This month marks the 15th anniversary of the death of Jim Percy who died from cancer at his home in Sydney on October 12th,1992. He was 43 years old.
From its inception in 1972 Jim had been national secretary of the Democratic Socialist Perspective (nee Party) and had been its leading figure. This was especially the case throughout the eighties when Jim began to foster new thinking and a new political orientation for the DSP.
As we deal with the political terrain of the 21st century I think it is worthwhile to review , 15 years on, Jim's contributions to socialist politics and how they fit in with the our perspectives and potentials today.
You can read a collection of his major speeches as published by Resistance Books but these talks won't give you a feel for his massive, almost overbearing, political passion and gregarious engagement with what is possible in the here and now. Jim was always dedicated to squeezing the utmost from any political moment as though this chance to advance the socialist project was sure to be our last opportunity for a while.
As he said (and I'm quoting from memory), "what we can do today, can build socialism tomorrow" and for Jim that day was a 24 hour thing. He had a manic drive that could imbue others such that the way he formatted what needed doing was almost enshrinement.
Nonetheless he was aware of where the socialist project was at. While many things were indeed possible today and soon enough, we nonetheless faced this brutal reality which had sentenced 'our' politics more or less to the political margins in a country like Australia.
So there was a lot of hope mixed in with coarse reality in Jim's thinking. It was never politics-by-numbers. In effect, it was dedicated to overcoming schematism and banishing shibboleths. So during the eighties, and what proved to be the last years of his life, Jim fostered a qualitative break from the old formulations that had underpinned what you could refer to as "the Trotskyist left". This was a major change -- something that set the DSP apart from many other Marxist projects on the planet so that today despite its geographical isolation and limited weight in Australian politics -- the DSP's politics is watched with interest (and maybe much else besides) within the international left.
In my estimation, it was Jim's creativity and political restlessness that helped to prevent the DSP from becoming a sect -- a fate that stalks any doctrinal outfit which is sentenced to live out a marginal political existence in times of limited political struggle.
It's Marxian politics' black dog.
Jim Percy engineered this prophylaxis by promoting the following core tactical orientations that resonate today and seem, in fact, even more relevant:
- That the break from the politics of the Labor Party was essential and that break would not necessarily be in the form of new "labour" parties or counterposing socialist formations. That the initial promise of the Nuclear Disarmament Party in 1984 indicated that environment politics and green oriented parties would be a major component of any break from the hold social democracy had over the social change movements.
- That the real potential for growth and political relevance for the far left lied with regrouping elements on the left and among the greens into new party formations rather than relying on the stolid process or recruiting in ones and twos to standalone & separate party building projects. That challenge wasn't something you waited for, but was an exercise you actively promoted and engaged with.
- That such a process of coming together could be facilitated by a broad, open, green left journal that could act as a forum for any political amalgamation that was pending or could be possible.
- That any motion in any direction required that it be fostered and driven by a activist core of dedicated socialists who could facilitate and drive any new political convergence, that in effect the motor of any long term political gain had to also be the creation of an activist cadre.
But I think it's worthwhile to point out -- fifteen years on -- how much insight Jim Percy had in understanding our present -- especially since he died before the Greens were formed and the advent of the Socialist Alliance project. And as we approach this federal election with Labor so much being seen as a mirror of the Coalition it seems a good time to review what Jim was saying. As James P. Cannon was ever keen to remind us, "the art of politics is deciding what to do next."
Of course Jim Percy was part of a team -- a leadership team -- a collective he was totally dependent upon. But the spark had to start somewhere and be driven regardless of what editing and reformulation happened en route.
So when considering where we find ourselves in 2007, I cannot help think back to 1983 -- the year that the Hawke Labor government was elected -- during which I served, in effect, as Jim's secretary. There are many analogies and comparisons I could list as I have a deep sense of deja vu.
But the irony is that while our side cannot now refer to purkey movements and buoyant trade unionism (which collapsed primarily due to the corporatist machinations of Hawke's Accord and the complicity of the 'official' left) -- as touch stones for confidence, we do in fact have new tools at our disposal and we are in effect living out Jim's legacy.
While I dropped out of socialist politics in the nineties, after being inspired by and working to foster the new party perspective in the Socialist Alliance, I rejoined the DSP in 2005. My journey in fact was a re-discovery that what Jim and the DSP was arguing was correct:that there was no piecemeal route to political convergence. That if you wanted to be serious about creating a political alternative or new left party or even advancing the socialist agenda, much more than a polling day exercise was required. You had to keep your eyes on the prize and consciously and rigorously work toward that end.
No one else is going to do it for you and it won't happen by default.
