Simon Blow, Online
With the Australian Electoral Commission blocking the Socialist Party from registering under the name “Socialist Party” on the grounds that it is too similar to “Socialist Alliance,” the question of socialist unity has once again been forced onto the agenda.
The AEC defends this undemocratic restriction by claiming it prevents voters from mistakenly assuming an association between organisations that are formally unaffiliated. Maybe the AEC has a point here! What are the political differences between socialist alliance and the Socialist Party? For a socialist organisation to justify its separate existence, it must do so on the basis of a distinct program. If it cannot, then it has no purpose beyond the petty sectarianism of its leadership. I doubt that members of either organisation could convincingly explain this separation to anyone outside their immediate milieu without resorting to insults rather than politics.
In practice, the politics of the Socialist Party and Socialist Alliance are virtually identical. Both operate on a fundamentally left-Laborite, reformist program and both pursue an electoral strategy. Socialist Alliance has nothing to lose by merging with the Socialist Party, and the socialist movement as a whole has everything to gain.
More recently, there has been an interesting turn of events. According to correspondence from Socialist Alliance’s national office, the Socialist Party’s executive appears to have abandoned the conference position of allowing Socialist Alliance uncontested runs in certain electorates. Instead, they have adopted the Communist Caucus position: to contest the same seats and openly struggle for political hegemony.
Whether this shift reflects the opportunism of the Socialist Party leadership, the sectarianism of Socialist Alliance or the vindication of the Communist Caucus’s motions will become clearer in the coming weeks. What is already clear, however, is that the socialist movement cannot advance through fragmentation, electoral maneuvering, or unprincipled coexistence. The only viable path forward for the socialist movement is socialist unity based on program, not on branding.
PARTISAN! 