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DISCUSSION BULLETIN Volume 2 Number 6 December 2002 DISCUSSION BULLETIN Volume 2 Number 6 December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he Cunningham by-election *+,'-.'()"/..'-0,%"-0<"J900'01$-A" """"""""O" 23#<$-$#=;"&# P%((+0("+C")$%"J900'01$-A":FQ%.%,)'+0" """"""""""""""!R" 23#!""&#5$,/%## Left unity S+&"-"*+,'-.'()"/..'-0,%"0%=(H-H%&" """""""""""""""!!" 23#>*'$1#80&&# P%))%&")+")$%"*+,'-.'()"/..'-0,%"&%1-&<'01")$%"4*5"H&+H+(-." " " """""""""!T" 23#.;'&"?';#:/*;"#@/99;0;A;%$# J+AA%0)"+0")$%"*+,'-.'()"/..'-0,%"90')F"<%:-)%""""""""""""""!T" 23#=;0$%*;#>*&00$;*# /",+0)&':9)'+0")+")$%"<'(,9(('+0"-:+9)".%C)"90')F"""""" " " """"" """""""""!U""" 23#<;70#2;11$# V9%()'+0("&-'(%<"""""""""""""""""""!?" 23#4;9&1#>';B%$# 4*5"H&+H+(-."='..":&+-<%0"/..'-0,%"-HH%-." """""""""""""!?" 23#@$9#2700$9/'&# D0"-0(=%&")+"5$'."*-0<C+&<"-0<"M'A"W'&,$.%&"""""""""""""""!G" 23#:&0;"$&#8C/D&'E# # !" 2 DOCUMENTS #$%&%"'(")$%"*+,'-.'()"/..'-0,%"1+'012"" !"#$"%&'($&)#)$%*#+$,-#.$,*/01#F.;%$/";0#>/G,/"(&"&'H [This interview appeared in Green Left Weekly But with the Greens on a roll, the Socialist Number 518.] Alliance isn’t going to survive if it keeps getting less Over the past two months, life in the Socialist than 1 per cent, is it? Alliance has been stormy. The International Socialist Sure, the rise of the Greens squeezes Socialist Organisation (ISO) threatened to disaffiliate if the Alliance’s access to all those people who are disgusted Democratic Socialist Party went ahead with a proposal with Labor for its betrayals and crimes. The Greens are to its December congress to convert the DSP into an now the first port of call for this vote. As long as this internal current in the Alliance . phase lasts, a vote for the Socialist Alliance will nearly With the DSP’s November 11 decision to put its always be a consciously socialist one. proposal on hold, the Socialist Alliance waters have That’s also because the Greens, especially in NSW, settled for the time being. Green Left Weekly asked currently present a left and pro-working class face, Socialist Alliance national co-convener and DSP unlike the German Greens. The Greens are winning national executive member Dick Nichols for comments. support here, that in France or Italy would go to the far Why did the DSP leadership withdraw its left. The Alliance ’s 0.5-1.5 per cent is the vote for proposal? socialism at this stage in Australian politics, there is Because the Alliance is too valuable to put at risk. nothing we can do about that except recognise it and Obviously, if the ISO felt so strongly about our move build on it. that it would threaten to leave the Alliance , we in the We could always try to attract more votes from DSP had to take the issue seriously. those disillusioned with Labor by working the still-rich We are still firmly convinced that the basic idea vein of “little Aussie” populism. But that would just behind the proposal is right — that the Alliance should make us part of the problem. The point is to fight become a united multi-tendency socialist organisation. racism and nationalism, not surrender to them. But if Alliance members are uncomfortable about this, This dramatises the choices facing the Alliance then it is best to slow down and give them space to today. We should, of course, continue to run the consider what it might mean and where they think the liveliest possible election campaigns but we have to do Alliance needs to go. much, much more. The DSP still wants to take this step. We see it as If the Greens are standing to the left, why does vital, but we don’t want to lose people because of any the Socialist Alliance need to exist? misunderstanding. It is certainly good that the Greens are progressive Don’t the Alliance ’s problems go deeper? Look on most issues. Because of the Greens, Labor at its results in the Cunningham by-election, just 0.6 betrayals, like Premier Bob Carr’s offensive on civil per cent of the vote. liberties, get attacked in parliament and reverberate The Alliance ’s 400 votes in Cunningham meant more loudly. more than this low score suggests. First, nearly However, there are three main shortcomings to the everyone who was sick of Labor — including many Greens, even at their most left. First, they don’t put socialists — were always going to vote Green or for their main emphasis on the basic issues affecting the Peter Wilson (the union-backed community candidate) life of working people: working harder and longer to to make sure that the ALP lost. stay afloat, endless “restructuring” and insecurity at Second, the Alliance campaign against the looming work, families (and women