[The following letter was sent by DAVID GLANZ, on behalf of the national executive of the International Socialist Organisation, to the national executive of the Democratic Socialist Party on September 29.]
The ISO's national executive and national committee have now had an opportunity for a first round of discussion about your party's proposal for the future of the Socialist Alliance.
We agree that the changing, challenging but largely more favourable conditions under which the far left is operating internationally raise questions about the best form(s) of organisation to take the struggle forward and build the influence of socialism within given national conditions.
We also share your pleasure at the modest but real successes recorded by the Socialist Alliance. In the space of just 18 months, it has begun to establish itself among hundreds of non-aligned working class activists, and has contributed to a much more comradely atmosphere among affiliates.
We look forward to a genuine and open debate about the suggestions raised in your proposal. We will seek to facilitate that in our publications and our forums, as well as in the forums of the Socialist Alliance itself.
There are, however, a number of positions we hold that need to be clearly flagged.
First, we continue to be for the building of a mass revolutionary socialist party in the Bolshevik tradition as a prerequisite for a successful seizure of power by the working class. We therefore disagree with the DSP's approach of seeking to eventually wither away within a broader formation. While it would be sectarian to make disagreement around reform and revolution a barrier to wider left unity in action, these questions cannot be simply be swept under the carpet. At some point, real challenges in the struggle will bring such arguments once more to the fore.
Second, we believe that the Socialist Alliance is not, and should not be transformed into, a revolutionary party. This would be to take a short cut of the most damaging kind. The many non-affiliated people who have joined have done so precisely because they see the Socialist Alliance as a place where revolutionaries and non-revolutionaries can work together around an agreed program. Any conference declaration that the Socialist Alliance had become a revolutionary party would likely see an exodus of many of those people, and set back the project for a political generation.
Our support for the alliance project was premised on establishing an electoral united front that could attract those who were disillusioned with Labor and were looking to the left, with the likelihood that this situation would continue as Labor moved further to the right.
This involved establishing a platform that substantially embraced the best of "old Labor" values, such as opposition to privatisation and support for unions, as well as giving a clear alternative to those disgusted by Labor's stance over refugees. At the same time, the platform was designed to attract and influence those radicalised by anti-capitalism.
Our experience and the Green vote in the last election confirms that there is such a constituency. Any proposal for the future of the alliance needs to be judged on how well it advances the original conception of being able to provide a home for those looking for a left alternative to Labor.
The points above do not mean that we reject discussions about a possible broad left party out of hand. But such a party cannot be declared by constitutional means, from above. And because such a party should not, and would not, be a revolutionary party, it would need to afford clear and permanent platform rights for revolutionary currents such as ourselves and we would say, you, too.
What flows from the above is also a strongly held concern that a unilateral decision by your party to dissolve into the Socialist Alliance from January would be a forced march which would not only fan the flames of cynicism but risk the future of the alliance.
The alliance has relied enormously on constructive collaboration and the development of areas of common ground. Your proposal would have been more constructive and less open to cynical interpretation had the initial discussion been able to take place without the sort of ultimatum created by the prospect of your decision to dissolve in January.
The decision creates immediate problems that reflect our wider concern over the kind of political formation envisaged by your proposal. Should you dissolve in January, the alliance would have a substantially different composition in real terms (composed almost entirely of the members of one of the initiating groups, selling Green Left Weekly), yet with a leadership elected on a very different basis.
Our position is that any discussion must be open-ended in subject matter and time-frame. We are anxious to ensure that as much of the alliance and its periphery as possible are involved in the discussion and have already suggested specific meetings to encourage this.
The project we initiated together 18 months ago requires patience and persistence if we are to establish the alliance as a credible, principled feature of the political landscape, capable of attracting those breaking from Labor (including those who have to date seen the Greens as that alternative).
We are also convinced that unity must be strengthened from the ground up, as well as from the top down. While we invite members of your leadership in Melbourne and Sydney to meet members of our NE for general discussions, we also hope to see progress on building greater collaboration to overcome the damaging and unnecessary divisions in our work around refugees, the war, etc.
The immediate future holds a number of challenges. In NSW (and probably Victoria) we face elections. The refugee campaign continues to grow, with Labor incapable of responding. The prospect of Australia joining the US war on Iraq will divide Labor supporters and raise issues for the Greens while offering further possibilities for developing collaboration on the broad left.
Our work in the next period will be judged by how successfully we relate to those who are looking beyond the ALP for an alternative to a system of war and racism.
We look forward to continuing discussions.
From Green Left Weekly, October 23, 2002.
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