“All Aboard! Bolshevik Revolution leaving Trotskyist Platform at 19:17!” Toot toot!

Awesome.

It’s been six months since I updated the Trot Guide, and six months is a long time in Trotskyist politics.

Well… kinda.

Anyway, point is, in May I wrote:

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.

No longer!
Trotskyist Platform has a website!
And a publication!
Two issues of which are available online!
Issue 9 (Feb-May 2008) and Issue 10 (Sep-Oct 2008)!
My favourite article is ‘An Eyewitness Account from The Canberra April 24 Pro-Peoples Republic of China Rally: From The Bright Depths of The Sea of Red’: “There has not been such a huge show of support for a pro-communist flag in this country in at least the last 30 years, perhaps ever.”

How excitement!

TP stands in the tradition of the early years of the Communist International (CI) that was formed in the wake of the October 1917 socialist revolution in Russia. The CI would soon unite together revolutionaries from China to Russia, from France to the U.S. We look forward to the future regrouping of sincere worker militants and leftist youth into a party based on the principles that the Communist International was founded on. We look forward to a future world where there will not only be no subjugation but where every person will be able to, depending on their own interests, reach their full creative, cultural, scientific and artistic potential.

Trotskyist Platform: PO Box 1101, Fairfield, NSW, 1860, Australia
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone (Australia): 0417 204 611
Phone (International): 0061 417 204 611

In other news…

http://www.labortribune.net/ is “Under [Re-]Construction”.

The Communist Party of Australia has had to bid farewell to its General Secretary (1972–2008), Peter Symon, following his death on December 18, 2008. “Peter’s contribution to the Australian and International communist movement was considerable. He ranks with other great Australian Communists such as JB Miles, Dick Dixon and Lance Sharkey.” Lance Sharkey, ‘Stalin — The Lenin of To-day’, Foreword to Foundations of Leninism (1945) by ‘Uncle’ Joseph Stalin:

The trotskyite fascist agents tried to deny Stalin’s theoretical ability. They claimed that their defeat was brought about by organisational measures directed against them. But the struggle against the traitorous trotskyites was, in the first place, a theoretical and political struggle of decisive importance. The question involved was one of life or death, the continued existence of the Soviet Republic, the problem of whether Socialism could be built in one country.

Stalin brilliantly defended and elaborated Lenin’s teaching on the possibility of building Socialism in one country and, with a profound grip of Marxism-Leninism, refuted the “theoretical” arguments of his opponents, who, defeated, later sold themselves as Quislings to the Nazi and Japanese espionage services.

Worryingly, Vanguard, the publication of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist), does not appear to have been published for some twelve months — or at least, not online. Vanguard Online in 2008! “In its political work, the Party takes into account the hostile position of the pro-imperialist state power and the activities of its repressive agencies. Except for a few leading figures and spokespersons, the majority of Party members do not reveal their association. The current Chairperson is Bruce Cornwall.”

The Democratic Socialist Perspective Socialist Alliance held its Sixth National Conference in Geelong over the weekend of December 6-7, 2008. Without having read any accounts, I can assure readers that it was A Great Success, A Big Step Forward, and that, while The Struggle Ahead is Long and Difficult, The Future for SA is Very Promising.

http://www.fightback.org.au/ is a website which is The Marxist Voice of Labour and Youth. In plain English, that means that one of the Trotskyist Internationals — in this case the International Marxist Tendency (IMT: formerly the Committee for a Marxist International or CMI) has a handful of followers Down Under.

In Australia, Revo appears to have disappeared… but may just be unwell. The Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), on the other hand, is still kicking seven months after its birth. And while the DSP may lay claim to Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP), the RSP has its own Asia Pacific Solidarity Network (APSN). Members of the two parties happily work together in the Australia Venezuela Solidarity Network, however.

Finally, revolutionaries face a tough choice come Easter, 2009. On the one hand, in Melbourne, Socialist Alternative is hosting ‘Marxism 2009’ (April 9–12); on the other, the DSP/Resistance will be critically examining a ‘World at a Crossroads’ (April 10–13) in Sydney. John Pilger will be a special guest at Marxism 2009 and based on his performance at the 2008 London Anarchist Bookfair, at which he reportedly declared himself an ‘anarchist’, chances are he’ll declare himself a ‘Trotskyist’ in Melbourne…

wsws.org awesomeness: Australia: The DSP split and Socialist Alliance—another opportunist debacle, Laura Tiernan, December 6, 2008.