[The following is a talk given on a panel at the International Green Left Conference on April 1, 1994.]

The crimes of rampaging capitalism today are all too visible. Susan George’s talk last night, the talks and panels today, have given us many reminders.

We’re here BECAUSE we’re conscious of this. And we’re also conscious, and perhaps a little afraid, of the tremendous financial, military, ideological resources at the disposal of the ruling classes.

And we’re also aware of their present confidence and arrogance.

There’s much triumphalism and bragging following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

But that capitalist exultation can be disregarded – all the devastation, the widening inequalities, the problems, the contradictions, are still there, and getting worse. Their smugness conceals instability. It’s NOT the end of history, and it’s NOT the end of socialism.

People are continuing to fight back. There are indications of revival of mass struggles. The gains in consciousness on many social issues still remain. In some countries we’ve seen recent election victories for left parties, and more are possibly on the horizon.

But is it just a question of defence of the immediate interests of workers and others who suffer in this system, or is socialism on the agenda. Do we just fight issue by issue, trench by trench, or can we rebuild the socialist movement, renew the broader socialist project?

And if we resolve that the renewal of the socialist project is necessary, which way forward?

What policies for socialist renewal?

To begin with, what POLICIES for socialist renewal are needed if we’re to go forward in the coming years?

• Firstly, WHAT is socialism? It’s a society where people have the right, the means, and the freedom to determine the course of their own lives, a society where the economy is not run in the private profit interests of a few, but where production is based on human needs and interests, where resources are owned cooperatively, and decisions about society and production are made democratically. Will those in power allow this to happen? No. It’s in fundamental contradiction to their economic and political interests.

• So obviously for us the socialist objective and the socialist movement has to be ANTI-capitalist. Fiddling won’t do. There’s no point in a policy of eradicating the worst, most visible consequences of capitalism. We fight for partial gains, for reforms, as part of our fight for socialism. But if that’s ALL we aim at, amelioration of the capitalist system, it’s not socialism. It’s liberal capitalism, capitalism with a human face. Socialists will of course want to unite with such people to fight for specific reforms, but running the capitalist system for the capitalists always ends in disaster for the workers’ movement. All too often you end up as part of the problem.

  There are countless examples all over the world this century.

• Furthermore, our socialism must be DEMOCRATIC. Socialism will be the rule of the majority. And it has to be won by the majority.

  Emancipation of the working class will be the work of the working class itself. “No saviours from on high deliver”, goes the Internationale. And we’re talking about real, comprehensive democracy.

  Not a token vote every few years, with all other decisions, important decisions, taken elsewhere. We’re looking at a different sort of government, a different sort of power, popular power.

  A weakness of movements for social change in countries like Australia is that they have become divorced from any struggle for power. We might sometimes talk about “fundamental social change” in an abstract way, but not pursue how this change can actually come about. We don’t get to the guts of the question, WHO has power, HOW is it maintained, HOW can it be broken, and WHAT forces are the possible agencies of such change.

• Our socialism must also be ANTI-STALINIST. Not just because it must be democratic. That’s basic. But because in the end the policies of Stalin, Stalinism were ANTI-socialist, counterproductive. Stalinism WASN’T socialism. It wasn’t merely mistakes, it wasn’t merely crimes.

  And we can’t just pretend it didn’t happen. The Marxist movement is nothing if not a movement with an understanding and an appreciation of history.

• And the socialism that we are renewing, that we’re fighting for, is also a socialism that must be Feminist; it must be Environmentalist; and it must be Anti-racist.

• And finally our socialism must be Internationalist. In the long run, because capitalism is a world system, increasingly interconnected, and until the workers in the most advanced countries succeed in taking power and begin to establish socialism, isolated victories by workers in small and economically and technologically disadvantaged countries will find it hard to hold out. But also because a narrow nationalist consciousness isn’t sufficient, workers and the oppressed have to develop an understanding of their class interests, to rise above the false consciousness spread by the ruling class and their mouthpieces.

  And especially in this period, we need to organise solidarity, and we need to exchange ideas, develop discussion, with other genuine socialists and workers’ movements around the world.

