C4SS has teamed up with the Distro of the Libertarian Left. The Distro produces and distribute zines and booklets on anarchism, market anarchist theory, counter-economics, and other movements for liberation. For every copy of Charles Johnson, Kevin Carson, Roderick Long, and Randolph Bourne’s “No Matter Who You Vote For, The Winner Is Always The Government” that you purchase through the Distro, C4SS will receive a percentage. Support C4SS with Charles Johnson, Kevin Carson, Roderick Long, and Randolph Bourne’s “No Matter Who You Vote For, The Winner Is Always The Government“.

$1.25 for the first copy. $1.00 for every additional copy.

This is a booklet against elections, parties, constitutional government and voting. It reprints eight essays on Anarchist politics by Charles W. John­son, Kevin Carson, and Roderick T. Long – and a special guest ap­pear­ance by Randolph Bourne – on the failure of electoral politics, the structural limits that quarantine and neutralize any threat of reform from within party politicking, and the pos­si­bil­ity and promise of radical activism and d.i.y. social trans­form­at­ion, beyond the quagmire of majoritarian votes, party politick­ing, political lobbying, legalistic reforms and elected government.

“I am boycotting the election today. I hope that you will too. I will not vote for any candidate for political office, Demo­crat, Republican, or other, no matter what promises they make, and no ma­tter what party they come from. I do not sup­port them as candidates, and I do not support the oligarchical political machine they represent. If the last few election cycles prove anything, they prove that power-plays beat promises every time.

“It’s not just a few radicals who have notic­ed some­thing is deeply wrong; it’s not just a handful of mal­contents who know that we need a radically different direction, away from the insane and de­structive Beltway consensus — away from this govern­ment’s wars, this government’s bail-outs, this government’s secret surveillance, catastrophic economic polices, shameless fear-monger­ing and con­stant, unremitting power-grabs. But people have HOPE’d and parties have CHANGE’d and if it all accomplished anything at all, it was only to prove that we’re never going to get any­thing but more of the same as long as we maintain a false hope in elect­or­al politics.

“If what you want is social progress, there is no shortcut around prin­c­ipled agitation, grass­roots social move­ments, com­mun­ity organ­iz­ing, civil dis­obed­ience and direct action. There is no low-calorie political sub­sti­tute for D.I.Y. social transformation. Elect­ions and party pol­i­tick­ing are no way to make a revolution. They’re not even a way to make small change. . . .”

CONTENTS

1. “Don’t Vote.” Charles W. Johnson. Rad Geek People’s Daily weblog. November 2, 2010.
2. “‘Funding?’ More like, ‘Is.’” Charles W. Johnson. Rad Geek People’s Daily, May 24, 2012.
3. “The Joke of Democratic Accountability,” Kevin A. Carson. Center for a Stateless Society column, September 27, 2012.
4. “Tea and Sympathy,” Roderick T. Long. Austro-Athenian Empire, April 18, 2009.
5. “I am shocked!—shocked!—to find that politics is going on in here!” Charles W. Johnson. Rad Geek People’s Daily weblog. February 25, 2008.
6. “The Party State.” Selections from The State (1919) by Randolph S. Bourne, and from “Show Me What Elected Government Looks Like. . .” by Charles W. Johnson in the Rad Geek People’s Daily weblog, August 28, 2012.
7. “The Statist ‘We Don’t.’” Charles W. Johnson. Rad Geek People’s Daily. September 17, 2008.
8. “Counter-Economic Optimism.” Charles W. Johnson. February 7, 2009.