Poor election results etc

["Alan Bradley" <abradley1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

To be honest, I don't have an answer to how to deal with the poor election
results of the Australian left. There are some things that have occurred to
me, however.

The key problem is that the Australian far left has failed to win itself a
stable support base. There are several aspects to this:

(a) There probably isn't a huge potential base to be won! By this I mean
that the far left will not be the first port of call for large numbers of
disaffected workers (hell, "voters" in general - let's not be too narrow
about this). They will tend to be attracted to "softer" options first, all
else being equal. That is, they will tend to look for solutions within the
system before they look at smashing the system.

(b) The far left hasn't had the organisational capacity to develop a support
base for itself. Tiny little grouplets have real problems doing this,
especially when they are trying to organise on a national basis. They can
rarely establish deep roots in any particular area. At some point, they will
have to do this.

(c) With few exceptions, the historically much larger Communist Party failed
to develop particularly deep roots in specific working class communities
either, which suggests that it is a far from trivial task. (The "Red North"
in Queensland is the main exception.) The "Balmain Trotskyists" had a bit of
a base too, but don't seem to have been able to develop beyond it.

(d) Many people who encounter the far left think that they are crazy. This
isn't always too far from the truth!

None of these can be wished away. They can only be addressed by serious and
methodical work. An obvious starting point is to reduce the sectarian
bickering, and to try and assemble a force that is capable of carrying out
systematic organising work. The Socialist Alliance is an initiative that
points in this direction. It _won't_, in the short term, get election
results higher than those the DSP, for example, can achieve by itself, but
it can help build the grass roots organisation that we will need to start
digging ourselves out of the hole.

Of course, eventually the SA will prove to be an inadequate form in its own
right. Even a "multi-tendency revolutionary party" built to a considerable
degree from it would be ultimately inadequate. Further steps and strategic
choices will be required.

I don't think that we should be spanking ourselves for being overshadowed in
the electoral sphere by the Greens. We have a long way to go before we can
hope to compete with them, or, more importantly, the ALP.

Alan Bradley
abradley1@xxxxxxxxxxx





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