What perspectives for socialist renewal?

What are our immediate perspectives for socialist renewal around the world? I think there are two fundamental axes in this period, and they apply on a national level as well – two tasks, which in this period have to go hand in hand:

Firstly, the task of regroupment, regathering, uniting, reaching out, and sweeping aside the remnants of sectarianism from the workers’ movement.

And secondly, presenting and defending principled socialist politics, engaging in discussions and presenting the fundamental positions of socialism.

I stress that in general these two tasks have to take place together.

At times in the past, and perhaps even in some countries today, it might have been appropriate to focus on one aspect, and leave the other aside for a while.

But both tasks are desperately needed today, and the conditions are ripe, for a renewal that includes both a regroupment and a reaffirmation. Just an ecumenical sentiment for unity is not enough.

And just having the “right line” is not enough.

The collapse of Stalinism, the final outcome of the disaster in the Soviet Union, has had a positive outcome, the breaking of a political logjam, opening up the possibilities for discussion, for regroupment, for lowering sectarian barriers.

But there are dangers in this period. Many collapse into despair and demoralisation, find the struggle too hard. There’s the temptation to give up on the struggle for socialism, to dissolve into the swamp, into social democracy, the Labor Party. There’s a tendency to throw out the baby with the bath water, to react to the most recent revelations of Stalinism with shock, horror, and therefore extend the blame to Leninism, to the vanguard party, to revolution, to socialism, to class struggle… It’s all somehow tainted. There’s tremendous pressure to cave in to the ruling class propaganda, to become irrelevant.

I think some experiences in Australia in recent years show the need for BOTH these two essential aspects of socialist renewal in this period, reach-out and political clarification.

The Communist Party of Australia was conscious of the need to broaden out, to reach new forces, but ended up merely dissolving itself. Some former members have merged with the ALP, but most have dropped out, demoralised. The CP leadership backed away from the one real possibility for regroupment, the discussions with those of us in the DSP and others to form a new left party in the late ‘80s, hesitant before the prospect of a real discussion and political clarification.

There have been other genuine efforts at regroupment over the last 10 years, and the left is weaker through their failure. We’ve suffered from the refusal of any of the “lefts” in the Labor Party to make a break – any radicalism has been incorporated and tamed. But the need is still there – for the left to get together, to unite, while developing a clear political perspective.

Examples internationally of socialist renewal and developing discussion are perhaps more encouraging:

There’s the Sao Paolo Forum; a very useful meeting place and opportunity for discussion for the Latin American left.

There’s the development of the South African Communist Party, which has experienced tremendous growth, while engaging in thoroughgoing open discussion, in the middle of leading the transition process;

Conference July…

There’s the Committees of Correspondence in the USA. Carl’s comments.

Founding conference July.

There’s the developments in the Philippines… Sonny;

And there’s a range of encouraging developments in Europe, the PRC in Italy, the PDS in Germany.

So there’s a certain amount of regroupment taking place, the lowering of old barriers. But some are getting re-erected. In the extreme cases there’s the Pol Pot, Shining Path current, and I fear the Reaffirmationist wing of the Philippine CP heading in that same direction. But there are also other milder forms of a “back to Stalin” brigade, which is not a standing by socialism, but a sectarian adhesion to a non-socialist dead end. But just as much of a dead end is any retreat to simply social democratic politics, or to lapse into individual, isolated activity, and to give up on the idea of a socialist party.

What next steps here for socialist renewal?

So what are the next steps needed here for socialist renewal? We’ll return to this theme many times during the rest of this conference, especially at the final plenary on Monday, addressing the topic What is to be done?

But just to prefigure that discussion, and connect the debates, some of the key tasks we have to tackle are:

• Winning young people to socialism… Who are still radicalising – 1200 students joined Resistance on campuses during O-weeks this year;
• Providing a voice, an alternative. And Green Left Weekly has gone quite a way in that direction. It needs to be taken further.
• Uniting people in action where possible. Organising united left election campaigns. Organising common actions on issues.
• Winning the majority, the working-class masses. Developing a working-class base for the socialist movement.
• Building a party, a strong working-class party. Sentiments against parties reflect the position of the ruling class.

