Declaration of the Leninist Party Faction
Declaration of the Leninist Party Faction
[The following declaration was issued by the Leninist Party faction during the closed session of the 22nd congress]
In accordance with the right of members of the DSP as set down in Article 4, paragraph 1 (i) of the DSP Constitution, we hereby inform the 22nd DSP Congress of our decision to form a faction that aims to restore the DSP as a publicly functioning Leninist party by fully rectifying the mistaken and failed party-building line adopted by the 21st DSP congress in December 2003, a course that has increasingly undermined the DSP’s ability to implement the Leninist strategy of building a revolutionary Marxist cadre party as the key to advancing the struggle for socialism. That party-building line was to build the Socialist Alliance, rather than the DSP, as our party and to convert the Democratic Socialist Party into an internal tendency within the Socialist Alliance with the aim of transferring the political and organisational acquisitions of the Democratic Socialist Party to the Socialist Alliance.
The 22nd DSP congress has approved the line of a new resolution on the DSP’s orientation to the SA that recognises that the SA cannot be built as a party in the existing conditions of the Australian class struggle and the DSP should cease to attempt to function as a purely internal tendency of the SA, reverting again to operating as a public revolutionary socialist organisation. However, the congress majority has also adopted a DSP perspectives report presented by the NE majority that proposes continuing with the mistaken line adopted by the 21st congress of building the SA, rather than the DSP, as our party, though without the formal aim of transferring the political and organisational acquisitions of the DSP to the SA.
While the resolution on DSP-SA relations adopted by the 22nd DSP congress advocates that the DSP again become a public revolutionary socialist organisation, the report on DSP perspectives adopted by the congress proposes that the DSP’s public face will be that of an organisation that sponsors, jointly with Resistance, some public Marxist educational seminars, i.e., that reduces the DSP’s public face to being a Marxist educational association, rather than a publicly functioning Leninist party, seeking to present a Marxist-Leninist political line to the radical working-class public.
In practice, at both the national and local level, the SA has become the public face of the DSP, with non-Resistance DSP members carrying out all their public political activity solely as members and representatives of the SA. The DSP has publicly “rebadged” itself as the SA, publicly presenting only the non-revolutionary “class-struggle” (i.e., left-reformist) politics of the SA to the radical working class public. This course has resulted in the liquidation of the public presentation of the DSP’s revolutionary Marxist politics.
The majority tendency’s liquidationist political course now threatens to be extended to Resistance through the adoption by the 22nd DSP Congress of a youth work report that projects to make the main campaigning activity of Resistance the fight against the federal Coalition government’s Work Choices legislation and which downgrades the presentation of Resistance’s revolutionary socialist politics as a “narrow propagandistic approach”. Implementation of this course will result in the “rebadging” of Resistance as the de facto SA youth organisation, thus further liquidating the public presentation of our revolutionary socialist politics.
It is now clear that there is a sharp divergence between party-building perspectives advocated by the two major tendencies that have emerged in the DSP in the pre-congress discussion for the 22nd DSP congress over how the DSP should deploy its cadre forces so as to expand and strengthen them organisationally and ideologically. In our view, it remains the central task of the DSP, as a small Marxist-Leninist party, to recruit, educate and train Marxist cadres through:
- Consistent propaganda advancing revolutionary socialist ideas around the major issues arising within the class struggle, above all, promoting in a pedagogically appropriate manner the central idea of Marxism that the road to socialism is possible only through a working-class revolution, i.e., through the organisation of the working class as the ruling class, as the state.
- Appropriate and timely agitation directed to the mass organisations of the oppressed for mass actions to fight for progressive reforms under the capitalist system and participation in such actions in order to demonstrate the superiority of Marxist tactics in fighting for such reforms.
- Persistent attention to the organisation of the party itself, particularly the development of professional revolutionary propagandists, agitators and organisers educated in Marxist theory, strategy, tactics and methods of organisation, i.e., the development of Marxist cadres.
