by Peter Boyle, DSP National SecretaryThe 23rd Congress of the Democratic Socialist Perspective, a Marxist tendency in the Socialist Alliance in Australia, reaffirmed its commitment to broader left regroupment.
The Congress noted that a new political terrain was opening up with the election of the Rudd Labor government on the back of a mass campaign of opposition to the anti-worker “Work Choices” laws introduced by the former Howard Liberal-National government.
A resolution supported by 80% of delegates affirmed:
“The sweeping defeat of the Howard government and the election of Rudd Labor in November 2007 brought in another government that is anti-union and conservative. After promises made by Labor after mass mobilisations
against the attacks by the Howard Coalition government, in particular Work Choices, most workers expect the new Labor government to reverse the Howard government’s policies. However, Rudd’s announcement that a Labor government would keep the sections of Work Choices which severely limit industrial action and the right of unions to enter worksites, means that there needs to be a new stage in the fight for these fundamental rights. The challenge will be for socialists to engage with other militants in the trade union movement and activists in other movements to build an extra-parliamentary struggle to fight for workers’ rights, and against attacks on welfare recipients and indigenous communities, for serious action to stop global warming and to withdraw all Australian troops from the wars that they are engaged in under the imperialist alliance with the US plus a refusal to support future US military plans.”
The DSP reaffirmed its commitment to building the Socialist Alliance as a broad left party project and decisively rejected a minority view that such an orientation today risked “liquidating” the DSP’s revolutionary program:
“After seven years of life the Socialist Alliance represents a modest but definite step towards the emergence of a broadly based anti-capitalist party in Australia. It is identified by advanced elements of the working class as the political pole of militant initiatives on the trade union movement (particularly in initiating a mass campaign against the anti-worker “Work Choices” laws) and for more general leadership in other progressive social movements, including the anti-war, anti-racist, environment and democratic rights movements. The continued membership in the Socialist Alliance of significant mass leaders and hundreds of other individuals not belonging to the DSP or any other left group is evidence of this. By championing the need for a broadly based anti-capitalist party and by organizing the most united left intervention possible in the social movements, the Socialist Alliance can continue to win the respect of and recruit broader layers of militant workers to its ranks and in this way take practical steps along the road to such a party. This is a specific opening that needs to be further tested out and developed with strong and united leadership from the DSP.”
Congress recognized that while the Greens still occupy most of the opening electoral space to the left of the ALP, the Greens have not filled the political space opened up by the crisis of leadership in the trade unions and the broader labour movement. The Greens also remain torn between the anti-capitalist direction of their stated aims of “ecological sustainability, social and economic justice, peace and non-violence and grassroots democracy” and strong tendencies to opportunism and parliamentarism.
The resolution recognized the need to be open to the emergence of new vehicles for left regroupment. The congress anticipated more breaks to the left from the Labor party now in government federally and in all states.
“If there is a new rise in the class struggle, new partners will be drawn into the project for a new party and the Socialist Alliance may have to become part of or be transformed into or be supplanted by new structures for organising the strongest and most effective political voice for anti-neo-liberal struggle.”
The DSP congress also decided that while it builds the Socialist Alliance as a broad, class-struggle socialist party project, the DSP should continue to maintain its own structures and to build a highly united and disciplined revolutionary cadre core.
The climate change crisis was identified as the most pressing global issue and delegates pledged to build the emerging movements calling for an urgent response to global warming. DSP members will be organizing a major Green Left Weekly conference, “Climate Change – Social Change, in Sydney April 11-13. International guest speakers at this conference include: John Bellamy Foster, the editor of Monthly Review and author of Marx’s Ecology; Patrick Bond, Director of the Centre for Civil Society, University of Natal (South Africa), and author of Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society; Roberto Perez, a Cuban permaculturist (featured in the film The Power of Community); and Sandino Carrizales, a Venezuelan youth activist and communal council organizer.
“Revolutionary cadre, systematically educated in Marxism and experienced in struggle, are indispensable in this and any other tactical stage we go through to build a mass revolutionary party. We need to continue to recruit strongly to the DSP from within and outside the Socialist Alliance and, primarily through Resistance, win, educate and develop a new generation of revolutionary youth cadre. The DSP will openly seek to win others in the Socialist Alliance and the general public to its revolutionary politics.”
The 23rd Congress also agreed to continue to give a high priority to building solidarity with the ongoing revolutionary process in Venezuela.
The 23rd Congress elected a new national committee, strengthened by new leaders, mostly younger, who have already begun to shoulder major responsibility at various levels. Women comprise 42 per cent of the new national committee, compared to 37.5 per cent of the outgoing national committee. This is also higher than the proportion of women in the DSP membership (38 per cent).
Peter Boyle was re-elected as national secretary and two assistant national secretaries, Sue Bolton and Lisa Macdonald were also elected. Jim McIlroy was elected as new DSP president.
Special guests of the congress included Sivarajan Arumugam a representative of the Socialist Party of Malaysia, the Deputy Consul-General of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Tran Quoc Khanh, and the Consul-General of the Republic of Cuba, Nelida Hernandez Carmona.
Greetings to the Congress were also received from Nelson Davila, Charge d’Affaires of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Australia, the Labour Party Pakistan, the Peoples Democratic Party of Indonesia, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front of El Salvador, Socialist Voice (Canada), Socialist Action/Ligue Pour l'Action Socialiste (Canada) and from Felipe Stuart Cournoyer, in Nicaragua.
