Re: marxism-digest V1 #4755

["Alan Bradley" <abradley1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: Steve Painter
> The aim of the DSP operation was to make the formation of the Greens as
> difficult as possible because central leaders of the DSP realised that the
> Greens would provide a powerful alternative in its main growth area --
> youth (mainly students). They were right.

I've thought about this for a while, and I can't accept this viewpoint.  It
contradicts what I saw happening too badly.

It would require the central leadership of the DSP to have been working at
cross purposes to the rest of the DSP, without the rest of the DSP
realising.  I don't think we were that dumb.

What I think was going on was what I thought was going on at the time:
there was a factional struggle between two rival political programs.  On one
side, there were the liberal Greens, who wanted to set up a liberal
electoralist party.  On the other side was the DSP and its allies, who
wanted a grassroots campaigning movement.  The result was an inevitable
clash, which involved a great deal of intrigue and backbiting.  To put it
bluntly, the two factions hated each other.  I still haven't forgiven Drew
Hutton, Bob Brown and all the other swine.  (For the record, we fought a lot
less dirtily than our opponents.  We were the open, democratic side in this
barfight.)

It is true that we didn't want the liberal program to succeed. We wanted our
program to succeed. That's only spoiling if you only accept the liberal
program as legitimate.

We didn't want young people to be won to the liberal program. We wanted them
to be won to our program. Again, that's only a problem if you are a
supporter of the liberal faction.

Screw the liberal Greens. We fought a principled fight. We lost.

I would do it all again if necessary. One day, no doubt, I will.

Alan Bradley
abradley1@xxxxxxxxxxx









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