Bob Sparks reports from Petersham Town Hall in July on the launch of the election vehicle led by Socialist Alternative.
The launch of the NSW Socialists at the end of July was certainly an impressive affair. Around 400 people filled the Petersham Town Hall in Sydney’s inner-west to launch the new electoral formation. The meeting demonstrated that the relative success of the Victorian Socialists and its nationwide expansion as the Socialists has resonated with a layer of radical activists, young and old, largely mobilized by the Palestine solidarity movement. But it also highlighted how Socialist Alternative, the architects behind the Socialists project, intend to build this new formation – with frenetic activism, crude anti-Labor rhetoric and with Marxism pushed to the sidelines.
The launch rally was kicked off by Eleanor Morley, the appointed secretary of the NSW Socialists. She told the packed meeting that the success of the Victorian Socialists (which garnered 63,000 senate votes, or 1.54 percent, at the recent May federal election) has led to more than 1000 people joining the NSW Socialists and a total of 4000 people joining the Socialists across the country. While such membership is on paper, it is a rapid drive for electoral registration.
Morley’s other introductory remarks set the tone for the meeting: persistent agitation about the “horror show” of capitalism; the need for all present to “do something” and get organised in the NSW Socialists; and that state and federal Labor governments will “do absolutely nothing for working people, and will only make things worse”. As the meeting progressed, it became clear that this black-and-white anti-Labor rhetoric was no accident.
The second speech by Emma Norton continued in a similar vein. The train driver and member of the ALP-affiliated Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) railed at Transurban’s monopoly control of Sydney’s toll roads, privatisation of the city’s bus and light rail networks and the private consortium in charge of the Opal card public transport fare payment system. The NSW Labor government was rightly condemned for its current attacks on the workers’ compensation system and its minimal pay offer to the state’s already poorly paid nurses. Cheers went up for Norton’s calls to “take the wealth and tax it” and to “expropriate without compensation”, while jeers were reserved for the “openly anti-worker” NSW Labor leader Chris Minns who “will do absolutely nothing for workers”.
Norton did not stray from this blanket anti-Labor narrative. While quick to condemn the Northern Beaches Hospital’s public-private partnership and the mismanagement that led to the death of a two-year-old toddler last year, the NSW Labor government’s recent ban on future public-private health partnerships and moves to return the Northern Beaches Hospital to public control were conveniently sidestepped.
The launch also heard from Zack Schofield and Emily Mitchell from the climate action group Rising Tide. The two guest speakers greeted the formation of the NSW Socialists and outlined their campaign to stop coal exports from Newcastle. The Port of Newcastle is the world’s largest coal port and Australia’s biggest single contributor to the climate crisis. The climate activists berated NSW Premier Chris Minns for his crackdown on last year’s peaceful port blockade, argued that building a reformist but disruptive mass movement is necessary for moving towards a revolutionary political trajectory, and concluded by inviting everyone to Rising Tide’s upcoming People’s Blockade 2025 (November 27 to December 2).
Student activist and Socialist Alternative member Shovan Bhattarai spoke about the movement against the war in Gaza on campus and beyond. The University of Sydney SRC office bearer and Students for Palestine coordinator recalled last year’s pro-Palestine student encampment at the university, the Zionist-backed attempts to shut it down and the emergency rally that saw hundreds of people gather to defend the camp. She then took aim at the federal and state Labor governments. The Albanese government’s weasel words, refusal to cut ties with Israel and continued exporting of F-35 fighter jet parts were “loading the guns of the IDF”.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s claim that Trump is the best hope for a ceasefire in Gaza and her sanctioning of Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi for holding up a placard in parliament calling for sanctions on Israel earned the Foreign Minister a chorus of boos and jeers. The anti-protest laws legislated by Chris Minns, leader of the “most pro-genocide government in the country”, and their role in the police assault of pro-Palestine demonstrator and former Greens election candidate Hannah Thomas earned the NSW Premier similar condemnation. In a fit of overexuberance, Bhattarai also claimed that the current housing crisis was largely the fault of the Albanese government which “has overseen the largest selloff of public housing in living memory”. (Perhaps she meant the NSW Liberal-National Coalition which sold off $3 billion of social housing over a decade.)
