ISO welcomes debate on regroupment of the left

BY SUE JOHNSON 

[The following is the text of a talk given at a session on the Socialist
Alliance at the International Socialist Organisation's Marxism 2002 conference
held in Melbourne, September 6-8. Sue Johnson spoke on behalf of the ISO.
Dick Nichols spoke on behalf of the Democratic Socialist Party (see next
page) and Alison Thorne spoke on behalf of the Freedom Socialist Party.
Thorne's talk will be published in next week's issue of GLW.]

Let me start by saying that I'm pleased to be in the Socialist Alliance
and that my personal experience as candidate for the federal seat of Grayndler
in last year's election has convinced me that the Socialist Alliance does
fill a political need.

Being in a party running in the elections gave a gravity to my work
on the street and in campaigns. People were prepared to consider much more
seriously what I was saying on issues, much more than if I were just selling
Socialist Worker, arguing for or against a political party during
an election.

Given the foul actions and disgusting racism whipped up by the major
parties in the federal election campaign last year, this was a perfect
start for the Socialist Alliance to campaign strongly for an alternative.

I should also start by saying that the International Socialist Organisation
has approached the Socialist Alliance as an electoral front with the aims
of attracting disaffected Labor voters, those to the left of Labor, union
activists and people inspired by the anti-capitalist movement. And as Dick
[Nichols] outlined, in our work recently we have had some successes and
Dick is absolutely right when he says that gains such as these are inspiring.

However, I do feel that the Socialist Alliance has failed to make real
roots within our communities and within trade unions. We haven't attracted
a huge layer of disaffected Labor voters in NSW; and we haven't attracted
the anti-capitalist vote nor large numbers of non-affiliated militants
to our ranks.

The reality is that we are good on propaganda, but weak on building
local campaigns. In Sydney there are several campaigns that I know we haven't
been involved in to any great extent, such as the Save Callan Park campaign,
no nuclear reactor, save our schools campaigns, and save Erskineville housing
estate. These are grassroots campaigns that directly challenge the neo-liberal
agenda of the privatisation of housing, education, and our urban environment,
and of Australia's role in the nuclear cycle.

While the Socialist Alliance has to be present at the large demonstrations
against war and for closing the detention centres, we also have to be present
in campaigns where people intersect at a very personal, community level
with the rotten priorities of the system.

But the Socialist Alliance is a long-term project and I think we'll
get better at it as time goes on.

As a united front to intervene electorally and as a place where the
left can campaign on issues during elections, the Socialist Alliance has
had some success and generally the groups within the alliance have shown
cooperation and good comradeship. Overall, I would argue that its been
a step forward for the left in Australia.

To consider the Democratic Socialist Party's proposal seriously and
in a non-sectarian way, we have to consider what will best advance the
struggle.

This period of international mass mobilisations around the big questions
thrown up by anti-capitalism demands that we look for common ground on
which to build the biggest opposition to the system. And in Australia this
may be by regroupment as a socialist party.

But Alex Callinicos is absolutely right when he argued in a recent article
(see “Regroupment, Realignment and the Revolutionary Left” at <http://www.swp.org.uk/INTER/INTER.HTM>)
addressing the issue of regroupment that the lines of demarcation between
left groups are no longer drawn along differences in theories, but in terms
of how we respond to the challenges and concrete tasks thrown up by the
period.

The success of regroupment, therefore, depends largely on how well the
groups respond to the new movement in a united front. Otherwise, such regroupment
would degenerate into a highly factionalised bun-fight.

The DSP's proposal, based on unity, cooperation and solidarity as it
is, therefore begs the question of why such solidarity and unity is either
not required or not possible in Sydney in the two most important political
campaigns — those of refugees and against war.

The Free the Refugees Campaign was set up by the DSP after disagreements
within the Refugee Action Campaign and has been defended by a leading DSP
comrade on the basis of “welcoming diversity as a strength for a new and
growing movement and safeguarding the movement's political independence
from the major parties”.

More recently, two campaign committees have emerged to organise against
the war in Iraq — one with the DSP and the Workers Communist Party of Iraq
called No War in Iraq, and one with the ISO, Greens, People for Nuclear
Disarmament and Anti-Bases Coalition called the No War Coalition.

Further, I believe that on campuses throughout Australia the DSP is
running on their own ticket called Free the Refugees, while other activists
including those from the ISO are running on the broad left ticket. If an
election calls for broad left unity, then why not these campaigns?

This situation presents a serious challenge to the question of regroupment,
and requires strategic thinking and much debate by those in the alliance.

And there are other issues which will inform our final decision. With
regard to the Greens, I think Dick is overstating their influence upon
those whom we see as our constituents. While its true that they have been
very successful in recent elections, they are not anti-capitalist and I
believe that they are not the party that unionists and disaffected Labor
Party members necessarily look to when they break from Labourism. I don't
see the Socialist Alliance's success is limited by the success of the Greens,
especially outside of NSW where the Greens have had much less electoral
success.

Dick and Workers' Liberty have referred to the Scottish Socialist Party
as a model which we could adopt. The SSP has been hugely successful and
recently their MP, Tommy Sheridan, was included in the Sunday Herald's
top 150 most influential people in Scotland.

However, as Alan McCombes, a leading member of the SSP, admitted, the
experience of Scotland won't automatically be replicated in other situations.
Some of the factors which have contributed to this success include the
impressive profile of Scottish Militant Labour since the late 1980s, the
high profile struggles led by the Scottish Socialist Alliance, the fact
that the Labour Party has been the major party for decades locally and
nationally while the Tories are marginalised, and by no means least the
high profile of Tommy Sheridan as a mass leader of the SSP.

To simply transpose this model onto our experience in Australia is naive
and one which requires careful consideration. The DSP cannot present this
model to their national conference in January for a vote by their members,
and adopt it if successful. This is not the way of groups premised on solidarity
and cooperation, and the issue must be debated openly among Socialist Alliance
members and voted on by Socialist Alliance members for a new party to be
formed.

To finish up, the ISO recognises that anti-capitalism has meant generally
that the left here and internationally has much more unity than it had
five years ago, and looks for common ground more often than not. Because
this is what the period has demanded. A perfect local example of this is
the Sydney Social Forum, where about 30 progressive organisations and many
individuals will come together to seriously discuss how we can change the
world. And this will feed massively into the organising for actions against
the Sydney World Trade Organisation meeting in November.

We need a flexible approach to build the largest possible left, but
also to build the largest Leninist grouping within this. We do need to
build a mass revolutionary party to take the class struggle forward when
it requires it. So I welcome debate on this issue and encourage all Socialist
Alliance members to get involved.

From Green Left Weekly, September 18, 2002.

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From GLW issue 509