Re: DSP and expulsions

[Peter Boyle <peterb@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I have been part of the central leadership of the DSP for the last 10
years and Steve's posting on the DSP and expulsions gives a totally
false picture of real life in the DSP. It's been a long time since
anyone was expelled from the DSP... probably there haven't been any
since Steve was part of the national leadership, I suspect.

Expulsion really is a last resort to protect the party from hostile
action not to suppress or discourage intimidation. That's our approach.

I think we have a profoundly democratic culture in the DSP Indeed
written internal debate has been open all-year-round on most historical
issues, party organisation and interventions for the last 5 years
or more.

There has never been a case of victimisation of a comrade for his or her
political views that has been sanctioned or even tolerated by the
central party leadership. Of course, it still takes some guts and
resilience to fight from a minority position (I don't mean just to
co-exist as a loyal minority but to fight to change the majority about
some matter or other).

We don?t have a national leadership that is arrogant, complacent and
doesn?t give a stuff about relating to new political developments or
about how the party is being led. We live our lives worrying about how
well we engage these developments. These days we are having a lot more
big arguments about tactics at all levels of the party ledaership. And
that is a sign that like other left parties we are tryng to relate to
the exciting new developments in the movements post-Seattle 1999.

Some of these debates get quite heated. We?ve all got our share of
stubbornness and pride, so that feeds in too. But in the end we pull
through the heat because we are all committed to advancing the party.

There are some basic values that remain the cornerstones of our
commitment to the party project, which come from our broad understanding
of "Leninism", reinforced by our own collective experience:

First, a 100% commitment to revolutionary struggle as one?s profession
or career. We still think this is very important.

Second, a very healthy respect for the facts. We are not into dogmatism,
bullshitting or jiving people. There is plenty of this in some parties
on the left, but it is not our tradition at all.

Third, we have and encourage a critical consciousness of ourselves and
of everything else. We encourage our members to be self-critical and
aware of our strengths and weaknesses. We stress that part of the
challenge of leadership is to know your weakness otherewise you?ve got
one bloody big blind spot.

Fourth, we have a respect for experience, especially the collective
experience of socialists. This means we respect the lessons of history
and we study them. We must study our own party?s history, find out as
much as possible. But another side of this value is that we respect the
experiences of our left opponents. We do not have a dismissive attitude
to their experiences.

Finally, we have respect for the party membership. For us "Leninism" is
not elitist, it is the opposite. We believe in a centralised party, in
unity in action but not elitism. It is foreign to our party tradition
and we train our leaderships at all level to to hate it and look out for
it in their own behaviour. We don?t look down on comrades who are new,
who may know a little less or are less confident. And we also respect
comrades who raise differences.

The DSP has survived the 1990s quite well and today, in a modest way, is
much more in a position of leadership and initiative on the Australian
left. We are well respected by much of the revolutionary left in Asia
and elsewhere abroad. This is not the result of some massive PR job
we've done. They've watched what we are doing and respect us for it.

The 1990s were tough for the left. Many comrades were disheartened about
the prospects for socialism and stepped out of political activity.
Others, like Steve, are trying out a different road within the Greens.
Over the last two years some former members who left in the wake of the
collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Europe regimes are
rejoining or working with us in the Socialist Alliance. There's also
plenty of room for constructive discussion and debate about the way
forward for the left. And part of it could well involved a revaluation
by former members of their experiences in the DSP. But there is no need
to make a monster of our collective experience.

Peter Boyle
(member of DSP political Committee)




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