BY SIMON MILLAR
The current
unity discussions initiated by the proposal by the Democratic Socialist
Party (DSP) to dissolve into the Socialist Alliance are of vital importance
to the future of the socialist movement in this country.
It has been an aspiration of mine for well over 10 years to see the
various revolutionary socialist groups unite and form one party. I sincerely
hope that the revolutionary socialist movement in Australia can grab this
historic opportunity to unite. We have the chance to qualitatively strengthen
the socialist movement in Australia and lay the foundation for a mass based
revolutionary socialist party. Let's recognise this opportunity for what
it is and not squander it.
I agree with much of the DSP proposal, but I am convinced that the method
is flawed. It would be wonderful if the affiliates of the Socialist Alliance
were all prepared to follow the DSP's lead and dissolve into the alliance,
but unfortunately this is not the case.
While the problems with the Socialist Alliance are pressing, for the
DSP to unilaterally dissolve into the alliance in January would be an organisational
move carried out in the face of widespread objections from the International
Socialist Organisation (ISO) and many others.
I would like to see the DSP adopt a more flexible approach. I would
propose that its January congress empower the DSP national executive to
carry out the transition from a separate organisation to an internal tendency
within the Socialist Alliance only when the political conditions are ripe
for such a step. If the DSP was able to win a significant majority in support
of this step at the Socialist Alliance's May conference, for instance,
then it would have won the necessary political mandate for such a transition.
Some members of the ISO have argued that even if all the affiliates
agreed to unite, they would only number around 700 and still be faced with
essentially the same tasks that the separate organisations face now.
Underlying this train of thought is the idea that a united party of
the existing revolutionary socialist organisations would simply be a quantitative
step, a simple addition of numbers, a step that wouldn't address the fundamental
problem of how to build a mass based socialist party. I disagree completely.
I believe that if such a step was taken it would be a qualitative step
forward for the socialist movement in this county. While in numbers it
would mean roughly a doubling in size of the DSP, its ability to then carry
out the task of winning the best layers of the working class and social
movement activists to its rank would be quadrupled and beyond. Also we
would be able to move beyond being primarily propaganda organisations to
being a true party of action.
While the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) in its early days had the
prestige of the Soviet Union to help build its ranks, it also had the enormous
advantage of having a virtual monopoly on socialism. If you wanted to fight
for socialism there was one clear choice before the CPA split and that
was the CPA.
We have won the ear of many of the best militant trade unionists in
the country but their criticism of the socialist left is summed up by one
comment a close trade union comrade made to me, “you socialists talk about
uniting the working class but you cannot even unite yourselves”.
A key part of the political debate that is going on now is the differences
over what the affiliates and independent members of the Socialist Alliance
actually perceive the alliance to be. While we can all agree on what the
Socialist Alliance is at present, the problems begin when we talk about
its future.
For me, it is clear that the future of the Socialist Alliance lies in
the formation of a multi-tendency revolutionary socialist party. I ask
people to imagine the impact of the May Socialist Alliance conference if
it became a unity conference. It would be the most important step forward
for the socialist movement in Australia since the foundation of the Communist
Party. The effect on the left would be magnetic; it would signal the end
to the decades of isolation and defeats.
I think that the ISO analysis of how and who the Socialist Alliance
is aiming to draw into its ranks is fundamentally incorrect. All this talk
about breaks with the Labor Party was far more applicable to the Labor
Party during the Hawke-Keating years. The majority of left activists in
the ALP left it long ago. Chris Cain is a typical example. He left in the
late 1980s after the ALP smashed the pilots' union.
The current ALP left and the class composition of the ALP reflects the
fact that the ALP is, as Lenin originally characterised it, a bourgeois
liberal party. Whether it has always been this way or has gone through
a transformation is pretty much a moot point.
The Cunningham by-election result didn't represent a break from Labor,
but a specific internal faction fight over branch stacking. The current
reality is that there are no indications of any break with the ALP by the
trade unions except for the Victorian branch of the Australian Manufacturing
Workers Union (AMWU).
I see the Socialist Alliance as the vehicle to carry out a major socialist
regroupment. In Australia at present there exist thousands of people outside
any of the affiliates who already identify themselves as revolutionary
socialists. These people include those who have been former members of
the various anti-Stalinist socialist organisations, former CPA members,
thousands of former ALP members and, finally, the independent socialist
activists.
The political basis for a small mass socialist party of several thousand
already exists. The currently divided and splintered socialist movement
is an objective block to this party.
The time is ripe for regroupment on all fronts. After decades of defeats,
the collapse of Soviet Union and the stalling of Third World social revolutions,
the tide has turned. We have seen the emergence of the international anti-capitalist
movement, drawing thousands of young people into battle. On the union front,
we now have militant leaderships, predominately located in Victoria, ranging
from the CFMEU, AMWU, to the TCFUA.
A whole new layer of young and old militant trade unionists, most of
whom are outside any political party, have been successfully battling to
overcome the devastating effects of the accord years. Some have turned
to the Greens but the vast majority are waiting for a genuine working class
alternative to Labor. We can, and must, seize this opportunity to fill
this vacuum that has been waiting to be filled for far too long.
While I agree that we need to live with the current agreed program,
the revolutionary project must be seen as developing through Socialist
Alliance not outside it. To continue as we are, with an organisation that
has problems just keeping up with its basic book keeping tasks and whose
future still looks uncertain, is recipe for a slow death. While I believe
that it will take a much longer period of united work and political discussion
to reach the ultimate goal of political and organisational unity, the current
leadership of the socialist movement needs to reach the conclusion that
organisational unity is possible and absolutely necessary.
Trotsky categorically stated that the current crisis of the working
class was a crisis of leadership. We are in a position now to partially
overcome this crisis. While we unfortunately are not at the stage of carrying
through full organisational unity, let's use these unity discussions to
take concrete steps towards this burning necessity. Rather than separate
stalls let's agree to have Socialist Alliance stalls. Rather than separate
papers, let's establish one paper with a broad editorial team. Rather than
recruiting to our separate organisations, let's recruit to Socialist Alliance
first. Let's discuss how and when to take these and other steps towards
establishing a united face. In practice this will mean a scaling down of
affiliates' efforts to build themselves at the expense of each other, so
as to free the time and resources necessary to make Socialist Alliance
work. Let's lock ourselves into the Socialist Alliance project and invigorate
it with our enthusiasm, confidence and activism.
Let's set ourselves the goal of a united socialist party. Let's use
this goal to guide and inspire us through a period of intense united work
coupled with political discussion and together we will give birth to a
mighty socialist party capable in the future of toppling capitalism once
and for all.
[Simon Millar is a member of the Victorian state executive of the Socialist
Alliance.]<|>n
From Green Left Weekly, November 13, 2002.
Visit the Green Left Weekly
home page.
