En Passant

By a margin of 81 for to 2 against, delegates endorsed the National Executive’s proposal to fuse with the Revolutionary Socialist Party. The motion to endorse the fusion read:

“Conference supports merging with the RSP and empowers the NE to carry through the merger.

“The basis for unity is agreement on a socialist program for Australia today: for revolution; for a Marxist party; against imperialism; against all forms of oppression; against the capitalist state and for workers’ power.”

Unlike John Faulkner, don’t waste your time on the Labor Party, a moribund organisation of time servers and careerists bowing down at the altar of profit.

Instead check out Socialist Alternative and consider becoming part of a growing movement of revolutionaries in Australia to help build the fightbacks needed today and ultimately to challenge the dictatorship of capital.

Marxists have an equally firm determination to eliminate all of the oppressions of capitalism. We don’t consider any of these oppressions as inherently more important than others.

And because these oppressions all serve the interests of the capitalists, every struggle against oppression is objectively an ally of every other such struggle. A central task for socialists is to spread an understanding of this objective reality.

I do wonder what our RSP colleagues make of this badly argued blunderbuss of sectarianism. I can only hope they challenge this ludicrous, self-satisfied, smug, anti-working class, infantile nonsense for what it is.

I have made it clear in internal bulletins I have my doubts about the merger with the RSP. But one thing that might come of the fait accompli of merger is a real challenge to the gross inadequacies of our analysis of the women’s movement and our relationship to it, gross inadequacies exemplified so clearly by this article.

I am joining Socialist Alternative because of the role they are playing in Australia. How we see Cuba or the Latin American revolution developing can be discussed over time and patiently. Revolutionary politics is always about learning, discussion and being open to new ideas to work out the best course of action. With this approach we can work towards a more united and clear revolutionary left in Australia.

Uniting the existing revolutionary socialist forces in Australia in one organisation around a commonly agreed revolutionary programme would be a real advance. A successful merger between Socialist Alternative and the RSP would be a not insignificant step on that road. It would show that revolutionaries with different heritages and traditions can come together to collectively build a serious and determined organisation. We strongly encourage other revolutionaries, both young people new to the class struggle and older comrades who have not given up the fight against the horrors of capitalism, to seriously consider involving themselves in this vital project.

The Revolutionary Socialist Party decided unanimously that it would step up exploring a merger with Socialist Alternative as the logical next step towards building a fighting, interventionist party that can also effectively publicly defend the ideas of revolutionary Marxism.