Peter Boyle
The third national conference of the Socialist Alliance, held in Melbourne on May 8-9, confirmed that the SA is here to stay, is growing and is taking further steps towards becoming a multi-tendency socialist party.
Some 133 delegates and 144 observers and guests attended, including many key militant trade union leaders. Mike Treen from the New Zealand Alliance addressed the May 7 conference launch, along with Chris Cain (WA secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia and SA national executive member), David Glanz (SA national co-convenor and candidate for Wills) and Susan Price (SA candidate for Sydney).
The conference was strongly influenced by the militant unions and on May 10, many delegates and alliance members joined thousands of unionists in a demonstration to defend former Victorian secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Craig Johnston. SA packed out the Ascot Vale Hotel on the evening of May 8, raising $500 for Johnston's defence campaign.
The conference received personally delivered greetings from Johnston (also an SA member); Victorian secretary of the Electrical Trades Union Dean Mighell; Victorian Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union secretary Martin Kingham; Ian Bray, assistant secretary of the WA MUA; Joe McDonald, assistant secretary of the WA CFMEU; Gary Price from the Victorian postal division of the Communication Workers Union; and Jeremy Hutton from the Greens.
Written greetings were read from Michele O'Neil of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union; Matt McGowan, Victorian division secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union; Jim Reid, secretary of the Victorian printing division of the AMWU; Cam Walker from Friends of the Earth; Radical Women; the Scottish Socialist Party; the Alliance for Workers Liberty (Britain); the LCR (France); the Freedom Socialist Party (US); Workers Democracy (Thailand); MUR (El Salvador); the CPIML-Liberation (India); the Red-Green Alliance (Denmark); the Fourth International Bureau; and others.
Delegates voted overwhelmingly in favour of a resolution supporting the militant current in the trade unions in the face of serious attacks from the bosses, the state and union bureaucrats.
A general political resolution reported on by national co-convenor David Glanz also received strong consensus. It focused the alliance on the federal election - which is shaping up as a referendum on war in Iraq and attacks on the working class at home - and building a strong anti-war movement calling for troops out of Iraq.
SA voted to run the "largest and liveliest [federal] election campaign that our resources allow", launching a glossy election manifesto. The campaign aims to help establish the SA as a credible alternative, especially in the eyes of new union and movement activists, and to build the movements and join new members to SA.
The resolution also described the rise of the Green vote as a "welcome indicator of the shift to the left of a substantial minority in Australia". The SA will "seek to work with the Greens, organise joint platforms with them and will normally preference them before Labor". However, if a Green candidate preferences the Liberals over the ALP, then the alliance will not direct its second preference to that Green candidate.
The resolution also welcomed Mark Latham's call for the withdrawal of Australian troops from Iraq. However the SA "rejects Latham's notion that withdrawal from Iraq is linked to a more interventionist role for the Australian military in Afghanistan and elsewhere".
More detailed policy in a range of areas was adopted, including a call for the defence of Indigenous representative bodies (currently under attack from the Coalition government and the ALP opposition) and Indigenous community social services.
The conference condemned attacks on the Muslim population and defended the right of Muslim women to choose to wear the hijab or burqa.
The SA supported the growing campaign against Australia's grab of East Timor's oil, gas and maritime resources; opposed the Australia-US free trade agreement; opposed the apartheid wall being built by Israel in Palestine; supported the emerging Iraqi national liberation movement; supported the Venezuelan people's struggle for social justice and national liberation and the popular struggles in Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia; and condemned Australia's role as regional bully. The alliance also voted to sponsor the 3rd Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference to be held in Sydney on March 25-28, 2005.
The conference affirmed the success of the first issue of Seeing Red, a new independent magazine of public discussion on politics and culture launched by the SA. A vigorous debate took place about the trial editorial involvement with 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly undertaken by the alliance over the past four months. More than two-thirds of conference delegates voted to continue this relationship.
Another spirited debate occurred around a proposal from leading non-affiliate members, which was subsequently adopted, for a broader national executive (with a majority of non-affiliate representatives directly elected and recallable by state conferences and proportionate representation of affiliates).
The conference recorded that financial membership was over 1000, and growing. Three groups, the Somali Youth Organisation, Chilean Popular and Indigenous Network and Sudanese Communist Party supporters in Australia also informed the conference that they were joining the alliance.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, May 19, 2004.
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