within them) increasingly war on Iraq helped push the election’s politics to the stuck with the burden of child and aged care. left. The spin doctors all rushed to tell us that The Greens have usually taken the correct position Cunningham was decided on (admittedly important) on particular issues like workers’ compensation, but local issues but the Greens opposition to Australian they don’t focus on the underlying imperative that involvement in a war on Iraq was central to their win. Labor’s total surrender to economic rationalism has Wilson went from conditional to unconditional created. That’s the need to rebuild working-class opposition on the strength of the anti-war feeling. organisation and representation from the ground up, in Thirdly, the Socialist Alliance didn’t flinch at the the unions and the political arena. That’s the heart of “tricky” issues that nearly everyone else thought it best the Socialist Alliance project. to be a bit fuzzy and evasive about — like refugees’ Second, although the Greens are getting more rights and the need to renationalise privatised public involved in the movements and Green MPs are a assets. welcome relief from Liberal and Labor hacks-in-suits, We were respected for our firm stance, especially the Green approach still tends to feed the great illusion by the most committed Green militants. So along with of Australian politics, that social progress comes from 400 votes for socialism, the Socialist Alliance finished bumping the right people into parliament. this campaign with more members and much more Third, despite the Greens’ denunciation of many profile and respect. social and environmental evils, they baulk at pointing the finger at their root cause. Liberal and Labor are 3" tools in the hands of our corporate and financial elites between our separate organisations for years. and can, if necessary, be replaced by other tools, Interesting to some, perhaps, but what will be the including the Greens if they ever went down the impact on the people who aren’t interested in these German Greens’ road. debates, who want to get on with building the Alliance ? These shortcomings all flow from the fact that most Moreover, on which of our differences do we have Greens think they can make capitalism work to have agreement before we can move forward? On sustainably. They don’t yet really grasp that it’s the Cuba? On Trotsky’s theory of Permanent Revolution in profit system, which puts corporate gain ahead of underdeveloped countries? With that approach, ordinary working people and the environment, that is hundreds of Socialist Alliance members would desert the root cause of the problem. in disappointment and the organised left would return So it’s vital that the Socialist Alliance exists. No to the divided state it was in before the Socialist other force is going to provide a clear, anti-system Alliance . point of view and consistently build the struggle What about our differences on issues that are closer against economic rationalism. to home, like the nature of the trade union and ALP How can the Alliance grow? Some people would bureaucracy? Here we don’t need to settle on an agreed argue that the last period indicates that different theoretical conception of what ALP leader Simon affiliate groups, especially the ISO and the DSP, are Crean and Australian Manufacturing Workers Union operating with different political road maps. national secretary Doug Cameron represent. We need Let’s not exaggerate. The Alliance as a whole to find the tactics to advance the struggle for working- agrees on the need to step up work in the unions and in class politics against the Creans and the Camerons. building the struggle for union rights, in the anti-war Greater unity will only result from trying to meet movement and in the fight against increased police the real challenges of the struggle, drawing a balance powers and “anti-terrorism” laws. That agreement, sheet of the results of our effort and moving forward on along with a Socialist Alliance presence in community the basis of growing experience and joint correction of struggles and in elections, gives it a solid foundation mistakes, that is, by applying a trial-and-error approach for growth. together. The point the DSP stresses is that the Alliance This does not mean that theory and past differences could be doing a whole lot more and that it’s only the are unimportant. It’s a recognition of the truth of Karl Alliance , as the left acting together, that can do it. Marx’s old saying, “A step forward in the real Time and again we get evidence of what is possible movement is worth ten programs”.
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