Alex Miller is a member of the Socialist Alliance national executive and the Green Left Weekly-Socialist Alliance editorial liaison board.
In a recent speech to the Socialist Alliance national executive, Louise Walker argued that there are currently three models on offer for carrying the SA left regroupment process forward.
One is that of a united electoral front along the lines of Respect in England. The second is the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP)-style multi-tendency socialist party (MTSP), "where small socialist groups of highly politically developed activists of various strands, including individual active socialists, group together at the centre of the organisation and steer it".
Against these two models, Walker proposes a "third way" of carrying out the MTSP project, which I believe is mistaken. Firstly, there is no "SSP model". If the SSP fits the above definition, this is not because it follows some preconceived model of what an MTSP should be like, but rather a direct outcome of the SSP's internal democracy, governed by the principles of one-member, one-vote, and proportional representation.
It is not in the least surprising then that it is the members with the highest level of activism, energy, and political experience who earn the respect and confidence of the broad membership and get elected onto the leadership bodies of the SSP. If you have a problem with this, take it up with the membership of the SSP!
The SSP currently has around 3000 members (not including the 10% increase in membership during the recent British election campaign), where the monthly membership fee is £12 (roughly A$30). The SSP's internal democratic culture thus appears to have been a great success in building the base for a mass MTSP in Scotland.
What does the "third way" have to counterpose to the internal democratic culture of the SSP? Instead of drawing less active comrades into higher levels of political struggle by convincing them politically to take up their share of the alliance's vast workload and providing concrete, practical inspiration and leadership, what we are offered is an attempt to solve our problem of low levels of activism and engagement by many alliance members by the imposition of a bureaucratic quota.
Leadership is not to be the organic outcome of the workings of full democracy, but of "affirmative action" where, by the application of an abstract schema, less active members of SA are to be assured dominance in the leadership bodies and working groups of SA. In my view, this would lead to disaster: you cannot build an MTSP by applying an abstract principle.
Walker has pointed out that many non-aligned members of SA have regular family lives, long working hours and other pressures. Quite so! So do most members of the SSP. So do most members of the Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP). There would be a problem if the most fully committed activists in the DSP demanded a similar level of activism from the non-aligned SA members — no doubt, people would be scared off very quickly.
But this has not been my experience of working with the most fully committed SA comrades, whether they be members of the DSP, International Socialist Organisation or non-affiliated. I have been drawn further (albeit modestly) into political activity principally by witnessing and engaging in work with comrades I highly respect, whose non-sectarianism and commitment I greatly admire, and from whom I am (I hope) learning much.
There is no other way. If there are problems about integrating our non-political lives with our political activity, these are problems faced by all members of SA, regardless of their affiliation. We are all human, we are all in this together.
The effect of the SSP's full internal democracy is clear: Three-thousand members at £12 a month would translate into the Australian context as a party of 10,000 members each paying $360 Australian dollars a year as membership fee. The effect of "the third way" would be equally dramatic: in all probability the result would be a castle in the air, a party of ghosts staffed by a crew of skeletons.
From Green Left Weekly, June 8, 2005.
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