BY PETER BOYLE
What orientation should the Socialist Alliance take towards the new global anti-corporate movement?
While the founding conference of the Socialist Alliance adopted a platform that brings together the main demands and slogans of the movement, there were also differences between the main left parties that formed the alliance. So a challenge will be to continue a constructive and comradely discussion to broaden the areas of agreement.
While a clear majority of conference delegates agreed that the alliance should pitch its platform to the new anti-corporate movement, members of the International Socialist Organisation (ISO) argued strongly that this should not be the main target audience of the alliance.
ISO members said that the alliance should avoid demands which would put up unnecessary barriers to the involvement of traditional Labor supporters. Consequently, they argued against the inclusion of the demands for "open borders" in the section of the platform on globalisation, against the demand to end public funding for all private schools, and against the demand for disarming the police.
Their concept of the Socialist Alliance is a united front between socialists and disgruntled Laborites around a platform based on "old-Labor" demands.
During the Socialist Alliance pre-conference discussion, the ISO argued: "If we are going to win over disaffected Labor voters, we need a platform that both captures the imagination and is the basis of an achievable alternative to the market consensus between Labor and Liberal.
"Having a full program of socialist demands would be an obstacle to that process. We want to provide a home and a basis for working alongside those who are breaking with Labor but who may not yet be convinced of socialism as a fundamentally new social order. This will be vital to the success of the alliance."
Some ISO members have explicitly described the Socialist Alliance as a "reformist" project and argued that relating to the new "anti-capitalist" movement was another project altogether.
ISO leader David Glanz conceded that among the activists at S11 and M1 were many radical young workers but he warned that these were still a small minority of the working class.
Glanz is right that this is a small minority, but he misses the critical relationship between the new anti-corporate movement and the working class. The radical S11 and M1 mobilisations had a big political impact in Australian politics because the movement has deep sympathy within the broader working class.
The capitalist rulers worry aloud about this. Their polls and surveys tell them that the new movement is enjoying unprecedented support. And it is this, and not the disruptive impact of the mobilisations, that frightens them most of all.
The Socialist Alliance won't win the advanced layers of the working class, who are already moving into action in the new movement, if it fails to champion the movement's radical demands.
It is not a question of adopting a "full program of socialist demands" for the election platform but of offering a lead to the actual forces in struggle. Indeed, the Socialist Alliance should be prepared to do this even where these demands have yet to be accepted by broader layers of the working class or are still considered "too idealistic".
The normal conditions of life of the working class, in which they are the passive victims of exploitation and oppression, tend to imbue them with the idea that socialism is impossible and "too idealistic", that the ruling class is simply too powerful to be defeated.
But how can this change?
The advanced layers first win the partial support of the rest of the class, initially because they recognise that at least these activists are putting up a fight.
But as they are drawn into mass action, workers then begin to understand that the apparently "radical" demands of the movement are not "too idealistic" at all, but actually represent their interests.
In the heat of great mass mobilisations, of collective actions, the feelings of inferiority and powerlessness inculcated into all oppressed classes from birth can suddenly disappear. The working class can become conscious of its immense potential power when it acts together, collectively and in solidarity.
This is the way working class consciousness can radicalise rapidly.
The Socialist Alliance is being built at a critical moment in Australian politics. Large sections of the working class are already seriously disillusioned with the ALP.
The problem is that they haven't seen a left political alternative that they feel confident in. The radical left was seen as small, isolated and fractious. The unprecedented left unity represented in the formation of the Socialist Alliance makes us much more attractive.
But simply picking up the dusty banners dropped by the ALP will not do the job. The Socialist Alliance will succeed only if it consciously attracts more of the small but influential radical minority of the working class that has become active in the new anti-corporate movement.
There is another reason why a "true Labor" platform is inadequate. The process of working class disillusionment with the ALP is very far advanced but the problem is that, so far, it hasn't been matched by the development of a left project that can attract a significant section of these disillusioned layers.
In the meantime other formations, such as the Greens, Democrats, even One Nation, have taken a slice of those disillusioned with the ALP.
The Socialist Alliance joins the fray a little late and so must from the start distinguish itself from these competitors.
If there is one major advantage the radical left has today, it's the new anti-corporate movement and the actual leadership role we have collectively played in S11 and M1. The new movement is our greatest strength and the Socialist Alliance should pitch its platform to involving even bigger contingents of the working class.
[Peter Boyle is a member of the national executive of the Democratic Socialist Party and was a delegate at the inaugural Socialist Alliance national conference.]