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.]<|> From Green Left Weekly, November 13, 2002.
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