No surprises here -- Prime Minister Harper has called for a general federal election, to take place this upcoming October 14th. For the next few long, arduous weeks, we'll be forced to listen to the freak show yet again, and watch the ridiculous acts they put on to try and gain our votes.

The circumstances under which the elections were called say a lot about the futile character of bourgeois parliamentarism. All summer long, the opposition parties, led by the Liberals, made claims about their ability to defeat the minority government of Stephen Harper and provoke elections at the first opportunity. Skillful calculator, Harper jumped their own gun, calling his own general election. For bourgeois politicians, the elections are little more than a tool for maintaining or conquering power, and they all try to push for elections to be held when they will be most advantageous for them.

Many are now claiming that these elections are "very special," that they may be "the most important elections in Canadian history." Which, of course, is the very same claim made every election... Opposition parties in particular are doing their best to convince us that they need to be voted for in order to curb the "right turn" represented by Harper's Conservatives.

Of course, it's true that Canada's political scene is currently dominated by the right wing. On every single important matter, without exception, the federal government is firmly aligned with the interests of the Canadian bourgeoisie, which itself is aligned to the global interests of capitalism, US imperialism especially.

Whether it's foreign political matters (such as the Canadian Forces taking outsourcing jobs for the US Army in Afghanistan), or regarding domestic economic and social policies (where the number one objective is federal bailouts and tax exemptions for big businesses rather than social security programs for the majority who assume the burden of the crisis), the primary goal of the Harper government is to serve the interests of the ruling classes, of which most, if not all, Conservative party MPs are members.

Of course, the problem is that despite all of their slogans, promises, accusations and critiques, all of the primary parties that are taking part in this election share essentially the exact same objective. Whether it's the war in Afghanistan, cuts to social security programs and environmental policies, tax reductions and exemptions for corporations, or the assailing of our rights and freedoms in the name of the "war on terror" and "national security," all of these parties have at one time or another supported the policies implemented by the Harper government. Some were even implemented prior to the Harper government, by none other than the Liberals.

The Liberals are saying that they are more "progressive" than the Tories; the NDP and the Greens claim that they should be the official opposition in order to more effectively deter the "right turn" initiated by Harper's government; the Bloc, naturally, claims that only they can speak for Quebec at the national level regardless of which party forms a government. There are even some "Communist" parties who claim that a couple of them elected into Parliament could somehow turn the tide against the monopolization of Canadian politics by the bourgeoisie. Of course, it's all a steaming pile of rancid bullshit of a form that could not be dealt justice by written words. Even those who enter into politics out of a desire for good will (and these types are few and far between), their miniscule influence more often than not buckles under the debauchery of our rotten system, and those that persevere quickly realize that their modest efforts are incapable of budging the framework, let alone taking control of the reigns; the reality of capitalism's dynamics will always be more powerful than their will to "civilize" it.

In our current, elongated stage of capitalist social and economic development in Canada, and in the broader spectrum of imperialist globalization, the traditional mechanics of bourgeois "democracy" (a la parliamentarism and federal elections) are incapable of offering anything more than a momentary change of facade like a puppeteer slipping a different-colored sock on his hand; the fact remains, regardless of the self-proclaimed color of the party in power, domestic and foreign policies, social and economic, are shaped and determined by the requirements of capitalist profitability proliferation.

This is why revolutionary communists such as ourselves make the claim that the elections must be boycotted! Contrary to those who believe that capitalism is the apex, the end-game of human historical development (and yet who claim they are "progressive"), there is nothing cynical in our standpoint. As unemployment rises, factories are closed, job security plummets and wages sink, we have absolutely nothing to gain in taking part in the bourgeois system; to do so would only give them legitimacy they do not deserve.

What we need is a radically different system -- a genuine worker's and people's democratic power in which the people make collective decisions based on our collective interests as proletarians. This kind of system -- best exemplified by socialism -- will not be born out of bourgeois elections. The ability to exert the will and need of the majority necessitates a different kind of social and economic organization, which can objectively deter the minority who enrich themselves on our labour and for whom the current politic process was designed.

An election every four years -- or every 30 months as is the current case -- in which we deposit small pieces of paper into steel lockboxes to decide who, of those who exploit us, will have the "right" to speak on our behalf, and after which we are told to submit to our decision and accept what we "asked" for.

What we do need are revolutionary workers' councils, where we can and will exert our own power over ourselves, and where we can objectively and selectively elect our equals to carry out the mandate of the tasks we have collectively decided upon.

This kind of people's democracy, which inherently carries with it unimaginably more freedom than our current "democracy," can only be obtained by the complete abolishment of this rotting capitalist system, which has long-since passed the phase when it was beneficially progressive (compared to the brutality of middle-age feudalism) and which now impedes human progress, plunging us further and further into misery, poverty, exploitation, and war which has regressed to the point that the future of humanity itself is threatened. It is our historical imperative that we put an end to this system.

Bring down Harper and his Tories, you say? Of course. But not by replacing them with another rat pack gang of bourgeois politicians, whose only difference is attempting to placate the continuation of this system by throwing a few more bread crumbs our way, and convince us that semantical decisions, like whether the war in Afghanistan should end in March or July of 2011, or whether cellphones charge us 10 cents per text message, are the epitome of political difference. To rid ourselves of the reactionary policies which we're made to believe Harper, and Harper alone, embodies, we must get rid of capitalism itself. No to the vote, yes to revolution!

Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP)