The further fragmentation of the ISO
A statement by Socialist Alternative
The resignation of 21 members from the International Socialist
Organisation (ISO) on 25 May is the latest reflection of the crisis
that has wracked the ISO for a decade. Since the last ISO conference in
December 2002 almost 50 members have resigned either individually or in
groups, leaving the ISO on a generous estimate with an active
membership of less than 100. This sharp decline occurred, as the 21
former ISO members point out in their resignation letter, during a
period that "saw the emergence of a massive international anti-war
movement and the largest anti-war demonstrations in Australia's
history. That the ISO failed to grow out of this movement, has no
greater political coherence, no larger established periphery and if
anything smaller meetings is a serious indictment of the current
practice of the group." (Letter
of resignation from the International Socialist Organisation)
It is an important step forward that the 21 comrades have
faced up
to the reality of the political degeneration of the ISO and summoned
the courage to split from a moribund group that has little or no
prospect of being reformed. The problem is that we don't believe that
the comrades have anything like sufficient political clarity on the
issues that led to the near collapse of the ISO to enable them to build
a viable new organisation. (For a detailed critique of the orientation
of the ISO and an alternative perspective for socialists in Australia
see Socialist Alternative
and the ISO: Perspectives for socialists)
Their letter offers next to nothing in the way of explanation for the
degeneration of the ISO and provides no clear alternative road forward
for building a revolutionary organisation in Australia.
The most glaring weakness of the statement put out by the 21
former
ISO members is that it says absolutely nothing about the disastrous
perspective of "the 1930s in slow motion" that led to the ISO's
degeneration. The comrades point to some of the symptoms of the crisis
in the ISO - the failure to build out of the anti-war movement, the
depoliticisation of the ISO, the lack of serious internal discussion.
But they don't point out the source of these problems which was the
wildly over-stated analysis of the political situation that the ISO
embraced in the early 1990s and the abandonment of any understanding
that the ISO was a propaganda group. Do the comrades reject or still
accept the disastrous "1930s in slow motion" perspective? Without some
clarity on this vital question there can be no road forward,
particularly as some of the comrades who signed this letter were for
many years leading advocates of the ISO's perspective and presided over
the wrecking of the ISO.
The other key weakness of the resignation statement is that it
takes
no clear position on the political questions that have been in dispute
in the ISO over the last decade - the United Front, the Socialist
Alliance, sectarianism, democratic centralism, the role of the British
SWP, student work, movementism, the role of a propaganda group. This
failure to take a clear stance on these vital issues simply re-inforces
our conclusion that it is unlikely that any new revolutionary
organisation will come out of this latest split from the ISO and if it
does it is unlikely to be viable.
From reading the resignation statement you would think that
the
crisis in the ISO only emerged during the last two years. In reality
the degeneration of the ISO began a decade ago with the adoption of
"the 1930s in slow motion" perspective that wildly overstates both the
degree of radicalisation in Australia and the possibilities for rapid
growth of a small revolutionary group. This schema that "the nineties
resemble the 1930s in slow motion" was developed in the early 1990s by
the British Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and imposed on all the groups
in the International Socialist Tendency (IST) of which the Australian
ISO is part. (More recently the SWP has further hyped up its analysis,
arguing that the crisis "resembles the 1930s in slow motion (but
speeding up). Socialist Review, London, June 2002, p 12.) This schema
which ludicrously argued that the 1990s were similar to the Great
Depression of the 1930s - a time of unparalleled economic and social
crisis for world capitalism which saw 30% unemployment in Australia and
the USA, the triumph of Nazism in Germany and Stalinism in Russia, a
revolution in Spain and so on - massively overstated the pace of
political developments and the scale of radicalisation in Australia. It
led the ISO to consistently exaggerate the level of anger in society
and the willingness of workers to fight back against ruling class
attacks and the degree to which workers and students were open to
socialist ideas.
