By Andrew Hall
WOLLONGONG — In recent months the NSW ALP has been experiencing widespread stacking of branches. A record 2094 membership applications were received in just one month, 600 coming from the Wollongong region alone. A large number of these were joined at a bogus rally against racism, many people not even realising they had joined the ALP.
Sources within the ALP have told Green Left Weekly that a leading right-wing faction contender for preselection in the state seat of Wollongong contributed $3000 to pay the joining fees of a large number of members drawn from the migrant community, as part of the factional war raging between the ALP's right, "left", and "hard left" groupings.
The local press has been full of reports about fights in branch meetings, restraining orders, citizens' arrests, threats of protest rallies and backroom deals.
South Coast Labour Council secretary Paul Matters was prevented on a technicality from standing for preselection for the federal seat of Cunningham against the right's Stephen Martin. An alternative left candidate was then pressured not to stand by ALP heavies. This included a phone call from federal opposition leader Kim Beazley, who threatened to have the preselections of a number of sitting left faction MPs overturned by federal intervention.
This is democracy ALP-style. Rank and file members have no say, and women are continually disadvantaged despite Labor's official objective of 35% of parliamentarians being women. In the Illawarra region, all potential women candidates have been blocked by branch stacking or federal intervention.
Both the left and right are involved in factional thuggery. The left factions pay lip service to needs of the working class and social movements while caving in to pressure from the right to preserve party discipline so that the Labor leadership can curry favour in the corporate boardrooms.
Instead of defending the interests of workers, building movements and resisting attacks from the right, the leaders of the left factions spend their time in parliamentary games and furthering their careers.
Unfortunately, many genuine trade union and community activists have become caught up in this internal bickering. Their campaigns and struggles would be fought more effectively outside the corrupting arena of the ALP numbers games and branch stacking.
[Andrew Hall is secretary of the Wollongong branch of the Democratic Socialist Party.]