Halifax, NS: Anarchist Message on this Provincial Election Cycle

A banner with a Lucy Parsons quote was dropped in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

For those of us interested in seeing social change voting should not matter. Every year or two we are bombarded with empty promises of politicians who wish to capitalize on our social discontent. Promises of a higher minimum wage, or more spending on healthcare are marketed to us to legitimize their rule over us.

Myths of returning to an industrial Nova Scotia that never existed are used to make us feel like things are improving. All the while our tax dollars are wasted on P3’s and our public infrastructure continues to crumble. In the end the results is always the same. They break promises, they get richer and our lives don’t improve.

We are not telling anyone not to vote. We just ask; will voting actually bring you closer to the world you want to live in? Capitalism is ruled by capital, not politicians. No one party is to blame, and they are all complicit. Your one vote isn’t going to make your life as an individual any better. This world was made for those with capital. Unless we resist them in our streets and our communities not much will change. The change we are after has always been fought for and won thought grassroots resistance, not by participating in and legitimizing the never ending election cycle.

Further we should consider how legitimizing the state as an avenue for social change reinforces colonialism. We must honestly grapple with the ways land theft is what this region and its institutions are predicated on. We cannot do this through legitimizing its institutions. If we are after meaningful change we must build independent power directly in our communities, and operate them in an inclusive and democratic way.