This analysis made it extremely difficult for the ISO to
relate to
the actual opportunities that did exist for socialists to grow. It
meant that the ISO's arguments and slogans did not connect with those
people who were moving to the left and questioning capitalism. For
example in the recent anti-war movement the ISO called for actions that
were totally unachievable in the Australian political context - daily
mass demonstrations once the war had started, repeated calls for mass
civil disobedience and repeated calls for mass strikes to stop the war
even after the poor turn out to the union stop work in Melbourne. These
calls for action went way beyond the level of political consciousness
of the workers and students that were mobilising against the war and
totally disregarded the sorry state of union and student organisation.
It meant that the ISO was incapable of relating to and building out of
the massive demonstrations that did occur against the war, whereas
Socialist Alternative was able to grow significantly out of the
anti-war movement, in part because we had a more realistic assessment
of both the great strengths and the weaknesses of the movement.
For a decade the ISO have been seriously disoriented by their
"1930s
in slow motion" perspective. They abandoned any realistic assessment of
what a small socialist group could achieve. They turned away from an
understanding that they were a small socialist propaganda group that
was dependent primarily on its political ideas for its growth and
healthy political development. The ISO lurched from one failed get rich
quick scheme to the next (doorknocking the suburbs, tiny suburban
branches, the Action Program, Socialist Alliance) in search of illusory
gains. The internal life of the ISO began to degenerate and the group
became increasingly depoliticised as new members were given little
training in socialist politics.
Internal degeneration
By as early as mid-1993 it was clear that the ISO's
over-inflated
perspective was not working. The hopes for rapid growth were not
fulfilled. However the ISO leadership, egged on by the British SWP,
refused to face up to reality. The inevitable consequence of this
refusal of the ISO leadership to develop a more realistic perspective
was membership disillusionment and the emergence of internal
opposition. In 1995 the ISO leadership expelled a group of members who
were arguing for a more realistic perspective and they went on to form
Socialist Alternative.
Precisely because the ISO's perspective was not rooted in a
rigorous
assessment of Australian political reality or of what a tiny
revolutionary group could hope to achieve the ISO leadership could only
continue to impose "the 1930s in slow motion" perspective by arbitrary
means. They could not convince members either by the practical success
of the perspective or by the logic of their argument. This explains
why, as the 21 ex-ISO members point out, it is "impossible for us to
discuss our differences with the current perspective and practices of
the ISO within the framework of the ISO". (Resignation
letter)
However this inability of the ISO to have an open and honest discussion
of perspectives is not some recent development. It has been a hallmark
of the ISO for a decade. The ISO leadership had to undermine the
democratic traditions of the group precisely because they refused to
abandon a perspective that was increasingly out of kilter with reality.
An alternative perspective
A credible perspective for building a revolutionary
organisation
needs to be based on two key elements - a realistic assessment of the
political environment in which revolutionaries are operating and a
frank assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of our own forces.
After a long period of setbacks for the left and the working class
movement internationally we have begun to see over the last few years
some elements of a revival. This trend is most marked in Latin America
and parts of Europe, with the waves of strikes in Italy, France and
Greece and the emergence of a mass anti-capitalist movement. This has
been followed up this year with the largest international anti-war
movement in history.
These developments were reflected in Australia in the S11
demonstration at Melbourne's Crown Casino in 2000 and the recent
massive anti-war demonstrations. These developments opened up an
important new audience for socialists. We can grow significantly if we
can orient correctly. Nevertheless we have to be clear that the
political situation is far from being one of onwards and upwards. The
level of strike action in Australia is the lowest for over a century.
The rate of union membership is the lowest in more than seventy years.
Student organisation and the student left are in decline. There is no
sizeable socialist alternative to the ALP or the Greens. The
combination of all these factors means that while there is widespread
disillusionment and bitterness amongst workers and students about the
relentless attacks by the capitalist class and the failure of the ALP
to provide an alternative to the Liberals, there is also a deep
cynicism about politics and a lack of confidence about the ability of
the mass of workers and students to effectively resist these attacks.
