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    Resignation from Socialist Alliance

    By Greg Adler

    I resign my membership of the Socialist Alliance.

    It is somewhat traditional in such circumstances to express regret about the circumstances that lead to such an act. And it is true that I regret the failure of the Socialist Alliance to develop as the sort of uniting political force of the left that seemed a possibilty when it began, and I regret that I leave behind some people still within the Socialist Alliance who I believe are sincere in their dedication to the struggle for socialist and progressive causes.

    Amongst those people I include many members of the Democratic Socialist Party/Perspective, which organisation I believe bears the greatest blame for the undermining of the Socialist Alliance.

    So let me say clearly that it is with great relief that I leave the demoralised, DSP-dominated wreckage that now parades under the name of the Socialist Alliance.

    There has been increasingly less reason for any socialist to remain wihin the Socialist Alliance unless you share the delusion of the DSP that the building of its sect is the only way forward for the building of socialism.

    Some recent developments have led to my resigning now. Amongst these I place the following:

  • The farcical standing of an SA candidate in the recent Marrickville bye-election, a decision made by a meeting of the Marrickville branch of the SA stacked by DSP members, which I detailed in a recent piece on the Ozleft website.

  • The repeated denigration by leading DSP member Peter Boyle of a long-standing socialist opponent of the DSP as "whitey" and even worse than the fact that Boyle stooped to such abuse is the fact that not a single member of the Socialist Alliance has openly objected to his crude practice. That indicates either general agreement within the SA with his practice or such a state of demoralisation within the organisation that no one saw any point in objecting to it.

    • These issues of course are only indicative of longstanding and deepening problems with the SA that were solidified by the national conference this year, which cemented the complete domination of SA by the DSP.

    I am confident that I will be able to find ways to work with those who still think there is some reason to remain within the SA. On the crucial issues of defeating the Howard governments attacks on the unions and its attacks on civil rights under the guise of anti-terror laws I am even more confident that there are many forces unencumbered by the dead hand of DSP/SA sectarianism with whom I can work in solidarity.
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