Conference discusses way forward for left

By Jennifer Thompson SYDNEY — A successful Socialist Activist and Education Conference, held here in early January, examined the experience of left and progressive movements, especially socialist parties, in a series of feature talks supported by workshops and evening events. The conference, convened by the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance on the theme "Socialism — the way forward", attracted around 230 people, including five international guest speakers. DSP national secretary John Percy began the conference with a feature talk outlining debates on socialist strategy in the international working-class movement. Starting with a snapshot of international capitalism, with its gross social inequality, exploitation and looming environmental disaster, he discussed the situation of the socialist movement post-Stalinism and the positive prospects for revolutionary parties based on internationalism and Leninism. Links managing editor and DSP National Executive member Dick Nichols reported on the trend toward globalisation of the world economy, its relation to capitalism's neo-liberal recipe for privatisation, deregulation and "flexibilisation" and the challenges for the working-class movement's response to these attacks. A guest speaker from the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), Aravinda Perera, described the situation of the left in Sri Lanka and the NSSP's opposition to the Popular Alliance government's war against the Tamil people and the war's effect on the Tamil struggle for self-determination. His presentation was followed by Green Left Weekly On-Line, an interactive, multi-media panel on the achievements of Green Left Weekly. DSP National Executive member Doug Lorimer opened the second day with a feature talk: "Retreat from Class — The Evolution of the Left Intelligentsia", tracing the radical intelligentsia's move away from Marxism to post-modernist neo-liberal populism and the underlying social causes. Another DSP NE member, Reihana Mohideen, reported on Australian capital's push into Asia, based especially on the special relationship with the Indonesian regime, and the resistance of Asian workers and liberation struggles. She emphasised the need for solidarity with the anti-imperialist struggles in the region and against the policies of the Australian government, which assist capital's exploitation of the region. The DSP was particularly committed to supporting the East Timor liberation and Indonesian democracy campaigns by supporting the Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor and local East Timor support groups, she said. Johan Lonnroth, who represents the Vanster Partiet (Left Party) in the Swedish parliament, described the souring of the much-vaunted social democratic "Swedish model" through its implementation of capitalist globalisation measures, particularly in the form of the Maastricht convergence criteria for European union. Following Lonnroth was a high school students' rally "Out of the classrooms and onto the streets". Panellists' accounts of the eruption of high school protests against nuclear testing in 1995 were interspersed with media footage of student actions and the attempts to prevent or discredit them by sections of the school system, union movement and media. Conference-goers started the third day with a feature talk on the rise of right-wing feminism by NE member Pat Brewer. Brewer looked at the political polarisation of the women's movement over the last 25 years and some of the currents of the movement that have risen to prominence but fail to tackle the oppression of the majority of women. Later in the day was a feature talk by Green Left Weekly writer and DSP NE member Lisa Macdonald on the evolution of green politics from the early '80s. She described the unrealised potential of the Green parties' radical challenge to the economic rationalism of the establishment parties worldwide. The real experiences of Greens' participation in government had been the sacrifice of the grassroots vision of a new politics to "pragmatic" reliance on the institutions of capitalist democracy. Guest speakers from the Spanish United Left and the German Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) ended the formal part of day three with talks on the situation of the left in Europe. Spain is suffering massive attacks from the governing Socialist Party trying to meet European Union standards, and in the former East Germany the negative experience of Stalinism has been followed by capitalist restoration causing a catastrophic rise in unemployment. The speakers described the challenge of European-wide working-class organising and social democracy and efforts to learn from the mistakes of Stalinism. The PDS speaker, Andre Brie, has also given public meetings in Sydney and Melbourne on his party's efforts to transform itself from the ruling party of the GDR to a party struggling for a deeply democratic socialism. The remaining two days of the conference were devoted mainly to Australian politics, with feature talks on attempts at anti-capitalist regroupment in the '80s and '90s, the need to draw radicalising young people to the socialist movement, the coming federal elections and the work of the DSP in building a party able to strengthen and help lead the working-class movement. Resistance national coordinator Natasha Simons reported on the experiences of the DSP and Resistance in relating to young people, who were well represented at the conference, helping to build their campaigns and convincing them of the need to build the socialist movement. Sonny Melencio from the anti-Stalinist Manila Rizal branch of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which split from the CPP, outlined plans to consolidate the forces formerly in the CPP. Three main regional groupings are preparing plans for the launch of a new national party, and two new newspapers for the revolutionary democratic movement and the socialist union movement will be launched soon, he reported. Interwoven with the feature talks and rally panels were a wide range of international and Australian politics workshops, including a series on the history of the Australian labour movement and the international Marxist movement. Others included the Cuban revolution today, politics of the Middle East and China, whether capitalism can green itself, Kennett's Victoria and gay and lesbian rights. Conference participants departed feeling recharged and inspired to build progressive campaigns and movements in the year ahead.