This means that socialist groups can't recruit and hold new
members
on the basis of hyped up agitational rhetoric. New recruits have to be
politically convinced through lengthy political discussions, political
branch meetings, reading groups and their own individual reading,
combined with ongoing external political activity, if they are to stay
involved and be confident to recruit other people.
To cope during this challenging political period socialist
groups
need to develop an understanding amongst their members that there are
very important opportunities for growth (and at times such as the
recent anti-war movement decisive opportunities for quite rapid growth)
that mean that socialists have to orient outwards and look for
opportunities to relate to new struggles and new people. But socialists
also have to raise their theoretical level so that they are capable of
adapting to the sharp ups and downs of political life without becoming
demoralised.
Finally for the small socialist groups that exist in Australia
today
to operate successfully they need to have a clear understanding that
they are not mass parties (or even small parties) that can lead any
significant layer of workers in struggle. Instead they have to be clear
that they are propaganda groups reliant on their ideas to influence
relatively small numbers of people. Often when Socialist Alternative
emphasised the need for socialists to face up to the fact that we were
only small propaganda groups we were dismissed by the ISO as hopelessly
pessimistic and sectarian. But recognising we are a propaganda group
does not mean we are passive or content to be small and just want to
have a comfortable, closed circle of supporters. Far from it. It is
only by facing up to what we actually are that we can hope to break out
to wider layers and build on firm foundations. Recognising you are a
propaganda group points you in the direction of seeing where your
potential audience is today - most importantly political students on
the campuses - and pushes you against imposing unrealisable demands on
your organisation.
Significantly it has been Socialist Alternative with our
supposedly
pessimistic orientation that has been able to grow significantly, both
quantitatively (to just over 200 members) and qualitatively, over the
last three years and established a significant political base on the
campuses. Socialist Alternative was the only socialist group that was
able to relate effectively to the anti-war movement and build
significantly out of it. In contrast the ISO with its supposedly more
"optimistic" and "non-sectarian" approach has declined sharply and has
been wracked by internal turmoil and splits.
Conclusion
Socialist Alternative believes the latest split from the ISO
is a
step forward. Inside the ISO there was little prospect of the comrades
developing a realistic orientation for building a revolutionary group,
let alone putting such a perspective into practice. Freed from the
ISO's moribund, factional and depoliticised atmosphere and being able
to test in practice their own ideas there is at least some possibility
that they will begin to come to grips with the tasks facing
revolutionaries today.
Socialist Alternative wants to collaborate with comrades who
split
from the ISO in campaigns and to debate in a non-sectarian way and test
in practice our perspective for building a socialist organisation. We
encourage ex-ISO comrades - including all those who have left over the
last few years and are still committed to revolutionary politics - and
current ISO members to read and discuss with us our documents on perspectives).
We also encourage them to read some of our pamphlets: Revolutionary
Organisation Today by Mick Armstrong and Lenin and the
Party: Debunking the Myths by Sandra Bloodworth, Marc Newman
and Mick Armstrong that deal with aspects of the issues at stake.
Over the last eight years Socialist Alternative has begun to
build a
viable organisation committed to the politics of socialism from below
that can make an important contribution to the vital project of
building a revolutionary party in Australia. We appeal to former and
current ISO members still committed to that project to seriously
discuss with us the questions of how socialists can most effectively
build. The tragedy of the degeneration of the ISO is that many
socialists have dropped out of activity, precisely at a time when there
are greater opportunities to build a viable revolutionary organisation
than there has been for over twenty years. Socialist Alternative does
not claim to have all the answers to the challenges confronting
socialists. We don't claim to have been right on every question. We
don't demand that ISO members and ex-members agree with the entirety of
our perspective to join us but we do believe that they have to
seriously address the issues we have raised.
Socialist Alternative National Executive June 2003
This statement is available on the Socialist Alternative website in the
Vault.
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