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

[Ozleft <Ozleft@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Richard Fidler:

 >Even ex-DSPer Ed Lewis - a carping critic of the DSP if there ever was 
one - has made a contribution of sorts by helping Bob Gould set up the 
Ozleft web site, which contains much valuable documentation on the 
Australian left and workers movement. Ed would make a further 
contribution if he put more of the DSP's historical documents on-line!>

Ed Lewis responds:

It's interesting Richard, that you, like many in the DSP leadership, 
find it necessary to focus on the individual, rather than the politics 
of what I had to say, but thanks for remembering me. I've rarely posted 
to the Green Left list or this list for a year or so, and I would have 
thought the DSP and its apologists might have found other things to talk 
about by now. Something I said apparently made an impression, which 
means my labours weren't wasted. When I more regularly posted to the 
Green Left list, I considered myself a persistent critic, rather than 
carping, but perhaps that depends who you talk to.

Very briefly, my critique of the DSP was based on the view that an 
excessive and stifling homogeneity was necessary for its relative 
success as a small group. This homogeneity even showed early signs of 
becoming social as well as political, with some leaders trying to trying 
to "lead" in areas in which political leadership has no legitimate role 
(such as film reviews, to name a fairly mild example).

The other small socialist group model in Australia was that of the ISO, 
which was not so homogeneous and had more discussion but regularly 
suffered bitter feuds based largely on personality, leading to 
expulsions and splits. That indicated to me that the far left had a real 
problem with discussion. Discussion automatically led to splits, and the 
way to avoid splits was to avoid discussion.

The constraints on discussion in the DSP, in my opinion, meant that 
almost all initiative had to come from the central leadership of 10 or 
so people, as they were the only ones regularly involved in systematic 
discussion and development of policy. Over time, this created an 
inward-looking, tactically and strategically conservative organisation.

The DSP's internal education system was quite good, so its cadres had a 
fairly high cultural level, but they had very little experience of mass 
political activity, which made them tactically flat-footed. It's not 
good enough to say the objective situation was unfavourable for mass 
activity. Leftists must be able to develop the tactics and strategy to 
reach a mass audience in the given circumstances.

While I was developing these views I came across Louis Proyect's 
critique of Zinovievism, which in my opinion explains much of the 
political background to the development of organisations such as the 
Australian DSP.

There have been quite a few developments since then, and I watch with 
interest whether the DSP has learned to handle discussion among its 
ranks. The jury's still out on that, as my information is that tensions 
are intense and there's a fair chance the minority will get the boot at 
some point, perhaps as early as the coming convention.

I'm not convinced of your observation on the number of activists who 
have passed through would-be Leninist organisations. No doubt some come 
away with some knowledge of Marxism, but my experience is that an equal 
number are repelled by the small-group culture and leave thinking they 
have had a brush with a very strange, narrow-minded and arrogant 
organisation. Explaining socialism to such people is more difficult as a 
result of their experience.

Thanks for your advice on the content of Ozleft. I think the site has 
played a positive role in the development of a more capable, thoughtful 
Australian left. Whether it has yet become sufficiently more tolerant of 
different viewpoints, and more objective in discussion, is still open to 
question. Lots of people give us advice, so I hope you won't mind 
joining the queue.



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