Democratic Socialist Perspective

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP), is a Marxist political group, which operates as the largest component of an Australian socialist formation, the Socialist Alliance. The name of the group is something of a misnomer, as the DSP is a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist organisation and not affiliated with the Democratic Socialism movement. The name arises from the DSP's advocacy of democracy in the socialist movement, in contrast to the practices of Stalinism.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Formation

The DSP started as the orthodox Trotskyist Socialist Workers League, founded in 1972 by members of the radical Socialist Youth Alliance (previously, and also currently, called Resistance) which grew out of the student radicalisation surrounding the Vietnam War. The SWL affiliated to the reunified Fourth International, under the influence of the American section, the Socialist Workers Party. It was also undoubtedly due to this influence that the SWL itself took the name Socialist Workers Party (SWP).

[edit] Abandonment of Trotskyism

In 1986 the SWP broke with orthodox Trotskyism and disaffiliated from the Fourth International. While maintaining Leon Trotsky's critique of the USSR, the party replaced Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution with the view that socialist revolution in Third World countries (countries in which, according to Marxist theory, the development of capitalism has been distorted by colonialism and imperialism) will take place in two connected stages. In the early 1990s it was renamed the Democratic Socialist Party. It contested the 1998 federal election as part of the Democratic Socialist Electoral League.

[edit] Greening the DSP -- The Reds turn Green

The DSP was the first Marxist party in the world to orientate actively to the green movement. From its movement experience and especially its activity supporting the Nuclear Disarmament Party in 1984/5 the DSP read the significance of the rise of Green Party in Germany and reshaped its political orientation towards a Eco-socialism perspective. The main consequence of this was the creation of Green Left Weekly in 1991 which has consistently pursued an environment agenda in its pages. The DSP has also been a consistent participant in environment campaigns.

[edit] Socialist Alliance

In 2001, the DSP, along with several other socialist parties, formed the Socialist Alliance. In 2003 the DSP became the first (and so far only) Socialist Alliance affiliate to become an internal tendency within the Alliance, changing its name to the Democratic Socialist Perspective.

Each of these changes of name and tactics has been accompanied like so many far left outfits with a turnover of members. While the SWP and DSP recruited many activists from the radical student movement of the 1970s and from various social movements since, it failed to retain most of them for long as the sixties and seventies radicalisation wave has receded.Nonetheless, unlike other tendencies, the DSP has retained a core membership drawn from each upsurge of political struggle such that it has even retained a layer who were founding members of the party back in 1972. Today the DSP has a membership of a few hundred members which makes it the largest left group in Australia. The SWP, and then DSP, was led by Jim Percy as National Secretary from 1972 until his death in 1992.

The SWP and the DSP regularly contested Australian federal elections but seldom polled significant votes. From time to time they practised entryism into the Australian Labor Party, but with little success. They also took part in the Nuclear Disarmament Party project during the 1980s, as well as a number of other left regroupment projects, and were part of the political and activist alliance that led to the formation of the Australian Greens.

The Socialist Alliance had been created in alliance with other forces in pursuit of a broader and more electorally appealing formation. But although it contested the 2001 federal election and the 2004 federal election, as well as several state elections, it has failed to gain any significant vote. It does, however, continue to attract a significant number of activists, radical indigenous activists and militant unionists, and is increasingly identified as the main vehicle for socialist politics in Australia.

Among SA the membership are leading indigenous activist, Sam Watson; historian and author, Humphrey McQueen;and some leading trade union figures such as Chris Cain of the Maritime Union of Australia and Craig Johnston who lead a reform current in the AMWU.

A debate broke out in the DSP in 2005 about its Socialist Alliance orientation but the minority viewpoint that opposed continuing with the Alliance orientation was soundly defeated at the DSP's January 2008 congress.

[edit] The DSP today

The Socialist Alliance remains the major area of work for the DSP.The vast majority of the Socialist Alliance membership -- some 70% -- are not members of the DSP. Some see the Alliance as the latest in a long line of SWP-DSP "fronts", while others refer to the large number of members who are members of no affiliate organisation, and the great degree of practical, no-strings attached, support the DSP provides to the Alliance, as signs of the potential of real left regroupment arising out of the project.

The DSP continues with Resistance as its youth wing, and has published a weekly newspaper called Green Left Weekly, which replaced the earlier SWP publication, Direct Action, in 1991. It also produces Links, an online journal of socialist renewal which appeared as a print journal between 1994 and 2006.

The DSP also emphasizes international collaboration, maintaining close links with those emerging from the Pathfinder tendency, is a permanent observer at the reunified Fourth International's international committee meetings, has ties with a number of Latin American organisations (including the Cuban Communist Party and groups in the Venezuelan government), and has extensive link with various tendencies throughout the Asia and the Pacific region.

An ongoing dispute within the DSP between the majority of its members and a minority who organised themselves as the [Leninist Party Faction] (LPF) reached a high point when the LPF left the DSP, setting up its own public website in May 2008. Their exit was confirmed at a meeting of the DSP National Executive two days later.

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

  • Percy, John.(2005) Resistance: A History of the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance: 1965-72. Resistance Books, Australia.
  • DSP, The Program of the Democratic Socialist Party. Resistance Books, Australia.