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voting is the main way to show support to a political party and it’s platform, if you’re not getting votes it’s pretty clear people don’t agree with what you’re offering
politicians listen to votes
I don't disagree with either of these statements. Nor do they disagree with my statement that votes are a vague message - if I tell you (and it's the truth) that the Greens weren't in my top two preferences in 2025 (nor Labor, nor Liberal) - what information does that give them? What would the Greens do if they wanted my vote? All my vote really says is, "I prefer this other party", but not which policies I like, or even if it's the policies I have a problem with. I know people who vote Liberal but are anti-privatisation! I know people who vote Liberal but are environmentally progressive! I know someone who voted for the opposition one year to "give someone else a go"! Even just the differing policies of each party are complicated, let alone other factors like personalities.
I don't agree that voting is our biggest weapon, but it's one everyone can use without any risk, so it's certainly potent and important! Our biggest weapon is our labour. If you, me and millions of other people all voice a unified demand and stop going to work, that's both a more accurate weapon (they know precisely what we want changed) and a weapon that can bring a government to its knees - look at revolutions overseas started by strikes. And it also works against companies which don't even let us vote!
You can see the impact PHON has, even though they only got a tiny % of the pie in SA the big parties are keenly aware of them and why people are voting for them
The following quote from Labor is extremely vague. Why did people vote for One Nation? Was it frustration with housing costs? General cost of living pressures? Reaction to the firearm laws after the Bondi massacre? Opposition to Islam? A hatred of Arabic people (Muslim or not) or Asians? Opposition to all immigration, including English? Simply sending a message of dissatisfaction to the Liberals? A disdain towards conventional, formal politicians? Media exposure and familiarity? (some people can't even name our Prime Minister, so don't underestimate this!)
tbh the greens should really be shining right now, absolute shambles from them
Absolutely. While I do think they're right to support activism around Gaza (even if it comes from the argument of "stop wasting our resources on foreign wars"), it shouldn't be at their forefront.
the demands they seem to levy are egregious that have me siding with businesses going damn that’s crazy
It's worth pointing out that sometimes (and maybe this doesn't apply to the ones you're thinking of) they come to the table with high demands with the intention to settle on a lower demand.
Not all unions are the same, nor are all organisers the same (had a string of bad ones until recently) so I'm fully aware that some are bad at representing employees. And it's a damn shame. It makes a feedback loop where a bad union experience makes people dismissive of the actions necessary to improve the union. I'm lucky enough to be in one where we've recently managed to reorganise and volunteer enough to build campaigns where fellow employees were able to instruct us with their demands (and you bet thousands of us were asking for a 10% pay rise that we had to temper to something more realistic). But until I volunteered to help build this reorganisation, I did feel disempowered and unrepresented, and hesitated to even join the union, despite being a unionist.
The tough answer is, if institutions aren't giving you power, you have to build it.
AI is absolutely being used as a pretext to cut jobs. They'll axe 1000, say "oh whoops that was a mistake" and hire 500 back.