The formation of the Socialist Alliance, by eight revolutionary groups and parties on February 17, opens the door to immense opportunities for the radical left. Here are statements from representatives of each of the eight founding parties about what they see the alliance's chances are and where they think it should go.
'Never a better time to unite'
The Freedom Socialist Party is delighted to be a founding member of the Socialist Alliance. We have a proud history, both locally and internationally, of working to create left electoral alliances.
There has never been a better time for the left to unite. While the Coalition and the ALP compete to implement the same basic neo-liberal agenda, long suffering voters are looking for an alternative. Bold candidates — pledging to defeat the assaults through concrete socialist measures — will be a magnet, especially to the growing sections of the working class which are questioning the inevitability of capitalism.
The best way to fight the Liberals is to build a real anti-capitalist alternative. ALP politicians continue to promote themselves as market-driven, responsible economic managers pledged to protect profits and curb "excessive" demands by workers.
But the Labor Party cannot merely be dismissed — it must be replaced. The recent resurgence of Hansonism shows how easily right-wing populism can fill a leadership vacuum if a mass left-wing alternative is not presented.
To fulfil its enormous potential, the Socialist Alliance must continue the commitment to internal democracy. Embracing the demands of the working class in all of its diversity is also crucial. Feminism, anti-racism, opposition to homophobia, a commitment to indigenous self-determination and respect for the environment are core concerns, not optional extras.
The Socialist Alliance can inspire voters by putting forward candidates who stand unequivocally for working-class interests. Our goal is to pry open the electoral process, offer and popularise practical anti-capitalist solutions to seemingly intractable problems, build a powerful grassroots movement and get socialist candidates elected!
The Freedom Socialist Party are revolutionary feminists, and we look forward to working in the Socialist Alliance with anti-capitalist rebels of every type. Together, we can make a difference.
Alison Thorne, Freedom Socialist Party
'Only the truth is revolutionary'
The Socialist Alliance is an exciting prospect that promises to bring together a wide spectrum of socialists in a way that has not been attempted in this country. For longer than any of us care to remember, the left has been split into a plethora of small groups, and it hasn't been helpful.
Trotsky once wrote that "only the truth is revolutionary". If we take that as our watchword, we have to admit that the left is minuscule. The vote for the left in the recent WA state elections was disappointing, even embarrassing.
We have done better than that, of course, especially in the 1999 Victorian state elections. One of the salient features of that election was the "non-aggression" pact between the left organisations and the Greens. The Socialist Alliance will build on that.
If we can work together in the Socialist Alliance project in this year's federal election — and in future polls — this will be another qualitative leap. An electoral alliance is not in itself a guarantee of an improved vote or — dare I say it — of socialists being elected to parliament.
We need to think seriously about developing policies that will persuade people to dump the ALP, and we will need to run proper election campaigns as opposed to propaganda exercises. And we must actively build the Alliance so that it reaches beyond the existing socialist groups to the working class and the new layers of activists who are entering the social movements, and to those "quieter" layers who have borne the brunt of the economic rationalist offensive.
At the same time, however, the Alliance should provide a positive pole of attraction and enable us to intervene much more effectively in the political process than we've been able to do before.
John Tully, Socialist Democracy
'A real, fighting, united alternative'
Workers Power supports the recent formation of a Socialist Alliance in Australia. The Socialist Alliance has the potential to provide a real, fighting and united alternative to Labor, something desperately needed after 25 years of cutbacks and economic rationalism.
In Australia this year we will see the federal election, mass protests on May Day plus the continuation of industrial disputes such as in the Latrobe Valley, as well as the growing campaign for the rights of refugees.
If we organise well, the Socialist Alliance has great potential to grow from these struggles and to generalise them into a united fight-back against the bosses and the Howard government.
This means that the alliance must also be based on a solid plan of action. While the current SA platform is good overall, we believe there are some key weaknesses.
In the context of One Nation and media hysteria over "boat people", refugees and "illegal" immigrants, it is essential that a Socialist Alliance is absolutely clear on the issue of immigration controls. Workers Power fights for the demands of "Open borders, no immigration controls and full citizenship rights for all immigrants" to be part of the Socialist Alliance platform from the beginning.
We also believe the Socialist Alliance should fight for all strikes and industrial disputes to be under the control of rank and file workers, through democratic mass meetings and strike committees. We also fight for organised workers' self-defence against racism and police attack, and in defence of all strikes and other progressive struggles.
Lisa Farrell, Workers Power
'A voice for a workers' alternative'
As a voice for a workers' alternative, the Socialist Alliance could offer "a workers' plan to rebuild Australia", which would tax the rich, seize control from the profiteers, rebuild jobs, expand public services, create a democratic republic. A socialist solution can inspire a new following, better than a list of issues of opposition to the government.
Socialism is nothing like the old Soviet Union, nor is it a social-democratic parliamentary balancing act attempting to accommodate conflicting class interests within capitalism. Being socialist means taking the side of the working class against capital, and supporting maximum freedom for workers to organise.
Workers Liberty's platform for the Socialist Alliance answers current problems with workers' solidarity and union rights, and includes measures that could be expected of a workers' government.
We also advocate working within the labour movement as it is, to renovate it with socialist politics and full democracy and accountability. We are for uniting and strengthening a class struggle left in the labour movement. Workers Liberty is for the election of a Labor government, as the ALP is the political wing of the unions.
The liberatory needs of social movements, especially women and indigenous people, are vital, but they do not represent parallel forces to the working class, simply travelling towards the same goal. Class and the capitalist mode of production is defining for all other struggles.
The Socialist Alliance can show how to achieve its platform by basing itself on union struggles, and linking them to socialist measures, wider measures that the organised working class could take to create a new socialist and sustainable society.
