganda initiative focused on demonstrating the effectiveness of
direct democracy
Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate decides on policy initiatives without legislator, elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently establishe ...
and
direct action
Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...
over
political representation.
The campaign was interpreted by some as a counterpoint to Punkvoter and other anti-
Bush
Bush commonly refers to:
* Shrub, a small or medium woody plant
Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to:
People
* Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name
**Bush family, a prominent American family that includes:
*** ...
voter participation efforts.
However, organizers initially conceived of the campaign without knowledge of the Punkvoter campaign.
Overview
According to one of the 20,000 voter's guides distributed by those involved with the campaign before the
2004 presidential election, "Voting for people to represent your interests is the least efficient and effective means of applying political power. The alternative, broadly speaking, is acting directly to represent your interests yourself." Unlike previous projects critical of
electoral politics, DJV deliberately avoided the voting vs. abstention argument that is common in the
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
milieu.
The campaign was characterised by ''
The American Prospect'' as "a clear inheritor of the spirit of
1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* Januar ...
", citing its willingness to celebrate in the street, regardless of the outcome. In the election's aftermath, Don't Just Vote, Get Active endorsed the Anarchist Resistance "call to action" against the
2005 presidential inauguration.
Criticism
The campaign was criticised in ''
Green Anarchy
Green anarchism (or eco-anarchism"green anarchism (also called eco-anarchism)" in ''An Anarchist FAQ'' by various authors.) is an anarchist school of thought that puts a particular emphasis on ecology and environmental issues. A green anarchist ...
'' for its credulous if qualified endorsement of voting, accusing
CrimethInc. of offering "a soothing middle ground" instead of outright rejecting
statist mechanisms of control.
In a reworking of the campaign's slogan, the magazine exhorted readers "don't JUST be active, WAKE THE FUCK UP!"
Mark Andersen
Mark Andersen is a punk rock community activist and author who lives in Washington D.C. He was born and raised in rural Montana, and moved to Washington D.C. in 1984 to attend graduate school at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International ...
, in ''All the Power: Revolution without Illusion'' praised the initially empowering message of the campaign but criticised it for "a slide toward insular subcultural politics", drawing note to the recurrent phrases "
tyranny of the majority", "living without permission" and "autonomy" which he claimed evinced an "esoteric, self-referential approach" which would turn acolytes into "radical
navel-gazers".
See also
*
Anarchism in the United States
*
Bl(A)ck Tea Society, an organization created for the purpose of protesting the
2004 Democratic National Convention
The 2004 Democratic National Convention convened from July 26 to 29, 2004 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston, Massachusetts, and nominated Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts for president and Senator John Edwards from North Car ...
*
Criticisms of electoralism
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...
References
External links
Archive of dontjustvote.comcirca 2005-02-13, courtesy of the
Wayback Machine"Don't Just Vote, Get Active"campaign literature from Crimethinc.com
Affiliated anti-voting organisations
The Edible Ballot Society
{{Anarchism
Anarchist organizations in the United States
CrimethInc.
Political campaigns
American political catchphrases
United States presidential campaigns