BY
PHIL SANDFORD
I would like to comment briefly on some of the issues in the important and welcome discussion which the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) has opened up around left unity.
The term united front is being used in a very confusing way in the discussion to cover virtually every form of united action.
Given that comrades in the Socialist Alliance come from a range of different political backgrounds it is important that we understand just what comrades mean. There is a very large literature on the issues raised by the difference between a united front and a popular front, issues that go to the heart of a series of historic betrayals of the working class.
Marxism is not a dogma and it is correct to develop concepts in the light of new developments, but if comrades want to jettison or modify the traditional meaning of terms like united front, they should clearly explain why they are doing this.
The DSP's offer of Green Left Weekly as a vehicle to build the Socialist Alliance is welcome, but it should be treated with some caution.
GLW and Socialist Worker are proud achievements of the DSP and International Socialist Organisation respectively, but the Socialist Alliance has to develop as an organisation in its own right and develop its own newspaper and forms of communication.
Under some conditions having a weekly paper and a large number of full-timers could seriously distort the political development of the alliance.
Given the past experiences of many left groups the alliance should err on the side of being very democratic, including having public disagreements in its press, and having a small proportion of full-timers.
In the period leading up to the May 2003 alliance conference we have a chance to engage in important campaigns including union work, the anti-war and refugee movements, and the Victorian and NSW elections.
We will also hopefully have built an active membership in which the founding affiliates are a minority and will have established some common work and discussion with the left of the Greens and the Labor Party.
Drawing on all these experiences the conference will be in a position to draw a balance sheet of two years work in building the alliance and to develop perspectives for our future work.
The DSP's proposal to dissolve next January unfortunately cuts across this development because it presents the conference with an organisational fait accompli. The discussion would proceed more fruitfully if this proposal were withdrawn.
[Phil Sandford is a member of the Socialist Alliance national executive and the Workers League, one of the eight organisations affiliated to the alliance.]
From Green Left Weekly, November 6, 2002.
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