International Socialist Organisation (Australia)
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- This article is about the International Socialist Organisation in Australia. See also the International Socialist Organization.
The International Socialist Organisation is an Australian Trotskyist political organisation. It is part of the International Socialist Tendency and produces a newspaper called Socialist Worker (Australian). It has active branches in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth with a number of supporters in Canberra.
It was founded in the early 1970s, as the International Socialists, and expanded from its initial base in Melbourne until it had branches in every major city. It has had a lively internal life and saw a breakaway faction in the 1980s called Socialist Action led by Tom O'Lincoln which later rejoined the IS. At this point they changed their name to the ISO.
A faction fight beginning in 1993 led to a split, mainly but not exclusively in Melbourne, out of which Socialist Alternative was formed in 1995. Another period of internal crisis beginning in 2001 led to a loss of members and a further split in 2003 when another grouping of members around former leader Ian Rintoul left to form a group known as Solidarity. Somewhat prior to this Tom O'Lincoln also left, eventually joining Socialist Alternative. The ISO was a part of the Socialist Alliance but at its national conference in 2007 voted to withdraw its involvement criticising the failure of the project to achieve its intended goals and the role of the Democratic Socialist Perspective in that failure.
The organisation has built a history of supporting militant direct action that has separated it from the other major organisation on the left the DSP. It was active in the Right to March campaigns in Brisbane under the Joe Bielke Peterson government. It was central to Action against Racism which physically confronted the rise of the racist group One Nation led by Pauline Hanson and was the driving force behind the 2000 S11 demonstrations in Melbourne that disrupted a meeting of the World Economic Forum.
The organisation's main priority since 2003 has been building the anti war movement to oppose the Australian governments involvement with the occupation of Iraq. The group has been vocal in its indentifying the need to fight Islamophobia and work alongside the Islamic community in Australia.
It has argued consistently that the anti war movement needs to build a broad based United Front against the war. It has identified building locality based Peace groups, in Brisbane Southside, Moreland, Newtown and Leichhart and the Just Peace group in Perth, as a way of building networks of anti war activists. These groups have been relatively successful.
During 2006, the ISO attempted to build a united national anti war network, centered around a conference named "Unity for Peace". This was very well attended, by approximately 60 organisations, and attracted 350 people. One initiative from the conference was to set up a national Unity For Peace steering committee. However, the attempt to set up a national network around Unity for Peace has floundered elsewhere except in Perth. One reason for this has been the limited resources of the ISO and the failure to convince broader layers to participate in the project on an active basis.
The conference was the culmination of a hugely successful speaking tour of the US anti War activist Cindy Sheehan and Dr Salem Ismael from the Doctors for Iraq organisation which attracted large audiences in most major capitals in Australia.
The organisation's project has been to build a strong revolutionary Socialist organisation whilst at the same time attempt to intervene and play a leading role in social movements. This has meant shifting the organisation away from the sectarian and abstract propaganda routine that characterised it during the 1980s. However, the changes in the organisation has not been without mistakes and has resulted in several splits. This has led to a decline in the total number of members. However, the organisation is showing signs that it is again starting to grow with a stronger emphasis placed on building the organisation whilst at the same time still attempting to build the anti war movement being accepted as its general perspective at its 2007 national conference.
The ISO has identified University campuses as a key area to rebuild the organisation. It has decided to focus on building at Melbourne University, Sydney Uni and Griffith University in Brisbane.
