OK, I didn’t vote for the first time in my life. Not because I was confused, nor because there was no one to vote for (after all there was the Left Alliance, and particularly the Socialist Party), nor even because I didn’t feel strongly enough about getting Fianna Fail out. But because I realized, finally, that the system does not work. That laws are not made by the Dail but by cabinet and that the enforcement of the party whip does not allow members to vote independently. And that many of the laws on the books are anti-equality anyway.
But this does not mean that I have nothing to say, even if some of my friends say that not voting does not give me the right to comment (since when is voting compulsory? Not voting is also a political act). Continue reading “First reflections on Irish elections, February 2011”
Blog and website by Ronit Lentin, a political sociologist, writer and an antiracist activist.