BY ALISON DELLIT
Following her participation in the September 26 protests in Prague against the meetings of International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Felicity Martin decided upon her return to Australia she would join the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP).
"It made sense to come back and think seriously about the current socialist parties in Australia", she told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly. "I decided that the most useful way to use my experience and my knowledge and my ideas was within a revolutionary party, and the party I chose was the DSP."
Martin first became involved in left politics in 1994 when she started attending demonstrations in Melbourne against Voluntary Student Unionism legislation. In 1996 Martin was elected education vice-president at Melbourne University, and in 1997 she was elected as the Victorian state education officer for the National Union of Students (NUS). During this time she was member of various left-wing campus and national student factions, including Melbourne University Left Focus, the Non-Aligned Left and Left Alliance.
"For many years I worked within different student groups. The limitation of many loose student groups and factions is that without a political program they become very inward looking. They become personality based, not politically based. They don't give you a long-term political education.
"I did learn about preference wheels, deals and quotas, which is important for student elections and they do provide an introduction to collective organising, but such groupings are limited because they don't have any sort of idea of the workforce, despite the fact that most students are also workers."
Martin said she had hesitated for a long time before finally deciding to join the DSP.
"One of the reasons I hesitated was that I felt like I had to learn everything before I could join so that I could defend the party on every question. I know and work with many activists, working on single-issue campaigns, who are often cynical towards being in a party. The cynicism is sometimes based on a party having taken a particular stance they disagree with.
"But isolating single episodes in a party's history doesn't account for the long-term political program of the party, nor does it acknowledge that a party can learn from mistakes. These arguments are not really about the ways that different parties organise and they don't look at what is the best way to make a socialist revolution.
"I did not want to get stuck on single-issue debates and lose sight of the bigger discussion about how are we going to change society, how are we going to eradicate sexism, racism and homophobia."
Martin explained that her initial nervousness about "committing myself to a bigger project in which you don't understand all the ideas" was overcome through involvement in study classes and discussions within the party.
Why had the S26 protests in Prague been such a catalyst in Martin's decision to join a revolutionary socialist party like the DSP?
"One of the most exciting things about being at Prague S26 was that it was a global event. There were protesters there from France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain and even Australia. And we participated not only to stop the particular IMF or World bank meetings, but also against globalisation and the impact of whole capitalist regime on the third world. That was truly inspirational.
"One of the big things for me was the counter summit, which was organised for three days prior to the demonstration by the Initiative against Economic Globalisation. People came to that summit not just to argue that we didn't want these institutions to exist, but also with ideas about the way forward for society.
"Many of these people represented different tendencies, or left political parties, and they were fighting for a different society in which we could end the debt and the poverty in the third world. They argued that everyone could have a chance to participate in building a better society.
"Some people in Australia seem to think that the demonstration was organised by affinity groups, but they encapsulated a very small number of people, who mainly wanted to play in a band, or dress in a particular way, or make puppets.
"I'm not saying that creative things aren't good, even a party can do creative things, but to believe that the demonstration was organised through affinity groups is just false.
"Most of the information and the arguments at Prague came from the organised left. It was just amazing seeing that those people were going to go back to their countries and fight for a revolutionary perspective on change. I realised that if I was going to go back to Australia as an individual activist, I didn't know who I was going to work with. I knew that a party could play the role of developing ideas and arguing for them, of keeping struggle alive between demonstrations."
Martin explained that of the various socialist political organisations in Australia she chose the DSP because it "has the best international solidarity perspective and it is a truly internationalist party", adding:
"I like the fact that it has a program on which it bases its work. Particularly, I like the basis on which it campaigns against women's oppression, for lesbian and gay rights and for the environment, workers solidarity and trade union rights, and around indigenous rights and anti-racism issues. I was involved in campaigning to force the Australian government to protect East Timor in the post-referendum bloodshed of 1999, and saw the role that the Democratic Socialist Party played in building those mobilisations."
She was "excited by the internationalism involved in joining with workers all around the world, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, to fight globalisation and corporate tyranny", and was looking forward to participating with other DSP members in Melbourne in building the May 1 anti-capitalist protest action.
"My experience in Prague", Martin said, "convinced me that it's difficult to make social change by yourself. There were 10,000 people there, and they could have just been 10,000 individuals who just went home, or they could join a party to fight for completely new world. Eventually I think everybody should be in a revolutionary party, and that's they way we will make real social change."