Bob Gould's comments on Aussie Left

[Shane Hopkinson <s.hopkinson@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear All

Having fished out some of Bob Gould's comment sheets I thought it would be 
worth calling for broader comments (its great being on holidays for a week).  
Here I
want to outline his  recommendations, make some comments and raise some 
questions in the course of it.  Gould makes the following comments as part of a
'Perspective for Marxists in the 21st Century'.  My paraphrases of him are 
numbered in quotes and followed by my comments.

1. "There needs to be a serious discussion of all the historical problems of 
the socialist movement and outstanding tactical questions"

Easier said than done I guess.  What would the forum be for such a discussion?  
Presumable Marxmail has this role but seems most often to serve as  a platform
for people to present views rather than debate them.  It would be great to see 
the Socialist Alliance serve some of this role (which Gould suggests) but at
present this looks unlikely given the relations between the respective groups. 
"Green Left' could serve some role here but it would take resources.  It was
after all intended to have some of this function (hence the title).

2. "Maintain the work done by socialist groups in uni and high school to 
continue to recruit members to the socialist movment."

3. "Maintain the campaigns" (eg Refugees, Anti-Globalisation)

No  comment required

4. "Commence a serious program of 'basic Marxist' education common to all 
groups linked to the Australian context and including a detailed study of 
Australian
labour history.

Where do you start on this?  Would it be possible to get a common education 
program among all the groups.  I assume we each have our own education classes -
would a common agreement emerge out of these?  I understand the US ISO has been 
using Callinicos' "Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx" I have a copy on order but
does anyone know this book?  It is accessible (not too academic?) and non 
sectarian? (ie contains the common ideas rather than divisive issues).

A detailed labour history would be great.  As far as I know there is no single 
work on the subject, the CPA never produced much in this respect and what I have
seen is a Marxist gloss on Brian Fitzpatrick (with the CPA as the culmination). 
 Apparently even the Great Depression and 1890s depression have not been subject
to a consistent Marxist analysis. Amazing. Gould has suggested that the DSP use 
Peter Conrick's pamphlet on the Labor party as the basis for debate by
republishing it in Green Left but I haven't seen it so I can't say.  If anyone 
has one I'd appreciate a copy of it.

Again the framework is what's needed.  Would it be possible for each group to 
pool resources or publish a common broadsheet and distribute it in each paper.
Perhaps an Australian version of Marxmail - with some rules for comradely 
debate.  It could publish some of Goulds papers and other longer pieces for
discussion.  Links to key sites might be good - perhaps to Draper's pieces that 
have been mentioned as well as some of the Left Australian history sites like
those run by ISO comrades.

5. Serious commencement of long term work in rank and file organisation in 
trade unions and working class.  This he summarised as 'Building a Class 
struggle
left wing in the Labour movement".  I can't see much wrong with this idea.  He 
goes on to propose serious united front work with the Labor party (and outlines
the history of such attempts) and a 'secondary united front' with the Greens 
(the gist of which I posted earlier). I will look more at his 'united front'
comments and his suggestions on Zinovievism and compare with what Louis has 
posted.

Finally I am interested in moving this debate forward and remedying my own 
weaknesses in Australian history to start with.  Someone raised the issue of 
the lack
of DSP contributions I know a number of comrades who follow this list but many 
of the discussions are attacks on the DSP which are not terribly useful to buy 
in
to.


Over to you

Shane










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