Socialist Party Australia - Feature on the new workers' party debate

Stephen Jolly's questions and answers on the need for a new workers' party - plus small box on Socialist Alliance and Scottish Socialist Party

We need a new political party for workers!
Questions and answers on the need for a new workers’ party!
By Stephen Jolly
What’s wrong with the Labor Party?
Unfortunately the Labor Party’s caving-in to the Government over the anti-democratic ASIO bill (see page 2) is only their latest betrayal of working class interests. Trade unions pump millions of dollars into the ALP every year (for example $3.8 million from the CFMEU, $3.9m from the AMWU and over $4m from the Liquor Trades Union). Yet while the ALP ‘takes the money’ it ‘runs’ from any real commitment to defending the interests of ordinary people. It has capitalist economic policies and it laid the basis when last in power (1983-96) for all the privatisation, deregulation, enterprise bargaining, up-front university fees, refugee detention centers etc that Howard expanded on. No faction in the ALP offers any serious alternative to these policies and therefore we can very safely predict that the next Labor government will not be fundamentally different from Howard on the key issues of the day. Factional differences continue of course, but in today’s world it is all about ‘Soprano-style’ conflicts over preselection and power bases, not political differences.
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Do we need workers’ need a party at all?
Yes. Unions, even the most militant and active, can only defend workers in the workplace and on some broader issues that immediately effect their members eg Health and Safety legislation, superannuation, and WorkCover. Workers’ lives are also affected by decisions made outside the workplace - in parliament, in the courts and by bosses here and internationally. If workers are not represented in the debates about economic policy, legal reform and so on, our interests will be ignored. We need a militant and campaigning mass workers’ party to take up the interests of the class. A new workers’ party would politically channel the anger and discontent which working class people and layers of middle class people have towards the major parties.

Aren’t the Greens a viable alternative to the ALP?
The Greens have ditched their reactionary policy to cut immigration and have moved away from their single-issue environmental focus. They seem an attractive alternative to many left-leaning Labor voters with their stance against detention centers and against Australian involvement in the War on Iraq. We have worked with the Greens in elections, swapping preferences and campaigning together. However the Greens are firmly wedded to capitalism in that they offer no alternative to the profit-driven system we live under. They seek to reform the system not fundamentally change it. They mainly concentrate on electoral politics and do not have a perspective of organising workers and youth outside parliament to fight for change. Therefore when elected to power in Germany, New Zealand or in Yarra City Council in Melbourne, they have been faced with the reality of a capitalist structure that will not allow them to implement their reforms easily. The Greens have in every case been a disappointment in power, caving into the powers that be, and suffering an electoral backlash. A socialist mass workers’ party would combine energetic electoral work with mobilising working class people in schools, unis, workplaces, the unemployed and the aged.

What sort of policies should a new workers’ party have?
To mobilise the broadest amount of support from trade unions, community organisations, student organsiations, and existing socialist parties and individuals the party should, in its early stages, concentrate on getting runs on the board with a successful campaign on a winnable issue. The programme should be minimalist around basic issues such as the defending and extending Medicare, free education for all, opposition to racism, support for union coverage for every worker etc. Within the party all individuals and groups should have the right to put their point of view. In the early stages especially, there should be no pre-condition on entry that is people could join as individuals and community and student organisations/political parties/unions could affiliate if they chose to. Within a new mass workers’ party, the Socialist Party (SP) would argue for socialist ideas and policies, while simultaneously building the new party in the most energetic way.

How can we ensure that a new party stays democratic?
All party officials and elected representatives should be on the average wage of a skilled worker plus bone fide expenses. There should be election for all posts, with the right of immediate recall. The best defense against a bureaucratic degeneration, of course, is the active participation of the membership in all levels of party. Only a campaigning party can generate this level of enthusiasm.

What is the relationship between SP and a new workers’ party?
SP is a revolutionary socialist party. We campaign in the here and now for all types of reforms (decent health care, young workers’ rights, against detention centers) but all the while pointing out the need to change society from capitalism to socialism. In a mass workers’ party, particularly in the early stage, the majority of members would be solely concerned with fighting for improving the lot of workers under capitalism. We would and do work side-by-side with fellow unionists and activists around concrete campaigns. It is in the course of struggle that workers’ political understanding rises and socialist ideas get more support.

How could a new party be formed?
Joint activity around concrete issues such as defending Medicare and the new ‘For a Fairer Australia’ campaign in Victoria (see page 2) creates the level of trust and co-operation amongst different groups and people necessary for a new party to be built. There is no way anyone can predict exactly how a new party would begin – for example whether through a union initiative or an alliance of community organisation and progressive individuals. Suffice to say there is growing dissatisfaction with the Labor Party and the political vacuum that exists on the left will not be unfilled forever. The campaigning work and electoral results of the SP with minimal resources shows the potential for a new mass workers’ party. We argue that if militant unions like the construction unions, National Union of Workers in NSW and others were to release one organiser each plus the money they pump into the ALP for a new party, that would be a massive kickstart. Such a party could unite together trade unionists, unorganised workers, socialists, young people, direct action, environmental, refugee and community campaigners, oppressed groups and all those looking for an alternative to Labor.

What can we do now to campaign for a new workers’ party?
We should be raising the issue inside our unions and all progressive organisations. We should build SP as it will play an important role inside a new party and can help speed up the process towards its creation. The reality is that a new workers’ party will not happen in the short-term, and for now it is a question of winning the arguments amongst workers that neither Labor nor the Greens over a way forward.

Socialist Alliance
In the last five years there have been two attempts made to launch a new workers’ party in Australia (Progressive Labour Party and Socialist Alliance). Both were premature in that small groups of leftists created the party ‘in advance’ of the class, without the participation of unions, community or student organisations or significant numbers of working class people. Most of their members were and are from currently existing socialist organisations.
As we pointed out in a letter to Socialist Alliance in February 2001: "No such forces exist as a basis for this proposed allliance. It would be a fundamental error to be under the illusion that a new viable party will be created by the gathering together of the already-existing small left parties and a very thin layer of non-aligned individuals. This layer, in addition to being small, is also overwhelmingly made up of long-standing activists, rather than of fresh layers just moving into struggle.
"We are in favour of a new mass party for the working class. This will not develop immediately but over a period and this process cannot be viewed in isolation from the class struggle and the situation in the workers’ movement. Any attempt to declare a new party of the working class before the forces necessary to make such a formation real have congregated, will end up the same way as the PLP."
Today the SA is a far cry from what its rank and file members hoped for when launched in May 2001. It is dominated by one particular affiliate and at every key juncture in the class struggle (for example during the anti-war movement) its major players put their own interests before the Alliance itself. We can safely predict it will not be the place where a genuine new mass workers’ party stems from.

Scottish Socialist Party (SSP)
The recent electoral successes of the SSP (they won six seats in the recent elections to the Scottish Parliament) shows why SA in Australia will never get a mass base. The leadership faction of the SSP (ex-CWI) and the minority CWI faction inside the SSP are steeped in class struggle such as the Poll Tax in the past and industrial and other social issues today. This relationship with the class has won them the trust of workers and a bigger vote than any similar party in the English-speaking world today. The problem with the SSP leadership is that they created this party at the expense of instead of parallel with the building of a revolutionary current.
To read a critique of the SSP leaders from a SSP rank and file member go to https://socialistpartyaustralia.org/scotland.htm on our web page.