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Workers Power Global, Melbourne, 11 May 2003
The Australian Socialist Alliance voted this weekend to become a multi-tendency socialist party. This move, whilst opposed by a significant minority had the support of most of the members of the Alliance who are not in one of the affiliated left groups who initiated the Alliance in 2001. It was also strongly supported by the Democratic Socialist Party, the largest affiliate.
The DSP have wanted to become a tendency in the Socialist Alliance since last year. Their position was that the Socialist Alliance had a crisis of resources - and that the best solution was for them to stop building the DSP and build only the Alliance.
This has been combined with a call for "greater left unity". A call taken up by many of the unaffiliated members. Some of these members formed a caucus and distributed a letter which became a resolution to the conference on the formation of a united socialist party.
The discussion at the conference was a wide ranging one. The ISO, supported by the Freedom Socialist Party had put up an alternative proposal - essentially the continuation of the Socialist Alliance as a united front style organization.
Workers Power though have felt all along that neither way was acceptable. We argued for the Socialist alliance to turn its attention to building a campaign for a new workers&Mac226; party. The exact nature of the Alliance being a secondary question when faced with the real task of drawing large sections of our class disillusioned with the ALP and facing massive attacks from the Liberals, into active political activity.
The arguments for the multi-tendency party are essentially ones of organisation over politics. Those in favour of it, focus on the unity that the Socialist Alliance has achieved in action. There is the suggestion that the things that left groups disagree about are historical or minor. There was even the suggestion that groups retain their differences in order to retain separate identities.
The DSP and many of the members of the Socialist alliance not in left groups think that the differences of politics that separate the affiliates can be sorted out in discussion and debate. Can be sorted out within the organisation and through joint activity. They are wrong.
An organisation has to be built from the bottom up, on programmatic unity, on an agreement about a method. Method is the way we understand Marxism and how we understand it is to be applied to the class struggle. It is differences in method, in our fundamental understanding of the world and how to change it that means that the ISO believes the ex-Soviet Union was essentially capitalist and Workers Power believes it was a degenerated workers state. It is a difference in method which means that the DSP believes the ALP is an openly bourgeois party and Workers Power believes it retains a contradiction because of its continued links to the working class via the trade unions. It's a difference of method which means Workers Liberty think that both Israel and Palestine should have states and virtually the rest of the left support a secular state of Palestine only.
These kinds of disagreements are not simply about tactics or even strategy. They demonstrate disagreement at a fundamental level. A level which means that whilst we can all say we are in the same organisation, it is an organisation with no political consistency.
This is most evident when it comes to the discussion of programme. The Socialist Alliance doesn't have one. It has a platform, a series of limited demands, with no clear way to achieve these.
It was important to many people at the conference that the Socialist alliance be seen as a "broad" socialist organization. In other words that the interpretation of the word socialist whilst it could include revolutionaries in its midst, did not mean revolution.
By stripping socialism of the idea of revolution, the Socialist Alliance is not offering a roadmap to our class for how to achieve the wish list which is its platform.
The next few months in Australia are likely to see massive attacks on the working class. Changes to the industrial relations laws will mean it is even harder for workers to organise in unions, the war budget is likely to involve massive cuts across the public service, Medicare and education are under attack. Socialist Alliance is certainly equipped to run some strong on the ground campaigns. Its conference had over 280 registrations, it's clear that it is growing and attracting a growing number of militant organized trade unionists.
The question will be that if it has to impose unity from above, through organisational means, will it be able to answer the bigger questions for the Australian working class and as part of our class internationally.
The answer, as far as Workers Power is concerned, remains the urgent need to build a new workers&Mac226; party where the possibility of fighting all the attacks in a meaningful way becomes real.
The full programme of Workers Power in the election (pdf file)
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