By Ben Reid
MELBOURNE — Around 50 people gathered here for the national conference of the New Labour Party (NLP) over the June 7-9 long weekend. The decision of the conference to proscribe members of the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) from the new organisation disappointed radical and principled members of the NLP.
Under the cover of proscribing members of electorally registered political parties "such as the ALP and the DSP", NLP leaders aim was to exclude what they saw as a potential source of opposition to their nationalist, social democratic politics.
Stalinist groups that had supported the ALP government's austerity measures through the 1980s, such as the Maritime Union Socialist Activities Association and the Sydney-based Marxist Initiative (formerly the Association for Communist Unity) were welcomed. The NLP leadership allowed some smaller Melbourne-based Trotskyist organisations to remain for the time being because their Melbourne branch is reliant upon them.
The conference also adopted a range of policies after considerable debate which exposed significant political differences.
NLP leaders, such as Bob Leach and Rod Noble — ex-members of the ALP and the Communist Party of Australia's failed New Left Party — limited debate at the conference by setting a delegate ratio of one to every 25 members. The party's estimated 400 members were therefore represented by only 20 people.
To ensure that opponents of the NLP leadership's social democratic politics were excluded from discussion, the first day of the conference was dominated by the debate over a proscription clause in the new constitution.
An amendment was moved by the Melbourne branch to delete the clauses giving the national council power to exclude members of existing left groups. The branch argued that it was a draconian attempt to limit participation in the party by bureaucratic means.
Noting that a large range of organisations of the left already exist in Australia, opponents of proscription argued that the building of a genuine and democratic mass party of the working class requires the input and regroupment of these organisations. It was unrealistic to expect them to immediately disband their identities and structures into a new and risky venture.
Delegates pointed to the experiences of other new left parties overseas, such as the Brazilian Workers' Party, that had succeeded through being less restrictive.
The attempts to equate the aims of DSP members with those of ALP members were rejected. It was pointed out that ALP members should be excluded because their politics were in conflict with the primary aims of the NLP. The DSP on the over hand was genuinely concerned with building a united mass workers' organisation to the left of Labor.
The NLP conservatives' only reply was to dredge up old Stalinist slanders and lies about the activities of the DSP. When it came to a vote, the small and unrepresentative number of delegates ensured the leadership had its way.
The real reason for the proscription of more radical groups became clearer during debate over policy. Delegates were presented with 22 policies, to be discussed and voted on within a few hours. The industrial relations policy was little different to the ALP's, prompting the Melbourne NLP branch to present three pages of amendments.
The economics policy was presented by Leach on behalf of the Brisbane branch. The document claimed that Australia's economic problems were the result of the process of globalisation of the world economy. It called for a "new globalism, new nationalism and new regionalism".
Under this "new" guise, the policy proposed just about every old social democratic nostrum imaginable in the framework of the nationalist protection of Australian industry through increased tariffs. Radical-sounding rhetoric about "workers' control" turned out be a rehash of the old idea of Sweden's wage-earner funds with which workers are supposed to gradually buy out the firm. Some time in the next millennium, it is presumed, the capitalists would peacefully give up control of their businesses and profits.
The policy was just a re-statement of Labor's programs of the 1980s, including the ACTU's 1986 document Australia Reconstructed, confirming Leach's statements from the outset that the NLP would be "strictly social democratic with a definite theoretical basis and theory".
However, even after excluding the DSP, considerable disagreement with Leach's Laborism meant that adoption of the draft policy was deferred to enable further discussion in the branches.
Elections for a national leadership body were held on the final day. Most existing office bearers were re-elected, with the addition of a member of the Melbourne branch as party president.
Most activists left the conference feeling less than enthusiastic. The sectarian and exclusive approach of the NLP leadership and the small attendance at the conference convinced many that this new party is not the step towards building a mass socialist party for Australian workers that it was hoped it might be.