Workers Liberty also welcomes the Socialist Alliance initiative as a chance to unite the left around political goals at the same time as creating the possibility of serious discussion to clarify and resolve divisive issues.
Janet Burstall, Workers Liberty
'We should pose socialism'
We see the alliance as a positive step. For us, participation has many dimensions:
1. Political conflict in Australia is becoming stronger and simpler; everyone is now talking about their demands and the policies of the different parties. We should exploit this atmosphere and pose workers' demands and socialism, get into the middle of the conflict and talk about political power.
2. At the same time, we need to explain to people that parliament is an instrument for the bourgeoisie. It is not our instrument; our instrument is the socialist government and the workers' council. We should explain that we have no illusions that by participating or taking one seat or a few seats we can change the whole bourgeois state to a workers' state.
3. The most important thing for the workers' and communist parties is independence and not to become a part of the bourgeois parties, especially those which talk in the name of workers, like the Labor Party.
4. This alliance may teach us how to more effectively influence the consciousness of the people. Defending the basic demands of the workers and the deprived people in society will bring them closer to us; it's not every day we get such an opportunity to move from the margins to the core.
5. The Socialist Alliance can be a place for the leftist parties to work together, a place for more joint practical actions against capitalism and for posing socialism as alternative.
6. The demands should be inclusive. They should include the demands of all sections of the society, like workers, women, students, teachers and Aboriginal people.
Toma, Worker Communist Party of Iraq (Australia)
'Take the lead in the fight'
The Workers League welcomes the initiative taken by the Democratic Socialist Party and the International Socialist Organisation in calling for the establishment of the Socialist Alliance. The founding meeting of the alliance represents an important step forward in the fight against the Howard government and for a clear socialist alternative.
The formation of the alliance means that there will now be a single left candidate standing in a number of important seats across Australia. As in union elections, it is vital that the left unites in this way in opposition to the capitalist parties.
The formation of the alliance comes at a time of deepening crisis for the Howard government. Traditional political alliances, such as the federal Coalition, are being torn apart under the impact of so-called globalisation.
The Labor "opposition" is unable to offer any solutions to the problems facing workers and young people today, such as unemployment and cuts in wages and conditions. The policies of privatisation and deregulation were put in place by the Hawke and Keating governments and the Howard government has deepened these attacks and devastated rural Australia.
This situation provides a great opportunity to campaign around socialist policies and take the lead in the fight against the Howard government.
Phil Sandford, Workers League
'The opportunities are tremendous'
The International Socialist Organisation is pleased to have been part of founding the Socialist Alliance.
The opportunities for a Socialist Alliance are tremendous. The Howard government is probably on its last legs. The question now is, will there be more of the same or will there be a real fight to put people's needs before the interests of big business and the developers. Making a difference starts now.
The election results in Western Australia and Queensland reveal a real mood for change to the left of Labor. On public education, public health, union rights, the GST, working people want to see a real alternative to the market forces that have ravaged their lives.
The Socialist Alliance is about building a fighting alternative to economic rationalism. We are told that there is no money for welfare and services. But if the rich were taxed at the level of the 1980s, there would be $31 billion a year extra for education, Aboriginal health and public transport. The Liberal government is spending over $2 billion subsidising private health funds. That's money that can go to nursing homes and hospitals. Scrapping one Collins class submarine could reverse the Liberals cuts to child care.
The anti-capitalist movement at S11 showed there are already people critical of the priorities of the system. Many more have been disillusioned by Beazley tailing the Liberals. One Nation plays on that disillusionment.
The Socialist Alliance can show that there is an alternative to the corporate control of society — and not just an electoral alternative. Closing the detention centres can't wait for the next election. Nor can the Yallourn power workers or the BHP miners wait to see what happens to the Workplace Relations Act. The Socialist Alliance can build solidarity for every section of workers fighting back.
Uniting the left behind the Socialist Alliance can help put the "S" word back into mainstream politics and offer a serious left alternative.
Ian Rintoul, International Socialist Organisation
'There is an alternative'
The Socialist Alliance is being formed at a very interesting time; it has huge opportunities.
The Coalition is on the nose and looks likely to lose the federal elections, but any Labor landslide won't come with high expectations from voters. They will have punished Howard but they will also be bracing for attacks from a new pro-corporate Labor government. Labor voters in Victoria had this experience when "Jeff" Bracks replaced Jeff Kennett.
Beazley Labor is going to be as pungently reactionary as Tony Blair's New Labour in Britain. I watched Tony Blair's latest war speech against Iraq and I could see "Bomber" Beazley doing the same.
Most people know that there is a pro-corporate, neo-liberal consensus between Labor and the Coalition — the Socialist Alliance hardly needs to expose that. What it does need to do is argue, and prove, the opposite of Margaret Thatcher's chilling claim, "There is no alternative".
The only prospect for a socially just and ecologically sustainable future is the creation of a radically new society, based on cooperation and democratic control. The challenge for the Socialist Alliance is to put the case for socialism as persuasively and confidently as possible.
The Socialist Alliance will make a mark at federal elections. And if Howard is defeated, the Socialist Alliance should swell under a new federal Labor government.
What makes the conditions for this attempt at left regroupment so favourable is that it comes in the midst of an upturn in the social movements following Seattle and its sequels, including S11. Many more people are now seeking the alternative that the Socialist Alliance can provide.
The left activists in the Socialist Alliance are all working hard to build the anti-corporate blockades on May 1 as the next S11. A successful M1 will be a powerful boost to the political standing of the Socialist Alliance.
Peter Boyle, Democratic Socialist Party