7 July 2007
Press release: Radical Youth

Changing the Voting Age Won't Change Anything

Anti-capitalist group Radical Youth sees proposed changes to the voting age as a distraction from the flawed nature of our parliamentary system. We recognise the people attending youth parliament are doing so with good intentions but they should not be fooled into thinking that we will ever be given freedom by any government. Radical Youth member Emma says, "Your vote is only a choice between a left puppet and a right puppet, both of which are having their strings pulled by the capitalist system we live under."

Emma continues, "The majority of key decisions are made behind closed doors with little public input. Politicians have little accountability to the public and take little responsibility for the effects of their policy." Radical Youth believes that calling the industrial capitalist system we live under a democracy is a mockery of the word. "We have been conditioned through the media and the education system to believe that hierarchy and leaders are necessary," says Emma. Radical Youth believes we will never be able to vote in a better world. Instead change will only come when we create egalitarian decision making structures.

Radical Youth recognises that poverty is created by the capitalist system and the talk of politicians about "eliminating poverty" is merely rhetoric. Our economic system concentrates wealth at the top of the hierarchy. Emma continues, "A system which allows the new Telecom CEO to earn $3.5 million dollars a year while one in three kids live below the poverty line is corrupt. This is a system which cannot be changed by petitioning or pleading." Youth cannot change this system by voting two years earlier instead we must begin to create a society based on cooperation and mutual aid.

"Participation in elections as a vote for sustained social hierarchy. Instead of relegating important decisions to a tick every 3 years youth should be instead taking control of the decisions which really affect our lives. We need action that will actually give us a voice, not a scrap of paper," says Emma.

Emma continues, "While young people may not have a critique of capitalism it's pretty obvious they know that politics is a scam and a waste of time. Youth see through the lies and spin peddled by politicians and know that no matter which puppet is in charge nothing much is going to change." Radical Youth believes that "teaching" young people the benefits of a rigged political system won't work – we are smarter than that!

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