Re: [Marxism] The DSP's fresh approach to applying democratic, centralism

["Joaquin Bustelo" <jbustelo@xxxxxxxxx>]

Peter Boyle says: "The average age of DSP members at our last (January 2006)
congress was 36. This may have been slightly higher than in previous
congresses and can be attributed to the DSP having more members in their
40s, 50s and 60s than before. The average age of DSP leadership bodies is
not much older (and is probably set to get younger). Compared with most
other small left groups in imperialist countries the DSP has a younger
membership. Maybe the ISO in the US has a similar age profile?"

No, I think the ISO is younger. They have only a handful of members in their
40's and virtually none in their 50's and 60's. My guess would be half or so
of their members are under 25. But the ISO has a very high turnover as most
of its recruitment is on campus, so they have some of the characteristics of
a youth organization (they have no separate youth organization that works
with them). Probably to make a valid comparison of the DSP and ISO, you'd
have to add Resistance's numbers to those of the DSP, or exclude in the ISO
numbers those who have been members less than, say, two years.

"The activity levels of most DSP members remains high compared to other
similar organisations in advanced capitalist countries, though there has bee
a steady reduction in hours spent distributing the newspaper, Green Left
Weekly. Some of this may reflect a lower level of political activity but it
also reflects other shifts. Some members are doing a lot more work in the
trade union movement and as unemployment has been reduced (and most
university students forced to get part-time jobs!) , a reserve of virtual
full-time activists has all but disappeared."

In the U.S., and I'd be flabbergasted to learn Australia was different,
there is a massive shift AWAY from dead-tree print publications and towards
online. "People" are buying fewer print publications every year, and this is
above all true of newspaper and tabloid-format publications. But behind the
raw numbers is an even starker reality. The decline is due to a complete
collapse among younger people -- there is quite literally NO market for
dead-tree news publications among people in their 20s', who have grown up
with the Internet and a computer in their bedrooms.

Some expect that news print publications --to the degree they survive at
all-- will become luxury items aimed at a very high demographic with lots of
exclusive content. But attempts to begin implementing that strategy (by
charging for web access) by the NYT and others have fallen flat on their
face. Even the Wall Street Journal is going to drop its subscription
firewall and go advertiser-supported online.

Left groups are going to have to rethink their strategy about what print
publications they have and how they are used in the context of the media of
the 21st Century. I suspect the printed national central organ is well on
its way to a museum of antiquities, but even if not, it is destined to play
a qualitatively smaller role than in the early part of the last century,
before the rise of electronic media.

One good thing about the internet and technological advances that have
accompanied it is that video presentation is now accessible to almost any
group that wants to make use of it. I don't know if the DSP has had a chance
to get into that side of it.

Joaquín


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