This week, incendiary devices with “Free Palestine” and “Free Gaza” written on them were set off inside ballot boxes in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington.

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While on the surface, the different factions of the US ruling class in the Democratic and Republican parties bicker and jostle to see which faction will have the upper hand in the upcoming election, what both parties agree on is the continued exploitation of the working class and oppressed peoples of the world. In the United States, imperialism, patriarchy, queerphobia, colonialism, white supremacy, genocide, and exploitation are embedded into the existing system; they are as American as baseball. The United States cannot exist in its current form without them. Over the past year, we have seen countless examples of this, as with bipartisan support, the US imperialist machine has supported, funded, and supplied the genocide in Gaza, and directly bombed Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Somalia; fueling the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians so that the US can preserve its hold over the Middle East and Africa.

Domestically, conditions continue to deteriorate, with an eroding establishment labor movement, soaring prices and stagnant wages. The working class struggles every single day to pay rent or afford the basic necessities. Last year, a record number of people in the US found themselves homeless. Meanwhile, the wealth of the ruling class grows in massive amounts every year. Alongside this, the ruling class continues to put their thumb down on the working class using the police as its armed enforcers, with white supremacism putting an emphasis on the oppression of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people. Police shootings are on the rise, and the number of individuals trapped within the prison system has only continued to soar year after year.

Neither the Democratic nor Republican parties provide a solution to these issues. The agenda of both parties is to push forward the agenda of US capitalism, to continue to steal the resources of the global south, and to perpetuate the exploitation of the working class internally. The interests of both parties are solely tied to those of the ruling class. This is because without exploitation, the US capitalist machine would cease to exist. The US became the world’s foremost imperialist power on the backs of the working class. There is no way to alter capitalism to change this and create a capitalism without exploitation.

There is no path to liberation through the electoral process. The only option for the working class to free itself from this oppressive system is revolution. Only through the complete overthrow of the ruling class and the establishment of a state led by the workers can we put an end to our exploitation. There are those, such as those in the Green Party, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and the more progressive wing of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), who correctly recognize the sham of the two-party system; however, they still hold some faith in the ruling class electoral process, believing that a third electoral party can be built to challenge the two existing capitalist parties. History shows us, however, that this is not possible. We can see from the assassination of Salvador Allende in Chile internationally, and domestically in the murder and imprisonment of national liberation activists in the 60s and 70s, that the ruling class will not allow themselves to be overthrown peacefully; they will take any action necessary to preserve their power.

Faced with the rotten decision of choosing between a candidate who imprisoned thousands of workers, including single mothers, for petty offenses, and is actively overseeing the genocide in Palestine, and a candidate who is an open reactionary seeking to launch attacks on the rights of women and queer people, the choice is clear: we must boycott the elections. Any ballot cast legitimizes the imperialist, patriarchal, queerphobic, colonialist, white supremacist, genocidal, and exploitative US capitalist system. US democracy is bankrupt, and it must be opposed.

If Not a Vote, then What?

A boycott of the election does not equate to doing nothing. In fact, it is a call to build up the revolutionary movement and the new state so that it can overthrow the currently existing crooked system. Over the past four years, tens of millions of people have taken to the streets to combat police murders of Black people and the genocide in Palestine. Militant opposition has been given to the construction of police training facilities and anti-abortion centers. In the 2022 midterm election, over half of the country did not vote; and in the 2020 elections, a third did not, despite being showered with propaganda by both parties calling it “the most important election of our lives.” Non-voters are almost entirely not a “privileged” section of the population like what liberals on social media throw around, but generally the poorest and most disenfranchised sections of the masses who see no hope in the system. A 2014 Pew Research study showed that non-voters are younger, less educated, and of lower income than those who do vote. Nearly half of those who do not vote are also non-white.

The militant energy of the masses cannot be turned around and shoveled into the very same system which oppresses them. It must be used to build a revolutionary consciousness so that they may overthrow their oppressor. 

We understand that this may be an unpopular line with the more liberal left. The idea of the electoral process has been ingrained into US propaganda since its founding, and admittedly, much of the working class begrudgingly turns in ballots every few years. However, this does not mean it is not the position we should take. It is all the more reason to expose the sham of ruling class democracy and its propaganda, and to propagate the fact that there is no liberation for the working class within the electoral process. It is our duty as revolutionaries to unite with the advanced sections of the masses who already don’t support the electoral process and to elevate the intermediate. To do that, we cannot trail behind them.

Boycott the Elections, Fight for Revolution!