Re: Socialist Alliance vote in NSW

[Ben Courtice <benj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom wrote:

Ben:
>>It's still early days for the Socialist Alliance.<<

We've been hearing this for two years, Ben. How long can we reasonably
be
asked to wait for some modest success? Five years? Ten?
<snip>
DAVID wrote
Its not really early days for the SA. They have been through more than
two years worth of elections and have failed to even move above the
votes of the DSP of the past and other independent left organisations.
More serious reassessment rather than a rehash of the old excuses.
<snip>

I shouldn't have gotten involved as I'm sure all this debate has
happened before. But here I go... and I know I'm not going to convince
Tom or DAVID so I'll be brief.

The SA has, obviously, achieved a lot more than any other socialist
group in getting electoral registration and consistently running in
elections. That shows that SA has at least got some of the basic
framework necessary for building on.

As to election results, they have been mostly above what the DSP has
gotten in recent years, although not dramatically. But the SA is still
going through the process of defining itself -- especially in the
leadup to its second conference. Personally I think that what we have
done to date is more or less with one arm tied behind our backs.
That's what I mean by "early days".

The local council elections that the Melbourne West SA participated in
are a case in point: in one ward, competing with a Green candidate
(who was elected partly on our preferences), we scored 4.4%. Another
candidate (with no Green competition) got 6.5%. In a large field of
candidates, this represents a conscious choice by voters. Even at only
2% (which we got here in the state election) there is a scattering of
supporters to work with; the council results look better. And there's
no shortage of political campaigns, whether the local swimming pool
closures or the war on Iraq. The May conference of SA is supposed to
gear SA to grow in these areas (which I think the
organisation/structure has not so far been strong enough to
facilitate).

Ben Courtice