By Lisa Macdonald (National conference organising team)
For the 200 or so members who made it along to the Socialist Alliance’s 7th National conference in Sydney earlier this month, it was a tremendous three days of discussion, debate and collective action planning (a range of participants’ comments on the conference are posted here).The great spirit of unity and serious collaboration that characterised the conference was kicked off at the launching public meeting on January 2 with a diverse and inspiring panel of speakers. These included Peter Boyle, the former national secretary of the Democratic Socialist Perspective, who announced that earlier that day the DSP had made the historic decision to merge its work and resources fully into the alliance and to cease functioning as a separate organisation (Peter’s speech explaining the DSP’s decision can be read here).
Over the following three days, more than 60 resolutions and policies covering a wide range of campaigns and issues were discussed and voted on, all in the framework of further strengthening the left unity that the alliance has been able to create to date. It was an extraordinarily participatory conference, with delegates and members from all over the country, many having just met for the first time, engaged in intense discussion and collaboration to reach consensus on the main issues confronting working people, and the progressive campaigns and movements in Australia, and how the Socialist Alliance will tackle these challenges in 2010.
The general perspectives for 2010 that the conference adopted assessed the deep crises of the capitalist system and outlined the importance of the Socialist Alliance posing “real alternatives to resolve the problems people
feel”. It pledged the alliance to strengthening its effort for unity in the struggles against all pro-capitalist policies, including continuing to work with the Greens, ALP members and all left organisations in every struggle for social and economic justice, environmental sustainability and democratic rights.
The conference agenda was packed and by the end of the three days the alliance had taken big steps forward in both planning its practical work and in policy development. New policies were adopted on public transport, housing, superannuation, agriculture, LGBTI rights, Latin America solidarity, and youth rights, for example, and a wide range of existing policy was updated and expanded.
There were so many highlights of this conference that it’s difficult to know where to start, but one notable strength was the discussion and campaign plans that were developed, with the participation and leadership of Aboriginal activists Sam Watson, Richard Downs and Pat Eatock, around the struggles for Aboriginal rights. Several alliance members are currently preparing to visit the Ampilawatja walk-off to assist the community.Another highlight was the range and depth of discussion around the climate emergency, reflecting alliance members’ increasingly important role in the climate action movement in Australia. The conference decided to throw its weight behind the grassroots Climate Action Summit in March and the newly formed national climate network, and plans for a broad Socialist Alliance-sponsored Climate Change/Social Change conference in Melbourne in November were developed. A draft updated climate charter was also discussed, for completion over coming weeks.
The many workshops on the Socialist Alliance’s party-building activities were packed and very lively, producing lots of ideas and proposals for activity in 2010. In particular, proposals for broadening out participation in writing for and distributing Green Left Weekly, for the alliance’s election campaigning, and for building more inclusive and participatory local branches were workshopped in detail.
Many of the workshop proposals, either adopted by the conference or referred to working groups for further discussion, will be reported in this newsletter over the next month or so, so stay tuned. As well, new national working groups were established in a range of activity areas and these are open to any members who are interested, so get in touch with your local branch or email national_office@socialist-
The conference decided to launch a national membership/recruiting campaign from the beginning of this year, and constitution changes were adopted that expand the size of the National Executive and establish a broad National Committee to strengthen the leadership team in the alliance.
The historical/theoretical educational workshops, too, were very well attended and by all accounts stimulated some fascinating discussions (they often went well overtime as people didn’t want to end the discussion), and members left the conference with an abundance of ideas for educationals on socialism to be organised in local branches this year.
All of the guest speakers made very useful contributions to the conference discussions. They included Sivaranjani Manickam from the Socialist Party of Malaysia; Ampilawatja walk-off spokesperson Richard Downs; CLEAN activist from Adelaide John Rice; climate movement activist David Spratt; Cuban ambassador Abelardo Curbelo Padron; Tamil rights activists Sam Pari and Sara Nathan; Bronwen Beechey and Peter Hughes representing Socialist Worker New Zealand; Mike Treen from Unite in NZ; Reihana Mohideen from the Party of the Labouring Masses in the Philippines; and Victor-Hugo Munoz and Giovanni Ortiz from the Latin America Social Forum in Sydney. Messages of solidarity and congratulations were also received from more than a dozen socialist organisations in other countries (the international greetings can be read here).The rally to launch Green Left Weekly’s 2010 Fighting Fund appeal – a fun night of theatrical and musical performances, collected a record $125,000+ in donation pledges from members and supporters, a big step towards this year’s target of $300,000.
Especially if you were unable to make it along to the conference, do read the detailed report in this week’s issue of Green Left Weekly and have a look at the wonderful conference photos and video clips posted on the Socialist Alliance website. All of the policies and resolutions adopted at the conference will be published in Alliance Voices, and will available on the Socialist Alliance website as soon as possible.
A vox pop video on the conference can be watched on the SA Brisbane blog and SATV. The video may be useful as part of reportbacks to branches and can be downloaded here (Quicktime.mov).
