BY SUE BOLTON
"An historic moment for the left in Australia" was the most common comment made by participants in the founding conference of the Socialist Alliance in Melbourne over the August 4-5 weekend.
This is not the first attempt to unite the left in Australia. There have been several attempts to unite left parties and organise left electoral alliances during the last 20 years, however, the newly-formed Socialist Alliance has a more solid basis than previous left electoral coalitions.
Previous left electoral alliances have been temporary, state-based formations, with the membership limited to the constituent groups. In contrast, the Socialist Alliance has branches in every state and territory and 25% of its members do not belong to any of the nine affiliated political organisations.
Currently, the nine affiliated parties are the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), the International Socialist Organisation (ISO), the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP), Workers Liberty, Workers Power, Socialist Democracy, Workers League, the Workers Communist Party of Iraq (Australia) and Socialist Alternative.
The Socialist Alliance also differs from previous left electoral alliances in that it is based on the understanding that a serious socialist electoral alternative needs to support, and help foment, resistance against the racist, anti-worker and pro-rich policies of the major parties.
The Socialist Alliance's emphasis on building active resistance against the system is underlined by the fact that the two founding parties of the alliance, the DSP and the ISO, were central to the success of the S11 protests against the World Economic Forum in 2000 and other anti-corporate protests.
Since it was launched in February the alliance has grown rapidly. It already has more than 900 members and it is quite conceivable that its membership could number more than a couple of thousand by the end of this year.
Dick Nichols, one of the three national convenors and a member of the DSP, told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly that the conference was a success "because it achieved its fundamental task which was to adopt a common platform, get itself a workable constitution and develop a plan of attack for the coming federal elections. These were done and done well."
Cooperative spirit
Another achievement of the conference noted by Melbourne delegate and FSP member Alison Thorne was that it "had a very democratic and cooperative tone" in the way in which the differences were debated out.
This democratic and cooperative spirit was what made by Geelong delegate Paul Johnson feel confident that the Socialist Alliance can succeed. Johnson, who is not affiliated to any party, told GLW that "it was pleasing to see that people were prepared to openly state their opinions even when they were opposite to other opinions. In some cases it led to a compromise which showed that people had an openness to listening to the other points of view."
Co-national convener and ISO member Ian Rintoul agreed that "the conference was tremendous". He told GLW that "There was honest and constructive debate over differences, over what kind of platform we needed, over how to work in the labour movement and over how do we begin the discussion about building a socialist alternative to Labor. But most of all there was a sense of the seriousness of the job we have taken on and a real feeling for the potential the alliance has to reach thousands of people who want the Liberals out but also want to see real change, not just a change of government."
One hundred and fourteen delegates participated, representing 29 local groups from every state and territory. All of the affiliated parties participated in the conference, with the exception of Socialist Alternative. Of the delegates, 50 were DSP members, 25 were ISO members, 17 were from the smaller affiliates and 22 were not members of any of the affiliated parties.
For delegates from smaller cities, such as DSP member Kamala Emanuel from Hobart branch, the conference was especially important. She told GLW: "One of the things I found about coming to the conference is that you start to feel connected to the rest of the left in Australia. It sometimes feels rather isolated in Tasmania because there aren't as many of the big campaigns here, so to be able to meet up with other left groups within the alliance was important."
Platform debate
The key debates at the conference were over what sort of platform to adopt.
Two of the smaller parties, Workers Power and Workers Liberty, plus a couple of unaffiliated delegates from Sydney were keen for the Socialist Alliance to adopt a "revolutionary program" as its platform. Only a tiny minority supported this position at the conference.
In speaking against this proposal, delegates who were also DSP members indicated that they would like to see a new united revolutionary party in Australia, but at the moment there wasn't sufficient agreement among the affiliated parties for the formation of such a united party. A united party might become possible, however, through the experience of working together in the alliance. Delegates who were ISO members also indicated that they thought it was premature to start discussion about a common revolutionary program because such a discussion would split the alliance.
It also became clear in the course of discussion that the ISO thought the alliance needed a less radical platform in order to appeal to disenchanted Labor Party voters. Because of this perspective, the ISO moved to delete the demands to "open the borders", "disarm the police", and "end government funding to all private schools" from the platform. The majority of delegates disagreed with the ISO on these points.
Once the platform was adopted, the conference also adopted a shorter list of priority pledges around which to focus the Socialist Alliance's federal election campaign.
Rintoul described the priority pledges and the platform as "providing a basis for organising to reverse the cuts to welfare and services".
Over the next few months, there will be a need to elaborate on the various points in the platform. The conference agreed that Socialist Alliance branches in different cities should organise public policy seminars in order to develop more detailed policies around key parts of the adopted platform.
Other major conference debates were over the issue of which party the alliance should allocate its preferences to and whether or not the alliance should support unions disaffiliating from the ALP.
The conference debated four separate resolutions regarding a preference policy. It adopted the position put forward by the DSP that preferences in lower house seats be determined by the alliance's local branches and preferences for the Senate be decided by state conferences of alliance members. However, the conference recommended to the local groups and state conferences a preference policy which favours progressive left candidates first, then the Greens, then Labor, with One Nation last.
Whether or not the Socialist Alliance should support unions disaffiliating from the ALP is still highly contentious among members of the alliance. Because of this, the DSP withdrew its pre-conference motion for the alliance to support unions discussing disaffiliating from the Labor Party and instead supported a motion from the ISO which called for unions to donate funds to the Socialist Alliance and invite alliance speakers to address union meetings.
In his report to the conference on federal election campaign tasks, Nichols said that to gear up the alliance for the elections "we have to give the alliance the highest possible profile on the burning issues of Australian politics today, like refugees, the GST, the continuing degradation of the environment and racism. That will involve us in lots of actions and protests."
"I'm fully confident", he told the delegates. "The alliance is now capable of doing that. The local groups have shown that with their actions on the workers' compensation campaign in NSW, the anti-GST day of action and support for the refugee rights campaign."
Emanuel, who was later elected to the new 19-member alliance national executive, told GLW that in addition to the federal election campaign the alliance needed to take up issues as they arise. She was inspired by the contribution from Melbourne delegates who spoke about the emergency picket they organised in response to the murder of a security guard at a Melbourne abortion clinic.
After the conference, alliance national executive and ISO member David Glanz told GLW that the alliance has two big tasks over the next few months. One is to encourage supporters to involve themselves in the protests against the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Brisbane and the Commonwealth Business Forum in Melbourne. "The other urgent task is to prepare ourselves for the federal election."
"The two tasks are interrelated", he added. " We have to prove to people that we have something to say about why the world is going down the gurgler and that we are offering people an alternative. If we campaign actively against the CHOGM/WTO agenda and we do the grassroots work to establish the alliance in our local areas, the two things will come together in October and November."
After the federal elections, the Socialist Alliance will still have an important role to play, said Chris Cain, national executive member who is also the Maritime Union of Australia convener for the North-West Shelf project. Speaking from Perth, Cain told GLW that if a Kim Beazley-led Labor government is elected, workers will be disappointed because "Beazley won't be putting anything up as regards what the workers or working class people want such as the repeal of [the anti-union] 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ 45 D and E of the Trade Practices Act ... workers will then be able to see first hand who is fair dinkum [for workers] and the alliance will get bigger."
Craig Johnston, Victorian state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, in his featured address to the conference, said: "The Victorian branch of the AMWU sees the Socialist Alliance as a very welcome development... The working class must have a political party and a political voice. I certainly believe that the Socialist Alliance is an opportunity to fill the void that has been left by the ALP."