[Marxism] The DSP's fresh approach to applying democratic, centralism

[Peter Boyle]

Tom O'Lincoln wrote:

> the minority's description of an "aging and depleted" DSP cadre is, 
> sadly, very likely correct.
>

Don't be too sad, Tom. The DSP’s membership (excluding provisional 
members, on a three-month) between 1992 and 2000 was on average 244 
(between 1981 and 1987, it had grown from 133 to 202). It currently is 
268. It rose above 300 between 2001-2003, at the height anti-corporate 
movement was at its highpoint but fell after. In December 2003, the DSP 
was renamed “Democratic Socialist Perspective” (changed from “Party).

In 2004, DSP members focussed on recruiting to the Socialist Alliance 
rather than the DSP and DSP membership fell to about 250. Some 700 
people who were not members of the DSP or the other small revolutionary 
socialist groups that affiliated were members of the Socialist Alliance 
in 2004. Since 2005, this dropped to about 500, at last count (around 
May 2007).

In May 2005 the DSP decided that its attempt to take over its 
organisational and political resources to Socialist Alliance had to be 
abandoned because the objective conditions were not creating sufficient 
new activist and leadership resources in the Socialist Alliance to allow 
such a transition to be carried out. Basically we pulled back to regroup 
and rebuild the DSP cadre.

If we can muster sufficient unity in the DSP to make a slightly bigger 
push in the Socialist Alliance, I suspect (and I don’t mean “hope”) that 
the Socialist Alliance membership could quickly return to its previous 
highpoint and move beyond. I am convinced that there is a broader left 
there that is still willing to be part of this political formation. I 
think this is possible while still growing an organised revolutionary 
core through the DSP, but that is something yet to be tested out.

The average age of DSP members at our last (January 2006) congress was 
36. This may have been slightly higher than in previous congresses and 
can be attributed to the DSP having more members in their 40s, 50s and 
60s than before. The average age of DSP leadership bodies is not much 
older (and is probably set to get younger). Compared with most other 
small left groups in imperialist countries the DSP has a younger 
membership. Maybe the ISO in the US has a similar age profile?

A dragged out political debate with a section of former Resistance 
leaders who wanted to adapt to the autonomist/anarchist youth currents 
that briefly flourished around the anti-globalisation movement and the 
massive retreat of the student movement on campuses seriously weakened 
Resistance in the early 2000s but it has recovered slowly over the last 
two years. Over the last two years, 44% of the DSP’s recruits have come 
from Resistance (39% – on the average older -- were recruited from the 
Socialist Alliance), the socialist youth organisation.

Over the last two years, the DSP has retained about 64% of its recruits 
from Resistance. This has been about the general rate of retention of 
youth recruits (over a two year period). As they get older, new 
pressures come on and different life choices are more sharply posed. 
Nothing new here. We have kept a smaller proportion of the youth 
recruits at other times. On the whole, considering that there is no 
radical youth culture today on the scale of that spawned by the 
1960s-70s radicalisation, we are doing quite well.

By comparision, the retention rate of DSP members recruited from the 
Socialist Alliance over the last two years is 84%.

The activity levels of most DSP members remains high compared to other 
similar organisations in advanced capitalist countries, though there has 
bee a steady reduction in hours spent distributing the newspaper, Green 
Left Weekly. Some of this may reflect a lower level of political 
activity but it also reflects other shifts. Some members are doing a lot 
more work in the trade union movement and as unemployment has been 
reduced (and most university students forced to get part-time jobs!) , a 
reserve of virtual full-time activists has all but disappeared.

I have studied, in close detail, the DSP membership patterns since 1994 
and I do not detect any evidence that it is significantly “ageing and 
depleted”. The North American comrades on this list who have visited 
Australia and attended conferences and other events the DSP has 
organised would have impressions that support this conclusion.

The real discussion is not about going backwards but about how to go 
forwards. And the basic “Leninist” truth here is that there is no road 
to serious accumulation of revolutionary cadre without serious and 
organised engagement with the class struggle alongside serious study, 
development and propagation of revolutionary theory. Anything else is 
sectarian clowning and the left has too much of that already!