[Marxism] Party as permanent faction

[Max Lane]

Responding to Tom O'Lincoln's insightful comments on Socialist Alliance and
Australian politics, Joaquin. writes:



"But to me, it raises the obvious question: what material basis is there for
the DSP? Or the ISO? Or Socialist Alternative? Or similar groups in the
United States?"



Tom had outlined how there were not the forces (leaders and layers of
activists) with the considerable energy needed to get Socialist Alliance off
the ground. Tom concluded, I think correctly, with an assessment that there
was a:



"lack of a material basis for the whole project"



Any mistakes we in the DSP have made have flowed from refusing to
acknowledge that fact.



But what about Joaquin's question: is there a material basis for the DSP in
Australia? First, we need to be clear about what we are asking/. What do we
mean by the "DSP"? If all that we mean is a narrow propaganda sect, then the
answer is yes. You don't need much of a material basis to sustain a narrow
propaganda sect. At least a few such sects exist in many countries in the
world. But what if we mean something more than that, as I would.



For example, is there a material basis for a small cadre force, who through
a range of flexible tactical interventions, can combine making useful
contributions to movements that developed in opposition to different aspects
of capitalism while also winning small numbers of new people to a full
commitment to Marxism and to sustain an organisational continuity of
radical, activist and theoretical Marxist life, through the current period
and objective situation in a country like Australia? There is definitely a
material basis for that. The DSP grew steadily in Australia, only stagnating
after 2002.



The material basis for this activity flows from a steady radicalisation of
the thinking of a small minority of the population provoked by the
increasingly obvious gross injustices of   global imperialism (manifested
most obviously in Third World poverty and neo-colonial wars) and the evident
meanness of the Australian ruling class and its governments in relation to
this (manifested most obviously in its attitude to refugees, migrants,
chauvinism, racism and neo-colonial wars, e.g. Iraq and Afghanistan). This
meanness is also evident in the Australian domestic economy as well as in
the steady escalation of neo-liberalism and philistine attitudes to
education and culture. This is primarily an early radicalisation of thinking
among a minority of the population, but which minority has provided the core
of activists for a range of mass campaigns, mostly short lived. While these
campaigns have been short-lived, the restlessness remains and is sustained
by the increasingly obvious global crisis under imperialism - both material
and cultural injustice, as well as potential climate disaster.



For a flexible, creative, small Marxist party, which avoids getting stuck on
any one tactic, which approaches single-movement activists (including
activists in the Labor Party and the trade unions) with  humility as well as
critically, which studies and reads widely, and which values highly
international collaboration as well as solidarity with existing
revolutions - there is plenty of useful work to do and a guaranteed basis
for modest growth in a country like Australia.



Of course there is also a basis for united activity among socialist groups
and individuals. In Australia, I think there is the basis for a bigger
socialist group than any that exist at the moment. Either mistakes in
tactics, or sectarianism flowing from a shibboleth style of politics
prevents this happening in an optimal way at the moment. There is certainly
the need for a period of intense re-debate of these issues on the Left and,
probably, inside organisations as well. I would think such better discussion
might increase the opportunity for greater united action here in Australia,
although it would not be the only necessary new step. To go from there to
any kind of serious unity of theory (programme) as well as action will
probably also need some changes in the objective situation where we are all
challenged to re-think everything a bit more again.



Meanwhile, as a fact, reflecting the present state of affairs, there are no,
even partial, permanent or ad hoc alliances between the Left groups in
Australia - none at all.



Be that as it may, anybody who mixes with people, who takes notice of what
books and films can become popular, who notes the huge mobilisations that
can occur against the "excesses" of capitalism and its ruling classes, knows
that there is work to do. Organising those who have more-or-less the same
theoretical approach to work out a collective approach to responding to the
restlessness that exists has been an obvious way to move for a lot of
revolutionaries.



Of course, it is indeed possible for such an organisation to collapse into a
narrow, messianism. Indeed, for a group based on the conviction that it has
the best comprehensive political analysis of objective reality and the way
forward, such a danger will always loom large in a society still dominated
by the values of competitiveness and proprietor rights. There is no magic
technique or path that guarantees that this virus won't affect us. We can
become just as obsessive and deaf to others about convincing people that
there is no need for a Leninist organisation as we can about convincing them
that is needed.



There is no magic technique, but it does require a consciousness to always
listen, to guard we stay humble, to read widely to know more of humanity's
experience, to mix widely if we can, and to make sure we distinguish between
how we judge people as Marxist cadre and activists and how we judge people
as human beings. The Left can be very arrogant and many people become
left-wing more out of a sense of superiority over the 'stupid bourgeoisie"
than out of their love of humanity. These kinds of values - the ones I touch
upon in this paragraph - I think need a lot of re-stating and elaboration,
especially in the imperialist countries. A long period of prosperity,
combined with too long a period of political and cultural stagnation since
the great bourgeois revolutions (punctuated only by the 60s) which provided
a good part of the basis of democratic and humane values that have impacted
on broader society, and upon which the labour movement and the Left also
built upon, has weakened the legacy of those revolutions, even on the Left.
Collaboration and critical engagement with comrades in areas of greater
upheaval and human stress, such as in the semi-colonial world or in the most
oppressed sections of the working class in the imperialist countries, can
also help such a group – but this too is no guarantee. There is no guarantee
apart from our own vigilance.



So I am still a supporter of the path the DSP has taken since the 1970s and
which I hope will be its basis into the future.



Max Lane

http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/maxlaneintlasia/



(PS For those interested I have been a member of the DSP since 1981. I have
been active in various areas of party activity, but most especially
Indonesian, East Timor and Asia Pacific Solidarity, I have been an election
candidate for Socialist Alliance in its early years. I am in the minority
faction of the DSP today   - see http://www.dsp.org.au/site/?q=node/15. )