Re: [Marxism] The Democratic Socialist Perspective ¹ s dirty laundry

[Nick Fredman <n.fredman.11@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, congratulations Louis for uncovering "dirty laundry" that has been
publicly airing for some weeks now (that is, the last DSP report on the
Socialist Alliance http://www.dsp.org.au/node/220).

"One hopes that they might even consider following [the NPA's] example and
move toward building a broad anti-capitalist political party in
Australia...I simply do not know enough about Australian politics to make
recommendations".

One might hope for a little consistency. And maybe a recognition that
knowing little or nothing about Australia means that one is not in any great
position to judge either the secret "real agenda" of the DSP, or the
accuracy of anything the RSP says.

For an example of the latter, it's a almost surreal, maybe a little
desperate, for the RSP to claim "nearly all of the DSP public political
activity is already done in the name of the Socialist Alliance", a few days
after a conference of 450 socialists from about a dozen countries very
demonstrably organised in the name of the DSP
http://www.worldatacrossroads.org/ (but I'm sure we'll be lectured about how
dreadful it was soon enough).

Of course the problem of the Australian SA was the exact opposite of that of
the UK SA. That is, in Australia, the conditions for a move to a broad
anti-capitalist party have been lacking, while pushed by the dominant
grouping in the Socialist Alliance, the DSP, which offered it resources for
a joint paper, joint conferences, joint educational material, downplayed its
own organisation and profile etc etc. While the objective conditions were
the main problem, the perspective of the DSP and nearly all "unaffiliated"
members of SA freaked out and was undermined by the ISO, and other grouplets
(The argumentation about "DSP control" was embarrassingly thin, when not
hysterical, though maybe it's easier to judge from Coyoacan, sorry
Manhatten). In the UK, the SWP, with the same schema but more numbers than
the ISO,  simply squashed any such "partyist" moves.

In mid-2005 the DSP began an ordered retreat from the perspective of SA
becoming a fully-fledged party. Those that later formed the RSP would have
preferred a disorderly rout.

SA remains a useful class struggle organisation but there's certainly an
objective need for a broad anti-capitalist party, which the DSP sonce at
least 2006 has stated that the SA should be merely a part of. The Greens as
Gary relates don't measure up on several counts, for example even where more
left than in Queensland they're not very habitable for militant unionists.

The NPA is welcome and will undoubtedly produce useful lessons. However one
of the useful aspects of Callincos' piece on the NPA was his explicitly
humble admission that there is no one model that will fit very different
national. Louis seems to have missed or disagrees with this.

This insight is very much related to the question of cadre organisation.
There are real question of the reproduction of the ideas of Marxism ans
militant working class politics generally which some partisans of broad
parties too flippantly dismiss. Someone with a lot more experience in this
regard than Louis, namely the impressive working class Maori leader Matt
McCarten, came to just about every DSP conference in the 90s and bemoaned
the lack of a cadre organisation that could help cement the gains of the
NewLabour and then Alliance mass left parties. All the way up to the
collapse of the latter in 2001, with if I recall right ten out of 11
parliamentarians voting for NZ troops to help invade Afghanistan.

Given the level of struggle in France and the radicalism of the NPA program,
the NPA alone could accommodate all that the LCR previously contributed.
Howver looser and broader organisations, in a situation of flatter class
struggle, might call for he continuation of existing, or better, regrouped,
Marxist organisation.

Louis' schema of dissolving everywhere immediately is just as schematic as
the Callinocos of about 4 years ago, when he ordered the Australian ISO to
leave the Socialist Alliance and pursue the quixotic aim of an Australian
Respect. 



 



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