Socialist Alliance marks progress

Peter Boyle

The third national conference of the Socialist Alliance, held in Melbourne on May 8-9, confirmed that the SA is here to stay, is growing and is taking further steps towards becoming a multi-tendency socialist party.

Some 133 delegates and 144 observers and guests attended, including many key militant trade union leaders. Mike Treen from the New Zealand Alliance addressed the May 7 conference launch, along with Chris Cain (WA secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia and SA national executive member), David Glanz (SA national co-convenor and candidate for Wills) and Susan Price (SA candidate for Sydney).

The conference was strongly influenced by the militant unions and on May 10, many delegates and alliance members joined thousands of unionists in a demonstration to defend former Victorian secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Craig Johnston. SA packed out the Ascot Vale Hotel on the evening of May 8, raising $500 for Johnston?s defence campaign.

The conference received personally delivered greetings from Johnston (also an SA member); Victorian secretary of the Electrical Trades Union Dean Mighell; Victorian Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union secretary Martin Kingham; Ian Bray, assistant secretary of the WA MUA; Joe McDonald, assistant secretary of the WA CFMEU; Gary Price from the Victorian postal division of the Communication Workers Union; and Jeremy Hutton from the Greens.

Written greetings were read from Michele O?Neil of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union; Matt McGowan, Victorian division secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union; Jim Reid, secretary of the Victorian printing division of the AMWU; Cam Walker from Friends of the Earth; Radical Women; the Scottish Socialist Party; the Alliance for Workers Liberty (Britain); the LCR (France); the Freedom Socialist Party (US); Workers Democracy (Thailand); MUR (El Salvador); the CPIML-Liberation (India); the Red-Green Alliance (Denmark); the Fourth International Bureau; and others.

Delegates voted overwhelmingly in favour of a resolution supporting the militant current in the trade unions in the face of serious attacks from the bosses, the state and union bureaucrats.

A general political resolution reported on by national co-convenor David Glanz also received strong consensus. It focused the alliance on the federal election - which is shaping up as a referendum on war in Iraq and attacks on the working class at home - and building a strong anti-war movement calling for troops out of Iraq.

SA voted to run the ?largest and liveliest [federal] election campaign that our resources allow?, launching a glossy election manifesto. The campaign aims to help establish the SA as a credible alternative, especially in the eyes of new union and movement activists, and to build the movements and join new members to SA.

The resolution also described the rise of the Green vote as a ?welcome indicator of the shift to the left of a substantial minority in Australia?. The SA will ?seek to work with the Greens, organise joint platforms with them and will normally preference them before Labor?. However, if a Green candidate preferences the Liberals over the ALP, then the alliance will not direct its second preference to that Green candidate.

The resolution also welcomed Mark Latham?s call for the withdrawal of Australian troops from Iraq. However the SA ?rejects Latham?s notion that withdrawal from Iraq is linked to a more interventionist role for the Australian military in Afghanistan and elsewhere?.

More detailed policy in a range of areas was adopted, including a call for the defence of Indigenous representative bodies (currently under attack from the Coalition government and the ALP opposition) and Indigenous community social services.

The conference condemned attacks on the Muslim population and defended the right of Muslim women to choose to wear the hijab or burqa.

The SA supported the growing campaign against Australia?s grab of East Timor?s oil, gas and maritime resources; opposed the Australia-US free trade agreement; opposed the apartheid wall being built by Israel in Palestine; supported the emerging Iraqi national liberation movement; supported the Venezuelan people?s struggle for social justice and national liberation and the popular struggles in Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia; and condemned Australia?s role as regional bully. The alliance also voted to sponsor the 3rd Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference to be held in Sydney on March 25-28, 2005.

The conference affirmed the success of the first issue of Seeing Red, a new independent magazine of public discussion on politics and culture launched by the SA. A vigorous debate took place about the trial editorial involvement with Green Left Weekly undertaken by the alliance over the past four months. More than two-thirds of conference delegates voted to continue this relationship.

Another spirited debate occurred around a proposal from leading non-affiliate members, which was subsequently adopted, for a broader national executive (with a majority of non-affiliate representatives directly elected and recallable by state conferences and proportionate representation of affiliates).