The meeting’s drawcard, Jordan van den Lamb (aka purplepingers), was absent on the day. A family emergency prevented the social media and housing activist, and lead Victorian Socialists Senate candidate, from attending. The meeting was instead treated to a short video message in which Van den Lamb stated that, while it took years for the Victorian Socialists to reach the 1000-member mark, the NSW Socialists has done it in just weeks.
The meeting wrapped up with Morley returning to the podium to urge all present to “get active now” and sign up to the NSW Socialists. The focus on simple activism was reinforced with a leaflet that offered five ways to get involved: sticking up posters, getting in touch with other NSW Socialists, organising a local meet and greet, attending protests and events with other socialists and “Election time!”. Participants were encouraged to sign up to local groups in Sydney’s Inner West, Western Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Newcastle at stalls scattered around the hall. Morley also referred to plans to hold the Socialists first national conference as early as October. This conference will be open to all members on a one member, one vote basis and will adopt a constitution and elect a leadership body. Finally, the NSW Socialists is committed to running in the 2027 NSW state elections and standing in a “number of electorates”.
Just an hour and a half after it began, it was over. The launch rally was wrapped up with no opportunity for any questions or discussion. Participants were instead encouraged to head off to a local pub. But the meeting certainly did raise a few questions.
Left reformism all over again
One, what strategy will the Socialists employ in its fight for socialism? While speakers happily referred to the need for working-class militancy and the example of the NSW Builders Labourers’ Federation, the essentially left-reformist platform of the Victorian Socialists and the project’s overarching emphasis on electoral work would lead many to believe that simply electing socialists to parliament is the answer.
Two, is the Socialists project an explicitly Marxist one? The “M” word was not mentioned once by any of the platform speakers, three of whom are Socialist Alternative cadre. The usual bookstalls of Marxist literature that accompany a Socialist Alternative meeting were conspicuously absent. Yes, a few people sold copies of Socialist Alternative’s Red Flag, but that was as far as it went.
Three, will the Socialists project include a united front approach to leftist Labor Party members? Will overtures be made to Labor Friends of Palestine and Labor Against War, the two most obvious signs of left-wing life in the ALP? Will there be room for dual Labor-Socialists membership, like the dual ALP-Communist Party card-carriers of the past? Is there any room for Labor Party leftists in the work of the Socialists at all? The launch’s crude anti-ALP rhetoric (which even blamed Labor governments for things they’re not responsible for) suggests that there isn’t. But to regroup the socialist and Marxist left, there most definitely needs to be.
The Socialists project combines a left-reformist platform with blanket hostility to Labor Party members. This is the worst of both worlds. Our fundamental challenge is to oppose Laborism, that is, the ruling class ideas prevalent in the labour movement. Building an electoral front with a left-reformist (i.e. left Laborite) platform is no way to do this. To challenge Laborism, socialists need to positively engage with left-moving members in the Labor Party and the ALP-affiliated unions. Sectarian hostility to Labor Party members will only repel them.
What also stuck out like a sore thumb was the distinct lack of interest that the rest of the radical left has in the Socialists project. The 26 July launch was one of the biggest socialist meetings Sydney has seen in years, yet the rest of the far-left was all but a no-show. In attendance were a handful of members from the small Revolutionary Communist Organisation, which has launched a ‘Communist Caucus’ in the Socialists. One or two current and former Socialist Alliance and Greens members also came to take a look. But that was about it. It should be obvious that the Socialists project has struck a chord with a layer of radical activists, particularly those who have been mobilised to oppose the unfolding genocide in Gaza. This is a development that the non-Socialist Alternative radical left ignores this at its peril.
The Socialists project certainly has its flaws, but it is a real opportunity to start to regroup the socialist and Marxist left outside the ALP. But for this to happen, its Socialist Alternative architects need to overcome their sectarianism towards left-wing Labor Party members, and the rest of the radical left needs to overcome its sectarianism towards Socialist Alternative.