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Borders Perrin Norrander and Pollinate Media are responsible for ThingsAreFine.org, a get out the vote project producing some great poster work. On every page, the site allows users to register through Rock The Vote. A dozen free posters in various formats, and Flash banners like the one below are available.
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Jared, as I tend to agree, I did have some reservations about this post, and you named them well.
I think its great you post them up dude, so no worries there!
Jared, I can agree with that as well. But collective, direct action needs to start someplace. Whats more collective and direct than a vote?
So you make a great point. But at the same time I can’t necessarily disagree with this campaign.
Hi Myke,
I would argue that dropping a ballot into a box every four years (or 3 here in NZ) is far from being direct action, and in fact, is a very individualistic action when compared to say, community or workplace organising. I reckon — as most anarchists do — that collective, direct action has to start in the workplace, and I hope to make graphic work which emphasises these points. Far from encouraging apathy, we should recognise that simply voting isn’t enough, and encourage peeps to organise themselves.
So while it’s nice to encouarge political awarness such as this project, to me, it doesn’t go far enough. Good too see though.
Check out some more thoughts on this at my site:
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=115167177&blogID=412879325
Cheers!
We’re rarely well-served by binary thinking. Whoever said voting precludes other forms of action, direct or indirect, collective or individual, at work, at home, at school? These works reach some people right where they need to be reached…Lots of us don’t recognize how important political engagement–symbolized by and including the vote, which, by the way, was pretty tough to come by for a lot of us, ahem, and should not be sneezed at–is, and this is a humorous and incisive way of getting at that. I can’t think of any reason why we can’t have all kinds of action, and, for goodness sakes, voting for president has got to be part of that. Who we have for president makes a profound difference in the daily lives of people all over the world. You can wish it wasn’t so, but it’s so.
I’m glad this debate has surfaced different opinions about voting – it seems the campaign is achieving a goal outside its aims here!
HI Kate,
Again, I have to disagree. Sure, you can do both (I mean Vote and organise), but to me I know where I’d rather place emphasis. Yes, who is president does effect the daily lives of people, but so does going to work everyday to sell our labour so others can profit from us! A president or government can’t do anything when faced with strong, organised people — but people can’t do anything when faced by a goverment with power to send people to war, pillage foreign soil and profit from big business, which happens before, during and after they were voted in!
I’m well aware of how the vote was won. I’m from New Zealand, and women struggled for a long time to be gained the first women allowed to vote in history. I think that is a defunct argument though, as time has changed. If they knew they were fighting for a chance to tick a box and then go straight back to work from the polling both, I’d say priorities would have been different!
So, in summary, yes you can do both. But by doing both, what do we say about the acts? That voting is something we should still do while we organise to end the very system we just voted for? Or do we say a big collective NO THANKS, and get to work where it matters: in the community and in the workplace towards sweeping, radical and mass social change.
Cheers
Another note: looking at the posters and their subjects: Global Warming, War — they are all supported by our governments via capitalism! So voting isn’t going to change anything with regard to those subjects illustrated in the works — class struggle will.
As for the American flag, well, a lot of us would prefer to see that flag crumble and be repalced with internatonal sloidarity, rather than nation states.
Again, just a thought, and why I simply can’t agree with this project.
I have to say that I really don’t agree with this campaign. While the works are visually nice, the emphasis on social change via the vote, seems to me, to be completely mis-directed and pointless. That’s not to say that ‘things are fine’ — but encouraging change to come with one vote every four years simply enforces a passive, submissive consumer culture with no mention of collective, direct action.
Just a thought…