True to form, the Barons of Sussex Street want a rally and a rubber stamp at state conference. Marcus Strom says delegates must demand democracy.
The NSW ALP conference on 4 and 5 July is looking to be another rubber stamp moment for Labor democracy, overseen by the mutually reinforcing factional deals between the NSW Right (Centre Unity) and the NSW Left of Anthony Albanese.
Of course, there is no substantive political difference between these two ‘factions’. ALP groupings have long shed such embarrassing accoutrements like principles, ideology and politics. They exist as cabals to carve up power and act as job placement agencies for the increasingly bland hacks that the ALP promotes.
At this party conference, the lack of democracy is no better seen than in the report on “Australia and the World”, the document on foreign policy. All motions from branches that seek to change the political direction of the report come with the committee recommendation to “Note the preamble and refer to National Conference”.
In other words, debates on Gaza, AUKUS or the Iran war are to be gagged.
The eight-page report to conference from the ‘Australia and the World’ committee highlights “disruption to the international system”, a “receding of the international rules-based order” and “democratic governments pressured by populism”.
The report does not mention US President Donald Trump even once, notwithstanding his authorship of the ills outlined in the opening paragraph. The ALP apparatchiks are fearful of upsetting their imperial masters.
Without an ounce of shame or self-awareness, the report claims Labor’s vision for foreign policy is animated by “values of freedom, fairness and compassion”. And then goes on to back the US war on Iran, gloss over Israel’s genocide in Gaza and completely back the AUKUS military pact with the US and UK that threatens to drag Australia into a war with its major trading partner, China.
There are 40 motions from branches related to this chapter (many presented as composite motions), plus three from the SDA plus five from the Labor Israel Action Committee. You would think such motions would be debated and voted on. But you would be wrong, of course.
Of those motions, nine oppose AUKUS or call for an inquiry into AUKUS or support an independent defence policy (separate from US interoperability) or oppose a proposed nuclear submarine base at Port Kembla. There are 17 motions protesting the ongoing Israeli genocide against Palestine and related matters, plus eight motions opposing the US/Israel war on Iran (and Australia’s support for it) and related matters. So, in all 34 out of 40 motions oppose the current political direction of the federal Labor government.
Records held by Labor Against War point to 33 branch motions in NSW on AUKUS alone in the 12 months to conference, so not all of these made it to conference.
There is not a single motion from branches supporting AUKUS.
The Electrical Trades Union has offered one glimmer of hope that a debate might take place on nuclear submarines. Originally slated for debate in the Australia and the World report (which is being gagged), the motion might end up being moved during the Building Resilient Communities report.
No Nuclear Ports in NSW: ETU motion to conference
NSW Labor opposes the construction and operation of any base to support the operation of nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable, or nuclear-armed submarines at Port Kembla, Newcastle, or anywhere else in NSW.
NSW Labor opposes the visit of any nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable, or nuclear-armed vessel at any port in NSW.
NSW Labor in government will withhold any state funding for, or any cooperation with, any process or project that relates to preparation, construction, or operation of a base for any nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable, or nuclear-armed submarines at any location in NSW.
Of course, Labor Tribune urges all delegates to vote for this motion.
In terms of the Australia and the World report, it is clear that an overwhelming majority of motions from branches to conference oppose the federal Labor government’s foreign policy on three key questions. But unless there is a rebellion on this, they won’t be debated.
Labor Friends of Palestine and Labor Against War have written a joint letter to the NSW ALP General Secretary, Dominic Ofner. (Full text of letter at this link.) It states:
We are writing to raise our concerns that Australia and the World will not be debated at the forthcoming State Labor conference. There has never been a more critical time to consider Labor policy on matters of peace, human rights, international law and national sovereignty and these issues are a clear priority for the Party rank and file.
We have a number of specific concerns regarding the approach of the Australia and the World Policy Committee and find it unacceptable that the Committee’s report may be endorsed without the opportunity for debate.
Further, it argues:
The preamble includes a lengthy endorsement of AUKUS but not a single branch motion supports this view. In fact there are a number of motions specifically opposing AUKUS or calling for its suspension and review.
The preamble includes an unquestioning commitment to Australia’s alliance with the United States, including support for recent US attacks on Iran. In contrast, branch motions advocate for a more independent foreign policy approach and question the legality and legitimacy of attacks on Iran.