What next internationally for socialist renewal?

And internationally, what are the next tasks for those of us serious about socialist renewal?

• We need a process of discussion, of reassessment, of political clarification. It needs to be an open, not a narrow process.
• We need to assimilate the experience of the international workers’ movement, all the lessons this century. We need to learn from the mistakes, as well as learn from the successes.
• We need to rebuild connections, and make new connections. Old prejudices, sectarian barriers are coming down.
• We need international solidarity. The left needs quick and massive responses to repression, victimisations, wars.
• We need more meetings like this, a range of international seminars, conferences, exchanges. We need to develop regional collaboration.

A process of regroupment, a sifting out is occurring. Where there are only small groups in some countries, the goal should be for stronger parties to help new forces develop, in a selfless, non-sectarian spirit. The goal of discussions should be to help clarify, to help develop stronger parties, to help unite all those still fighting for genuine socialism.

LINKS

In this regard, an important initiative is the new international discussion journal, LINKS. The first issue will be available here tomorrow. It has an editorial board linking South Africa, Australia, the Philippines, the USA, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. And it has input from contributing editors in many other countries.

In recent years Green Left Weekly has taken some steps in making links, with journalists in the past in Europe, in Prague and London; a journalist in Moscow for the last four years; and this year a journalist in Johannesburg, as well as many part-time occasional correspondents around the world.

LINKS is going further – it’s a joint effort, and it’s a discussion magazine, an international discussion journal of socialist renewal.(Subscribe!) The LINKS call, printed in the first issue, describes it as “a magazine that rejects the Stalinist distortion of the socialist project, a magazine that takes into account ecological questions, a magazine that is taking steps to unify and bring together the forces for socialism in the world today, a magazine that aspires to unite Marxists from different political traditions because it discusses openly and constructively….

“LINKS hopes to not only bring together active socialists from different countries, different continents, but also to unite socialists coming from different traditions – the tradition of the pro-Moscow CPs; the tradition of Trotskyist parties; the tradition of Maoism; the tradition of the left wing of national movements; the tradition of left forces breaking with social democracy, and activists from social movements who have come to realise the need for a party.

We all come from different backgrounds, and often still have different viewpoints, but are united in:

1. Our socialist convictions of the need for fundamental social change;
2. The need for a democratic, non-authoritarian socialism;
3. The need for a socialism that’s green, feminist, anti-racist. It’s not presumptuous, not claiming too much, but it’s a very hopeful step forward.

Prospects for socialist renewal

So what are the prospects for Socialist Renewal now compared with recent decades? In the ‘80s in Australia for example? Were our feelings about the prospects of socialist renewal more positive or less at that time?

There were a number of false hopes of course in the ‘80s, the hopes for example that the Gorbachev reforms might have been leading away from Stalinism and towards socialist democracy, not restoration of capitalism.

But there was also a lot of pessimism about socialism too, a lot of doom and gloom, a conviction that the class struggle was old hat. In some ways today things are clearer, the positive results of the collapse of Stalinism in the Soviet Union loom larger than the negative, than the defeats.

And are we worse off, or better off, with the depth of betrayal by the ALP and ACTU leadership here? Would the working class be better off with social democratic leaders who put up more of a show, make a better play of “representing” the working class? Or should we be thankful that the French Socialist Government is exposed, that the British Labour party is discredited, that the New Zealand Labour Party has gone so far to the right, that the Italian Socialists are exposed as corrupt, that the Spanish social democrats in government showed their real worth, that the Australian Labor Party is increasingly separated from its former working-class base, and these misleaders will be less able to fight off a challenge from a real workers’ movement when it re-emerges?

There have been two terrible dead ends for the workers’ movement and socialism this century – Stalinism and social democracy.

But Stalinism wasn’t socialism.

And social democracy wasn’t socialism.

Both currents can linger on, sometimes as sects or shadows, sometimes even with the false labels, running capitalism better for the capitalists, but never again with pretensions.

Thus the prospects for socialist renewal ARE greater than ever.

It’s up to us.