On August 31, five of us gathered around a dinning room table in Greenmount, a suburb on the eastern fringes of Perth. Our kids played outside in the sun for a while before they drifted inside and watched a video of Monsters Inc., with the volume up too loud.
This was the inaugural meeting of the Hills branch of Socialist Alliance in WA (the adults, that is, not the kids). It has taken about six months to build up to this point.
Our origins were in the anti-war feeling that erupted around the US invasion of Iraq earlier this year. A parent at our kids’ school organised a protest petition and the vast majority of parents signed it. Knowing we had a groundswell of interest, we formed the Darlington No War alliance and held a public meeting in the local hall.
The Darlington No War alliance has cemented a circle of activists around it through organising contingents to rallies in Perth, regular public meetings and other activities. Its activists mostly come from the Anglican church and school parents. From within this circle has arisen the Socialist Alliance branch.
We began tentatively moving towards establishing the SA branch by holding discussions on the subject “The Causes of War” (an explanation of the workings of imperialism). We invited anti-war activists who were more left-wing and we rang local people who had put down their names on SA contact lists at the big rallies. We slowly built up to our constitutionally required 7 financial members (two members gave apologies for the inaugural meeting).
The typical tone of our work has been sitting around the kitchen table with friends chatting about current events and talking about the issues confronting people, like: conflict with separated spouses, children’s health, addiction and alcohol problems within families, low pay and demeaning conditions for women workers.
We don’t talk high-falutin’ socialist theory; we are relating socialist theory to people’s lives and they are ready to hear it. The US war drive was the opening for these discussions but people’s dissatisfactions go far deeper. Our experience has been that there is a “culture shock” associated with discovering that socialism has the answers, but simple, compassionate, sincere conversation eases people past that. The authority that we have built through the anti-war work means that people are prepared to listen to us as well.
Our members include single mothers, two high school students, a university student, a teacher, a community worker, a housewife and a nurse. The majority of members have children. The reality of our lives colours the discussions and pace of activity.
At our inaugural branch meeting most time was taken up with a talk on the origins of women’s oppression. Age and gender differences dissolved as we all spoke passionately about our feelings about sexism. The information about the historical beginnings of sexism came as a liberation to those who hadn’t heard of it before.
We agreed to go on talking about it at our next meeting where, having given the 28 days’ formal notice, we will elect our official position holders. We know from chats we’ve had with interested people that the topic of women’s oppression is a hot-button issue for local women. Out here in the suburbs there is an undercurrent of unarticulated anger about the way people’s lives are being twisted.
The Darlington No War Alliance remains the only campaigning vehicle that we are involved in. The feeling is that we will probably go on concentrating on discussions for a while before we take on other campaigns.
At our next meeting, on September 28, we will be deciding arrangements for a public launch of the branch, with local activists invited and guest speakers. We can make a splash and recruit more members.