Socialist Alternative (Australia)
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Socialist Alternative (SA) is a Trotskyist group in Australia with a membership of about 200, formed by a split from the International Socialist Organisation (ISO) in 1995. They are characterised by an aggressive campus focused recruiting campaign, and by the high level of activity they achieve from their student members. In recent political fall-outs within Australian Trotskyism, Socialist Alternative has been left as one of the larger and more influential organisations.
Activity
Members of SA consist primarily of students, but with a harder centre of politically motivated workers, who are active in political campaigns, their student unions and Trade Unions. This composition has informed both their strategy and activity: SA functions primarily as a propaganda and recruitment organisation, targeting student recruits on inner city university campuses. Following this strategy they have been fairly successful, and are now the dominant student recruiting organisation on a number of campuses.As part of their recruitment and education work, SA have regular meetings to discuss current events and Marxist theory and usually employ an aggressive postering campaign to advertise them, particularly on inner-city campuses and in the surrounding suburbs. Their regular discussions focus on the relationship between political ideas (for example consumerism) and every day life (living in a consumerist society), and are usually characterised by provocative questions. SA hold a national educational conference called "Marxism Today" in April each year.
Over the last three years they have been prominent in the left-wing campaign against the war in Iraq. Previously they were involved in the campaign for refugee rights, the anti-capitalist movement and the campaign against the Jabiluka uranium mine. At their conference in December 2005 they decided to prioritise anti-war work in 2006, including building "Students Against War and Racism" groups on university campuses. They also prioritised activity in the campaign against the government's new Industrial Relations laws.
Members of SA are distinctive during protests due to the red flags they carry in their contingent or "red bloc". This distinguishes them from other Marxist organisations in Australia who normally carry placards.
Socialist Alternative place a considerable emphasis on political education of their members and supporters. They run a regular series of reading groups and educationals on Marxism and numerous day schools. They have also published a range of books and pamphlets. Most recently a number of their members produced a major work analysing Australian capitalism, Class and Struggle in Australia, edited by Rick Kuhn. Socialist Alternative publish a monthly magazine called Socialist Alternative, which they sell on stalls held on university campuses and city streets.
They have Socialist Alternative clubs on many capital city university campuses, which also hold regular meetings. They have a strong presence at the University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, the University of Sydney, RMIT, the Australian National University and the University of Western Australia. They regularly run for election in various student unions and have held positions in the National Union of Students. In 2005 they played a key role in the campaign against the Howard government's Voluntary Student Unionism legislation. Within student politics to the left of the ALP based factions, SA are the largest Marxist current, and compete with an amorphous "green" ideology based current for leadership of the left-of-labor students.
History
Socialist Alternative began following the expulsion of a number of Melbourne members of the ISO in 1995 following a lengthy debate about perspectives for building the organisation. This was part of a broader debate in the International Socialist Tendency (IST) about the nature of the political situation and how socialists should respond, which resulted in splits in a number of countries, including New Zealand, Greece, South Africa and France, and the expulsion of the ISO in the United States from the IST.
Socialist Alternative believe they placed an emphasis on developing a realistic assessment of the political environment in which they were operating, both in Australia and internationally, and avoiding the grand pretensions that characterise much of the left.
While not a member of the International Socialist Tendency, SA remains committed to the ideas and positions associated with the "International Socialism" tradition of Trotskyism and has links with a number of other groups which were previously part of the International Socialist Tendency
SA briefly joined the Socialist Alliance, which grouped together the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), the ISO, and some smaller left groups and individuals. However SA dropped out when they saw that the Socialist Alliance was not attracting new forces and appeared to be increasingly dominated by the DSP and thus was not viable. SA also opposed the strong emphasis the Socialist Alliance put on running in parliamentary elections which they saw as counterposed to building activism on the ground.
In 2002 and 2003 Socialist Alternative made a number of approaches to the ISO for unity but the ISO was not interested.
Socialist Alternative was a primarily Melbourne-based group up until around 2003, when it experienced an organisationally significant growth in membership across Australia. This growth has meant that Socialist Alternative has become one of the largest left groupings in the country and are now considerably larger than the ISO.
The sudden growth in membership proved impossible to maintain. In August 2004 Socialist Alternative experienced the loss of a number of members in Sydney and most of their Brisbane branch. In Sydney, Marc Newman, an experienced member from Melbourne who had been transferred to Sydney to grow SA there, led the split. The group of ex-Socialist Alternative members in Sydney joined a small socialist group named Solidarity, which was started by former members of the ISO. Their ex-members in Brisbane formed another separate organisation, calling themselves the Socialist Action Group.
Despite these setbacks Socialist Alternative's membership has continued to grow and they have more than made up the losses they suffered. They currently have regular branch meetings in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra.
External links
- [Socialist Alternative (Australia)]
- [Socialist Alternative and the ISO – Perspectives for Socialists] September 2002 SA document discussing the group's history.
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