While the majority tendency acknowledges the need for the “re-cadreisation” of the DSP, it views the problem of the “de-cadreisation” of the DSP as an organisational problem, rather than a problem stemming from a mistaken political line, from the majority tendency’s liquidationist party-building line of building the SA, rather than the DSP, as our public party.
In the discussion period leading up to the 22nd DSP congress, the NE minority tendency has functioned as just that – a loose association of like-minded comrades who have collaborated on an informal basis to present to the DSP membership our criticisms of the majority tendency’s mistaken party-building line and to offer an alternative party-building line.
We now consider it is necessary for us to form a faction, i.e., a disciplined caucus based on a definite platform, in order to act in an organised and responsible way to ensure that there is unity in action among DSP members in testing out the line approved by the 22nd DSP Congress and to collaborate in an organised way in preparing documents and reports expressing our views for presentation to future meetings of the national leadership bodies of the DSP.
We also feel it is necessary for us to form a faction because false accusations have been made by leaders of the majority tendency that the supporters of the NE minority platform have been operating as a secret, i.e., undeclared, faction in contravention of the constitutional provisions of the DSP. These accusations have been based solely upon the fact that supporters of the NE minority platform have communicated their political views to each other. These actions in no way contravene the constitutional obligations of DSP members. The constitution of the DSP (Article 5, Paragraph 5) states that “The time, form and limits of discussion within DSP bodies shall be determined by these bodies.” It does not empower any party body – branches, the NC, NE – to determine the “time, form and limits of discussion” between individual members of the DSP outside of meetings of party bodies.
The claim has also been made that there is some DSP “organisational principle” prohibiting members of the DSP on pain of disciplinary action from directly communicating their personal political views to other individual DSP members, including members in other branches. This is false. There is no such organisational rule in the DSP. Such an organisational rule is contrary to the Leninist organisational traditions that our party has taken from the US SWP when it was led by James P. Cannon. This “organisational principle”, however, was later introduced as a party law into the US SWP under the leadership of Jack Barnes in the early 1980s (see our book Building the Revolutionary Party: An Introduction to James P. Cannon, pp. 51-62.).
Platform of the Leninist Party Faction
The platform of the Leninist Party Faction is:
1. For approval of the general line of the following documents:
a. “The revolutionary process in Venezuela” (report adopted by the October 2005 NC plenum);
b. The report on the Australian political situation and our campaigns presented to the 22nd DSP Congress by Max Lane;
c. The report on DSP party-building perspectives presented to the October 2005 NC plenum by John Percy;
d. The report on DSP perspectives presented to the 22nd DSP Congress by John Percy;
e. The report on DSP tasks presented to the 22nd DSP Congress by Marce Cameron;
f. The report on the DSP’s tasks in the Socialist Alliance to the 22nd DSP Congress by Roberto Jorquera;
g. The report on DSP youth work presented to the 22nd DSP Congress by Zoe Kenny.
2. For reaffirmation and defence of the Program of the Democratic Socialist Party.
3. For the restoration of the constitution of the DSP as it was prior to the 21st DSP congress.
4. For a change in the composition of the national leadership bodies of the DSP to assure a majority committed to implement a party-building line based on the above cited points.
Structure of the Leninist Party Faction
1. The Leninist Party Faction has a national steering committee consisting of Marce Cameron, Zoe Kenny, Max Lane, Doug Lorimer and John Percy.
2. The national steering committee is empowered to act in the name of the faction, to direct the political activities of members of the faction within the framework of the discipline of the DSP and to appoint convenors of the faction in DSP branches.
3. Members of the faction are required to observe faction discipline within the four-point platform listed above and within the framework of the discipline of the DSP as codified in the constitution of the DSP.
How to join the Leninist Party Faction
1. Send an email to John Percy () indicating agreement with the platform of the Leninist Party Faction and willingness to abide by the discipline of the faction within the framework of the discipline of the DSP.
2. The national steering committee of the faction will decide on applications for membership of the faction, notifying applicants whether they have been accepted or rejected.
3. If your application is accepted, the national steering committee will notify the DSP national executive and your branch secretary of this fact.