BY SUE JOHNSONÌý
[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 ) 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 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, September 18, 2002.
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