A lot of my workmates are very worried. They watch the opinion polls shifting back in the Liberals' favour and fear that PM John Howard is going to be re-elected. From child care to bulk billing, from union rights to gay marriage, they know only too well what that would mean.
Yet many of these same workmates are not planning to vote Labor. Some will be voting Green; a couple might possibly back the Socialist Alliance.
They are perplexed and frustrated with Labor. They fear it is going to throw victory away again. Labor leader Mark Latham doesn't look crazy brave to them — he looks crazy boring.
Across the country, there are many others just like them. On the one hand they badly want Labor to beat the Liberals, on the other they are broadly sceptical of what Labor has to offer.
But such people are still a minority. Beyond them there is the much broader number of working-class voters who are backing Latham.
Some support him because they think he is a larrikin, others because they see him as the next Whitlam, while most are for him because he is the only viable alternative to Howard. And they hate Howard.
How does the Socialist Alliance relate to such a complicated mood? The main resolution at the alliance's national conference in May, moved by the national executive and carried overwhelmingly by delegates, included some important guidelines.
In part it read: "There is now a widespread sense that the Liberals can be beaten. The Socialist Alliance shares with both Labor and Green supporters the desire to drive Howard out.
"But we also recognise that Latham is a populist and rightwing leader, who combines audacity over questions like withdrawing troops from Iraq or parliamentary superannuation with conservatism over national security, the US alliance, indigenous affairs, paid maternity leave, etc.
"The task for the Alliance is to work alongside all those who want an end to Howard while putting forward our own positive, socialist alternative on the questions of the day.
"The Alliance also needs to raise demands on Labor, in order to help raise workers' desire for change, and to highlight the gap between what Labor should offer and the Alliance does."
Further on, the resolution noted the need to take part in joint platforms with the Greens and Labor.
What was particularly valuable about the delegates' decision is that it recognised, in the words of conference 2002, that building the beginnings of an alternative to the ALP "cannot be done simply by denouncing Labor". People like my workmates want positive alternatives, not slanging matches. If we simply attack Labor we risk looking to Labor supporters like just another hostile party. But if we don't address the limited offerings of Labor, we will not reflect what many Socialist Alliance members think and feel strongly about — revulsion over the direction Labor is going in.
We need to make the fullest possible use of our election manifesto, Another Australia is Possible, to show that we have a powerful and credible political alternative.
To get a hearing for our alternative we need to do two things:
* first, work alongside Labor supporters, whether in defence of Craig Johnston, against the occupation of Iraq, or for refugee rights; and
* second, raise demands on Labor that will strike a chord with those many Labor supporters who are disenchanted with the policies of the ALP.
So when Latham rejects extra subsidies for elderly people taking out private health cover and declares he's for public medicine, we should say: "Excellent. Now why not scrap the 30% subsidy that already exists?"
When Latham says he will pull some troops home by Christmas, we should say: "Excellent. But why not pull all troops out of the Gulf and everywhere else?"
When Latham says he will abolish Australian Workplace Agreements, we should say: "Excellent, but why not scrap the rest of the anti-union Workplace Relations Act?"
Socialist Alliance's sophisticated position allows us to close ranks against the Liberals and to present a strong perspective on Labor's timid policies.
David Glanz
David Glanz is a national co-convenor of Socialist Alliance and the Alliance's candidate for the Melbourne seat of Wills.
From Green Left Weekly, September 22, 2004.
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