The conference recorded that financial membership was over 1000, and growing. Three groups, the Somali Youth Organisation, Chilean Popular and Indigenous Network and Sudanese Communist Party supporters in Australia also informed the conference that they were joining the alliance.

From Green Left Weekly, May 19, 2004.

Robust and real debate

Dave Riley

The Socialist Alliance national conference registered a significant orientation in the politics of SA with several initiatives taken up to consolidate the role of non-aligned members (those not belonging to one of the affiliate organisations).

Lalitha Chelliah told Green Left Weekly that the results of the conference ?mean that the non-aligned comrades are becoming a force to be reckoned with within SA. They are bringing with them ideas that will help coalesce SA and counter divisive elements. On the whole I see a positive path forward that is encouraging for the left in Australia.?

This enthusiasm and optimism is shared by Raul Bassi, who, along with Chelliah, was elected to one of five national co-convenor positions. There are three non-aligned convenors in this body of five. Bassi noted that the conference was a step forward toward the alliance becoming a multi-tendency socialist party. ?It was also important that it was a really democratic conference and the decisions taken mean that we have a clear way to work in the next year.?

Chelliah agreed with this assessment: ?This was a conference where there was robust and real debate about all issues relevant to SA. The non-aligned comrades have made substantial contributions towards setting goals for SA for the next year. They have also proved to be willing to work hard and work cooperatively at achieving those goals. Significantly, the level of political contributions made from non-aligned comrades and support for the positive directions put forward were remarkable.?

Like Chelliah, Bassi was keen to note the role of comrades who weren?t members of any of the SA affiliates: ?The non-aligned component of the alliance at the conference shows that we are building a broad socialist party.?

The changes to the national leadership structures that were adopted are designed to open up these bodies to direct membership input. As Bassi put it: ?We opened the door for more members to be involved in everyday activities to keep building the Socialist Alliance.

From Green Left Weekly, May 19, 2004.

Howard has to go!

Socialist Alliance national co-convenor and Wills candidate David Glanz addressed the May 7 SA national conference launch. The following is abridged from his speech.

Glenroy, in the Wills electorate, isn?t one of the poorest working-class suburbs, or one of the wealthiest. But for the first time in 20 years, they?ve been handing out food parcels. One place handed out 32 over Easter. This included to workers, whose wages no longer stretch far enough to feed their families.

The working poor won?t get a cent of the billions of dollars [Prime Minister John] Howard will spend on the military budget.

Socialist Alliance says that for his crimes against humanity in Iraq, Afghanistan and Australia, Howard has to go. For his attacks on health and education, Howard has to go.

But we can?t be complacent about getting rid of Howard ? we have to drive him out, and how we do this is important.

We don?t just want him voted out. We want Howard driven out and humiliated ? by getting out on the streets, with the anti-war movement, industrial campaigns, and so on.

We have to raise the bar for a [Mark] Latham [ALP] government and let him know that there?ll be no blank cheque: If you lie about pulling troops out of Iraq, if you continue to bully our neighbours, if you refuse to repeal the Workplace Relations Act, if you carry on Howard?s bastardry, then we will fight you.

If we are out on the streets before the election, we?ll be stronger to follow on from polling day.

We also need to put forward an alternative, and not just let Latham set the agenda. Latham represents a deepening of the right-wing ALP agenda and we need to convince people that we need a socialist alternative to challenge that agenda.

Our election manifesto calls for a war on domestic violence, a war on cancer, poverty, racism and global warming. We have a vision for an alternative. Every vote we get ? whether 30,000 or 50,000, will be a vote for that alternative ? not just in the short term, but an alternative to the whole system!

From Green Left Weekly, May 19, 2004.

Come on board the Socialist Alliance

Chris Cain, state secretary, WA Maritime Union of Australia

I believe the Socialist Alliance conference was a great success. There was healthy debate around working class policies, which gave an avenue for Socialist Alliance to move forward.

It was very clear to see that some major trade union leaders have now started to get involved in SA around industrial and political issues. As a proud member of SA I believe this conference can enhance more participation from the trade union movement?s rank and file.

The main challenges for SA are to bring on board grassroots rank-and-file unionists and also to continue to take up the hard political issues around refugee rights, war and also hard issues around the Labor Party and what they've been doing or haven't been doing in respect to working-class policies.

