Dear Renfrey,
Thank you for the phone invitation to come to the Socialist Alliance (South Australia) conference, to, as you put it, discuss socialist politics. I appreciate your persistence despite the fact that I have not had anything to do with the SA since the catastrophe of September 11.
As you may or may not know, I resigned from the organisation through an email I sent to the national office. This followed the decision of the SA to reflexively oppose Washington’s intervention in Afghanistan without even opening up the issue to discussion among the membership. I supported the intervention of Washington in Afghanistan because it was necessary to break the relation between a theocratic state apparatus established by the Taliban and the theocratic-fascist NGO Al Qaeda.
Shortly after we had the federal election and the defeat of the federal ALP. Following the defeat, after a period of reflection, I applied for membership in the ALP. I was expelled from the party for publicly supporting a green candidate in 1989, and I gave the party secretary an assurance that I would not repeat this action without resigning from the ALP first. I intend to stand by this commitment.
Allow me to waste some of your time by explaining where I stand politically. There are two legacies of what I would call the ‘generation of ‘68’. The first and most important is the theoretical legacy of western Marxism (a better description might be critical theory). That legacy can still be found in the pages of New Left Review; Le Monde Diplomatique; The Nation (New York); Monthly Review. It is interesting to see how the most important and interesting thinkers on the ‘left of the left’ do not belong to any far left parties.
The second and most problematic legacy is organisational. I would argue that (and I confine my remarks to the Australian far left) the leadership of the far left have thrown away the magnificent opportunities that were created by the events of ’68. I can only speak about the experiences I have had with the SYA/SWL/LTF/RESISTANCE/SWP/CL/DSP/SA (I am sure the stories are not much different in other groups and sub-groups). My experience is that of a political leadership that was filled with a deadly combination of sectarianism and petty ambition.
When I look back on my past I see a huge graveyard of former members and an organisation that is now, smaller and less influential than when I started getting involved in the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign.
The year that followed the fusion with the Communist League in 1978 was Australian Trotskyism’s best year. For a moment there I thought we might have the beginnings of a viable alternative politics. It took about a year before the ‘Cannonists’, the haters of the United Secretariat, the haters of the Mandelists, began their psychotic crusade to purify the party. Remember that Renfrey? We were taken out of the universities and offices and told we had to ‘join the working class’. We, like stupid fucking sheep, marched to the tune of the party leadership. I am pretty certain that none of those fucking bludgers in the core of the leadership went into industry and if they did they didn’t stay in there for too long.
That ‘turn’ was accompanied by the other psychotic crusade by the party leadership, the war against the dope smokers in the party. Remember that Renfrey? It was not a war against smoking dope at branch meetings, which never happened. It was a war against anyone who continued to smoke dope! I remember how in this insane crusade friend was turned against friend. I found myself attacking people who were nearest and dearest to me, people I loved! Some of the best and most intelligent cadres were dumped because they enjoyed a recreational puff at home. Oh, that’s right, they were ‘petty-bourgeois’.
Of course, it is probably wrong to consider all this as a period of irrationality. There was a reason for it. It was that way that the leadership of the party, or that part of the leadership trained by the ‘Cannonists’ of the United States Socialist Workers Party operated kept their control of the organisation. This group never had any intention of sharing power. All their actions were designed to purge those who were not prepared to follow those miserable cretins who ran the show, and dictated the ‘line’ that we faithfully parroted.
In retrospect, the political history of the far left had simply repeated itself after that time. It was a similar story in the move to create a new left with the remnants of the Communist Party (different moves, similar results). Will it be the same with the Socialist Alliance… we will see. I will watch from the sidelines.
I think that the most sensible course is for members of the far left to join either the ALP or the Greens. Those who no longer have confidence in the politics of class should join the Greens. Those of us who remain committed to the concept of class politics belong in the ALP. We should never have allowed our politics to be defined as the opposite of the most insightful of early post-war Marxist thinkers, Michael Pablo.
Regards,
Jeff Richards
3:10:03 PM 
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