Racing!
slackbastard’s Trot Guide is an overview of the current state-of-play on the Australian far left.
As of May 2008, there are approximately 30 or so ‘leftist’ (Marxist) groups / parties in existence… although some are little more than some bloke and his dog, neither of whom are in particularly good health. There have also been a number of deaths in the family since the time of the last update (August 2006) — these are marked with a * — as well as a handful of births.
Update : July 11, 2009.
Updated links : December 21, 2009. NB. There have been a number of late scratchings.
A near-as-complete-as-I-can-make-it list includes:
*1) Committee for a Revolutionary Communist Party in Australia. Status : possible urban myth, likely deceased. December 21, 2009: Still dead.
*2) Communist Left Discussion Circle. Status : likely deceased. December 21, 2009: Dead.
3) Communist League (CL). Status : Alive and very unwell. December 21, 2009: Undead.
*4) Communist Party Advocate(s). Status : deceased; resurrected as Labor Tribune.
5) Communist Party of Australia (CPA). Status : alive. Still. Unlike Stalin.
6) Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) (CPA-ML). Status : alive — just — and still barracking for Mao.
7) Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP). Status : alive, but seemingly proceeding downhill at a rapid rate, both ideologically and organisationally. May 2008: The DSP has expelled a minority faction named, with considerable imagination, the ‘Leninist Party Faction’ (see below). December 21, 2009: As of January 2010, the DSP has announced it will dissolve into SA.
*8) Direct Action. Status : A splinter from the DSP, formed in July 2006. Formerly known as the MSN (see below). Also ‘Community & Workers’ First’. Now dissolved into the RSP (see below).
9) Freedom Socialist Party (FSP). Status : alive, but basically stagnant, and with only a tiny number of members, almost all located in Melbourne.
*10) International Socialist Organisation (ISO). Status : alive, but in serious — and possibly even terminal — decline. May 2008: In December 2007, the ISO announced its intention to merge with two other Leninist parties, and to abandon the name ‘ISO’ for a new one: ‘Solidarity’. December 21, 2009: Dead.
*11) Leninist Party Faction (LPF). Status : The newest kid on the Leninist bloc, formed as a result of the expulsion of a minority of members from the DSP. Now merged with DA to form the RSP (see below).
12) Marxist Initiative. Status : alive, but seemingly little more than a publishing project of the PLP. May 2008: Dead link… dead initiative? No! MI carries on publishing its views via the Australian Socialist. December 21, 2009: Dead. Again.
*13) Marxist Solidarity Network. Status : another groupuscule, formed in June/July 2006, and comprised of a handful of former members of the DSP. May 2008: At some point in the intervening period, the MSN renamed itself ‘Direct Action’ (see above). Which then merged into the RSP (see below).
*14) National Preparatory Committee of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Australia. Status : another possible urban myth, likely deceased. December 21, 2009: Dead.
*15) New Era Communist Party of Australia. Status : (almost certainly) deceased (that is, if it was ever truly alive). December 21, 2009: Dead.
16) October Seventh Socialist Movement. Status : alive, in extremely poor health, and — given it consists of a handful of geriatric Stalinists — with a dire prognosis. December 21, 2009: Dead.
17) Progressive Labour Party (PLP). Status : alive. December 21, 2009: Still.
18) Revo Australia (Revo). Status : Revo formed following the dissolution of WP (see below). Competes with a collection of others for the title of Tiniest Vanguard Down Under. December 21, 2009: Dead.
19) Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP). Status : NEW! Formed in May 2008 as a result of the fusion of DA and the LPF.
*20) Socialist Action Group (SAG). Status : formed in 2004 as a split in the Brisbane branch of SocAlt, it is yet to leave home. May 2008: SAG has merged with the ISO and Solidarity. December 21, 2009: Dead.
21) Socialist Alliance (SA). Status : alive, but with a very poor prognosis; obituary notices are already in preparation.
22) Socialist Alternative (SAlt). Status : alive and well and busy recruiting University students.
23) Socialist Appeal. Status : likely deceased, but still capable of sending occasional messages from beyond the grave… and re-launched via the Fightback website! December 21, 2009: Dead. Again.
*24) Socialist Democracy (SD). Status : deceased, December 2005. December 21, 2009: Still dead.
25) Socialist Equality Party (SEP). Status : alive… just. The SEP essentially functions as a spectacularly unsuccessful electoral front for a handful of Sydney members of the Australian section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI).
*26) Socialist Labor Party of Australia (SLP). Status : (almost certainly) deceased. December 21, 2009: Dead.
27) Socialist Party (SP). Status : alive, and in reasonably good health in Melbourne.
28) Solidarity. Status : uncertain; formed in 2003 following Ian Rintoul’s departure from the ISO, the group (?) has not updated its website since November 2005. May 2008: Reports of the death of Solidarity have proven to be exaggerated, with two other Trotskyist groupuscules (the ISO and SAG) joining it to form a new! improved! Solidarity.
29) Spartacist League of Australia (SL). Status : alive, in very poor health, and living in Melbourne and Sydney.
29 1/2) Trotskyist Platform (TP). Status : TP formed in 2006 when no less a person than the editor of the Australasian Spartacist made like a banana… and split. May 2008: He must be hunting wabbits, as he is keeping vewy vewy quiet. December 21, 2009: It’s alive!
*30) Workers’ League. Status : if a single statement on the war in Iraq published in February 2003 constitutes life, then the Workers’ League is in exceedingly good health. December 21, 2009: Dead.
31) Workers’ Liberty (AWL). Status : alive and unwell and living in Sydney.
*32) Workers’ Power (WP). Status : deceased, July 2006. May 2008: Unconfirmed reports suggest that one or possibly even two splinter groups may have formed upon the dissolution of WP (see Revo, above). December 21, 2009: Dead. Still. WP/League for the Fifth International continues to eke out an existence, principally in GB.
33) World Socialist Party of Australia. Status : probably alive… if only via the maintenance of a PO Box in Melbourne.
For more detail :
- The Original Trot Guide
Mao More Than Ever / Stalin Wasn’t Stallin’
All posts in the category Trot Guide
Finally, an honorary mention must be made of Lastsuperpower.net: “A bunch of decayed Marxists and Stalinists in search of a home…” — well, that’s what some pommy bastard called Harry reckons. Then again, describing Albert Langer as a decayed Marxist isn’t all that amiss; tho’ he’s no Stalinist — from all accounts, Mao still floats his boat… more than ever.
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