At its n
ational gathering on October 4th, the Democratic Socialist Perspective affirmed its commitment to merge into the Socialist Alliance.
The DSP has been an affiliate of the Alliance since its founding in 2001. In 2003 the DSP had flagged its intention to invest its resources into the Socialist Alliance in order to facilitate its trajectory towards becoming a new Multi Tendency Socialist Party (MTSP). That dynamic was put on hold in 2005 in the wake of the re-election of the Howard federal government so in the four years since the DSP had been trying to build two parties concurrently -- its own, although restricted to being a tendency within the Alliance, and the Socialist Alliance itself. At its mid year meeting the DSP national leadership had decided to revive the merger process and since then, the DSP's separate operations had been rolled back in preference to working primarily in Alliance forums and governing bodies rather than organizing separately..
At its October meeting Peter Boyle, in his report to the national leadership gathering, said that the DSP was not giving up its revolutionary socialist politics but instead:
ational gathering on October 4th, the Democratic Socialist Perspective affirmed its commitment to merge into the Socialist Alliance.The DSP has been an affiliate of the Alliance since its founding in 2001. In 2003 the DSP had flagged its intention to invest its resources into the Socialist Alliance in order to facilitate its trajectory towards becoming a new Multi Tendency Socialist Party (MTSP). That dynamic was put on hold in 2005 in the wake of the re-election of the Howard federal government so in the four years since the DSP had been trying to build two parties concurrently -- its own, although restricted to being a tendency within the Alliance, and the Socialist Alliance itself. At its mid year meeting the DSP national leadership had decided to revive the merger process and since then, the DSP's separate operations had been rolled back in preference to working primarily in Alliance forums and governing bodies rather than organizing separately..
At its October meeting Peter Boyle, in his report to the national leadership gathering, said that the DSP was not giving up its revolutionary socialist politics but instead:
...we are finding the best road to taking that politics to a bigger audience. This is not just a paper declaration. We have proved it with everything we have done over the last months. Actions speak louder than words. We have carried on taking our politics into the various social movements and we have campaigned for socialist ideas through Green Left, other publications, through local political education classes and seminars, and through a very successful World At A Crossroads conference.Boyle said it was very clear that the DSP had no intentions of "liquidating" its politics. He then went onto to review how the merging process had fared over the past few months:
He pointed out that a political education program was feasible within the Alliance even if the DSP did not continue to act within it as a separate entity to organise it. In this regard Boyle stressed the continuing importance of Green Left Weekly in this process and underscored its role as a left regroupment tool:Our approach is to foster spaces where such leadership teams can emerge and be democratically accountable. We tried this out with the local organising committees and they have all succeeded to a one degree or another in bringing together new local leadership teams. We need to bend the stick in the direction of inclusivity so that new broader leadership teams can be built...The next challenge for the local organising committees is to set up effective working groups and committees, not just to organise the Socialist Alliance's interventions in the various social movements (which had already begun before we embarked on this merger process), but also to organise the party building tasks like recruiting, Green Left Weekly distribution and copy gathering, fundraising, education, etc.
The next stage in the merger process, aside from combined national leadership gatherings between the DSP and the SA national leadership bodies, is the back to back conferences to be held in early January next year when the DSP's final decision making conference will be followed by three days of discussion and debate at the Socialist Alliance conference.Well, now we also have a regular Arabic supplement, thanks to Soubhi Iskander and other Sudanese comrades in the Socialist Alliance, and soon we will have a Spanish-language supplement as well, thanks to our friends in the Latin American communities here. So Green Left is also a frontline in the left regroupment process, not least because it is the main regular media platform for the Socialist Alliance's message of left unity.
The DSP national executive does not anticipate that there will be a need to go back to organising the DSP in its current form. We are confident that the merger process will succeed and in less than a year comrades will be confident that we have a new party to be confident and proud of. But we are signalling that our bottom line is to do the job needed and if for some reason that we do not anticipate at present we have to pull back from organising wholly through the Socialist Alliance then we will be prepared to do that.But the DSP national executive's perspective is to focus on a powerful and exciting future building the Socialist Alliance as our party.
For further discussion about the merging of the DSP into the Socialist Alliance-- and regroupment politics -- see the following topics on LeftClick:
