Democratic Socialist Perspective

Democratic Socialist Perspective
Democratic Socialist Perspective
Leader	Peter Boyle
Founded	1972
Dissolved	2010
Merged into	Socialist Alliance
Headquarters	Sydney
Ideology	Socialism,; Marxism,; Anti-capitalism
International affiliation	Fourth International
Website
	http://www.dsp.org.au/
	Politics of Australia; Political parties; Elections;

The Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP) was an Australian Marxist political group, which operated as the largest component of a broad-left socialist formation, the Socialist Alliance. In 2010, the DSP voted to merge into the Socialist Alliance.

History

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).

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.

Socialist Alliance

In 2001, the DSP, along with several other socialist parties including the International Socialist Organisation, formed the Socialist Alliance, initially an electoral vehicle. In 2002 the DSP championed the idea of turning Socialist Alliance into more of a party formation, although at first it had to withdraw this proposal as the ISO's opposition threatened to destroy the alliance.^[1] 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, in line with its view that SA should become a "Multi-Tendency Socialist Party", a view that the May 2003 National Conference of the Socialist Alliance subsequently adopted.^[2]

Each of these changes of name and tactics has been accompanied, like in many far-left groups, 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,^{[citation needed]} it failed to retain most of them for long as the sixties and seventies radicalisation wave has receded. Nonetheless, the DSP has retained a core membership drawn from each upsurge of political struggle, some of whom are founding members of the party back in 1972. The SWP, and then DSP, was led by Jim Percy as National Secretary from 1972 until his death in 1992.

The Socialist Alliance had been created in alliance with other forces in the hopes of using joint electoral work amongst Australian socialists to increase trust and collaboration between socialists, and in the process making socialist organisation a more attractive option to the left. But although it contested the 2001 federal election and the 2004 federal election, as well as several state elections, it has failed to attract significant support. The Socialist Alliance has had two electoral successes, electing Sam Wainwright to Fremantle City Council in 2009^[3]^[4] and Sue Bolton to Moreland City Council in 2012 ^[5]^[6]

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.^{[citation needed]} This caused a split, after the opposition was expelled subsequently forming a new organisation the same year, the Revolutionary Socialist Party.^[7]

In October 2009, the DSP National Committee proposed that the organisation merge itself into the Socialist Alliance. At the DSP National Congress in January 2010, the membership voted to go ahead with the merger.

References

^ Democratic Socialist Party 20th Congress "Resolution on work in the Socialist Alliance". Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, December 2002.
^ Socialist Alliance takes a new step for left unity, Peter Boyle, Green Left Weekly, 14 May 2003
^ "Victory for Sam by 100 votes". samforhilton.blogspot.com. 18 October 2009. Archived from the original on 7 August 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
^ Doug Thompson (2010). "Meet your elected members". City of Fremantle Official website. Archived from the original on 2 December 2011. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
^ "Cr Sue Bolton - North East Ward". Moreland.vic.gov.au. 24 February 2015. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
^ "Sue's Moreland Report: News & opinion from Sue Bolton, Moreland's socialist councillor". Suesmorelandreport.org. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
^ Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) launched, Revolutionary Socialist Party, 28 May 2008. Archived 4 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine