Re: Socialist alternative 'unity' offer to ISO

[benj <benj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jeff wrote:
> Thus it would seem that we in SA are simultaneously identical to the other
> groups <and> sectarian and ultra-left -- quite a remarkable achievement.
> Still, that's dialectics for you!

Indeed. I think that the good things about SAlt (lots of radical
young people at Melbourne Uni for example) are counterbalanced by
a fairly "ultraleft" attitude of fetishising "rah-rah-radical"
actions designed to confront the cops etc. But that's not to say
that I'm opposed to working with SA, and without the sectarianism
we could probably come to a much more comfortable understanding
on ultraleftism. When SAlt left the Alliance citing
"electoralism" I thought that a bit rich as they had never
bothered to get involved in any way to try and avert this (which
I admit is a problem with the Alliance as it is now, and I
believe as the ISO conceive of it).

At the Resistance conference recently, Corey from SAlt said that
they preferred to build unity on the ground, on the picket lines
etc, rather than in a process like the Alliance. Sounds nice, but
unfortunately my experience of SAlt on picket lines is not that
great. Usually they are the ones running around trying (in my
view) to disrupt picket lines and protests to blockade roads,
tear down fences, etc, and not usually very friendly to the DSP.

I do think that SAlt were expelled from the ISO in a very
undemocratic manner, and they have made some good criticisms of
some aspects of the ISO's politics. But it's far easier to
diagnose a disease than it is to find a cure. The SAlt cure seems
to be one of reverting to ISO practice as it was in the early
1990s.

> Indeed, despite all the noble talk about unity, the DSP proposal involves a
> fairly conscious attempt to fish in the ISO's troubled waters (as
> individual DSP members privately acknowledge). Now, if the DSP dissolves
> into the Alliance, what's going to happen?

1. The DSP isn't about to dissove, it's just going to stop
publicly building itself to focus on the Socialist Alliance
2. The SA documents/letters to the ISO in fact are a great
example of a fishing expedition/raiding excercise. Although
probably a few (less experienced) DSP members do seem to think
that we're also trying to split the ISO I think they are being
small minded. I would prefer the ISO regain some coherency and a
more stable attitude towards the Alliance process, preferably an
attitude closer to the DSP of course, but I don't think that
smashing or splitting one's allies is very smart.

Ben Courtice

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