I welcome and urge any trade unionist to come on board this progressive party, the Socialist Alliance, as a real alternative to tweedledee and tweedledum (the Labor and Liberal parties).

From Green Left Weekly, May 19, 2004.

Greetings to the Socialist Alliance national conference 2004

The following are excerpts from greetings given to the Socialist Alliance third national conference, May 8-9.

Craig Johnston, former Victorian secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union.

The ALP isn?t much different to the Liberals. Here in Victoria, we had the worst fascist government for years with [Jeff] Kennett. We kicked them out, got [Labor Premier Steve] Bracks in and now he wants to bring laws in to stop workers having a decent go, to do us in. The Labor government in Victoria is right up there in trying to attack workers.

For the Socialist Alliance, of which I am a member, the challenge is to convince workers that there is an alternative to the Labor Party. There was a mate of mine at work, telling me that ?you mob are too left for me?, then he spent 10 minutes telling me how rotten the Labor Party is.

I hope you come up with new ideas and policies to implement to convince workers to come to SA and socialism more broadly.

Thanks to the Socialist Alliance ? one political party unwavering in its support for the construction workers, the Skilled Six and fights on the job. The ALP is sometimes there, sometimes not, and people can see it. We have to make SA far more relevant, and get working people to embrace it. Dare to struggle! Dare to win!

Ian Bray, assistant secretary, WA Maritime Union of Australia.

We?ve come out of an era, and I guess history will probably record it as the era of neglect for the maritime union. When we got in [in June 2003] we were basically faced with the fabric of the union being eroded and the first task was to turn that around.

Once we gave the ownership back to the members they started to realise again, after being completely bashed by media and bosses about militancy being borderline outlawish, that in a disciplined way there is a very, very serious role for militant unionism in this country.

The reason why there is a resurgence in union militancy is because people have genuinely had enough. They are now seeing the trade union movement, and in particular the militant section of the trade union movement, as having a very justifiable role to play in defending workers? safety conditions and basic rights. The more they attack it, and the more they try to erode it, the more determination you?ll see from the people, particularly the rank and file of militant trade unions. We are not going away.

Dean Mighell, Victorian secretary, Electrical Trades Union.

It?s great to see socialist political parties getting strong again ? it gives us all hope.

Those of us around and fighting now didn?t learn what to do through the Labor Party. Without active left parties to nurture people's long-term development, the union movement will suffer. Our union is very active and militant ? we don?t apologise for that. We have been successful because we have had a strategic militant orientation.

When we look at the union movement now, we would be kidding ourselves if we said it is not in massive decline. The union leaders now will say, `We have to get [Mark] Latham elected, Latham will save us. Labor will save us.? If they think anything other than strategic militant unionism will save them, then they?re not looking at the [examples of the] CFMEU and the ETU.

Building unionism is not rocket science ? it?s about having disciplined, militant, strong unions. When unions are strong, no-one is going to break them and you don?t have to rely on governments to save you. Take the nurses union, for example. They waged a militant campaign and were able to take on an ALP government to win a better deal.

The Greens have been easily able to walk into the policy void left by the ALP. They articulate social justice perspectives when Labor?s abandoned it. In terms of the mainstream parties, they are taking that space. There is a struggle in the Greens between the green-greens and the red-greens. The red-greens are trying to educate the environmentalists.

Let?s progress and support organisations like the Socialist Alliance. [Unionists can] have your dabble in the ALP .... but go and do your stuff elsewhere.

What?s most impressive about the Socialist Alliance is the unity that you have created. You have been able to create a real voice.

Jim Reid, Victorian regional secretary, AMWU Printing Division

Please accept and convey my apology to conference delegates for not being able to attend the conference.

I would however like to take the opportunity of wishing you well and I?m sure that the conference will be a rewarding and positive experience for all participants.

The issues to be debated are of enormous significance to working people and we should all be thankful that there are committed and dedicated people prepared to express and advance an alternative and progressive opinion.

Michele O'Neil, Textile, Clothing & Footwear Union Victorian secretary

Congratulations to the Socialist Alliance 3rd national conference. The TCFU really appreciates the support that the Socialist Alliance has given to the TCFU in our struggles, the most recent one being the Geelong Wool Combing dispute. We really need an organisation like Socialist Alliance.

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