The preamble suggests that there are ‘a range of perspectives’ in motions addressing the issue of Palestine. This is simply untrue. Fourteen different party units submitted at least one motion addressing this issue – some submitted more than one. All of these motions are unanimous in their condemnation of ongoing violence and displacement in Gaza and the West Bank, their concern about Israel’s disregard for human rights and international law, and their calls for stronger action to be taken to hold Israel accountable, prevent further violence and uphold the rights of the Palestinian people to peace and justice.
Like all things in the ALP, committees are controlled by factions. The committee overseeing the Australia and the World chapter is controlled through an alliance of the NSW Right (Centre Unity) and the NSW Left of Anthony Albanese.
So, with an overwhelming majority of branch motions relevant to this chapter wanting to oppose federal government policy, what does this committee do?
“Note and refer to National Conference”. That is, gag any debate on three central foreign policy and defence issues: AUKUS, Israel and Palestine, and the Iran war.
Democracy in action.
Further, Labor Tribune understands that these AUKUS motions ‘referred to National Conference’ will be sent there to die. The ALP government considers the matter settled at the 2023 National Conference, notwithstanding the current independent Inquiry into AUKUS.
However, in the intervening three years, it becomes increasingly obvious that AUKUS is an albatross around the neck of the Albanese government. It dares not upset Donald Trump for fear he will pull the AUKUS deal from under the feet of the government.
The Albanese government has tied its fortunes to AUKUS and dare not shift on it.
Unless a union like the ETU, AMWU or MUA, or a federal MP like Ed Husic, lead a rebellion on AUKUS, the conference arrangements committee will like to see no debate on AUKUS, no doubt having promised the Pentagon “we have them under control”.
In NSW, the Right faction, known as Centre Unity, has had historical dominance. The official NSW Left faction has operated as a subsidiary of the Right for many years, divvying up power and parliamentary perks between them. Since the ascendency of Anthony Albanese, that symbiotic remains, but with the NSW Left more dominant. In the branches, under the watchful eye of NSW Assistant Secretary George Simon, the NSW ‘Left’ acts as a praetorian guard for the honour of their boss, Albo.
His own branch of Petersham has sent in a couple of bland motions, one calling on the government to “strengthen accountability under international law” without naming who should be kept accountable. The other motion – we kid you not – “commends the Albanese government on its efforts to deescalate the conflict in Iran, Lebanon and the wider Middle East”.
Just how supporting Donald Trump’s and Benjamin Netanyahu’s act of open aggression and slaughter on Iran is an “effort to deescalate conflict” we shall leave to the reader to solve.
The ‘Soft Left’ sub-faction of the NSW Left remains within this factional arrangement, fearful that if it went independent, it would lose its remaining access to parliament and what it sees as an ability to ‘influence things’. Nonetheless it continues to fight for anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist positions.
Led by Anthony D’Adam, the ‘Soft Left’ has been instrumental in ensuring that Labor Friends of Palestine has been a thorn in the side of the Albanese government. D’Adam was sacked from his position as a parliamentary secretary for expressing principled solidarity for the Palestinian people. But while it remains within the factional system, it cannot truly act independently.
Elsewhere in this report, a group calling itself the Labor Israel Action Committee brought four motions generally in line with Israeli foreign policy – oppose the Houthis, Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas. Plus one motion opposing the extension of the death penalty and another reaffirming the ALP’s position for a ‘two-state solution’. These positions generally reflect the politics of the Executive Council for Australian Jewry.
It must be said that there is a certain macabre flair in calling for such a ‘solution’ when one state has completely devastated Gaza and operates a low-level continuous war on the West Bank, while expanding Israel’s borders into Lebanon and further into Syria.
The conservative SDA union also has a motion on Iran condemning the IRGC and calling for ongoing support for Ukraine.
The ALP is far from being a democratic united front of the working class, where all shades of opinion can be raised and debated. With the workers’ movement at a low ebb, the politics of careerism and support for the US empire dominate.
Marxists in the ALP will continue to argue for what is needed – the unity of the working class in a single mass party, armed with a Marxist program and committed to the revolutionary overthrow of the constitutional order, the complete transformation of capitalism and the victory of socialism. We will work with comrades in the ALP and in the broader labour and socialist movements to achieve this.