/p>
The New Zealand Alliance has received next to no sup port from all the "correct program "sectarians. On the contrary all they can think about is raiding the Alliance in order to add another member to their sect. All they focus on is the formal stated platform of the Alliance.
The key to the Alliance's program is its break. Its leadership is completely independent of the ruling class in New Zealand and internationally and it is totally committed to defending the working people, the poor, to fight for defence of the environment and promote solidarity with other working people internationally.
This is an historic first in the post-Cold-War period. The Alliance, in part because it is close to Australia, becomes an excellent opportunity to promote class-struggle politics by calling for a break in Australia, like in New Zealand. The DSP focuses not on the living class struggle and the leadership being formed in that process, but on whether "cadres" with an ideologically "correct program" are being formed.
Since, after four years, it doesn't see something happening that fits its preconceived forms, the DSP now feels uncomfortable with the Alliance. The DSP's international report states: "And in this framework we also note the problems with there not having developed an organized revolutionary socialist current. Such a current, which can provide a principled position of how to advance forward, is even more urgently required in the period ahead. "
The fixation on program blinds the DSP to understanding a form of development different from their own experience. To make the above statement is factually wrong. A process is now under way in New Zealand which is developing a leadership, but it is happening in a manner much more like what happened in Nicaragua.
It is very different from how groups like the DSP have been formed. In the same manner the DSP document on the environment looks at Green groups not as part of a process in motion with which we not only must ally ourselves but of which we are a part.
Instead, the resolution focuses on programmatic issues. Statements like: "Greens, like everyone else, must choose where they stand on all social issues, "is a ridiculous formal logic oxymoron. By Greens we mean exactly those people who are in motion around one aspect of problems being created by the world capitalist system.
By definition, "Greens" is an expression of motion, of rebellion, on a specific issue not "all social issues". By this logic of they "must chose ", all struggles and all real movements that appear can be criticized since they always appear with incomplete platforms, otherwise they would not have their mass character. That is in the real world. p> The opposite of what the DSP resolution argues for is the direction we should pursue. We want there to be a Green movement that does not take up "all social issues" in order to bring about the largest possible unity in exposing and opposing the destruction of the environment. How that movement then inter-links, inter-relates and develops with other social movements is a complex process.
Thus what Greenpeace is doing with its dramatic actions to expose the corporate polluters should be cheered by us, not denounced. To refer to these actions as "stunts" is insulting and arrogant to the committed activist who often, risking their lives, have sought to force the world media to reveal what is happening to the environment.
Such an attitude blocks the ability of the DSP to work with others. It is sectarian posturing. The idea that lobbying is some how reformist or incorrect is also promoted in this resolution. It is referred to as the politics of "liberal reformism." p> Lobbying is just one kind of activity. Its nature is determined by its interrelationship with other events and movements. It has no specific characteristic in itself, it is like a tactic such as demonstrations, strikes, elections, etc.
Once again the resolution is not written with an eye on our objectives, our relation to living movements and struggles, but a sect-like declaration of our ideological superiority. Finally, I should mention a comment that was quoted in one contribution from the National Committee report on "DSP Interventions in Australian Politics". This is referred to as being "based on the Leninist strategy of building a revolutionary Marxist vanguard party ".
Before doing so we should note the use of terms like "a revolutionary Marxist vanguard party "sounds really radical. It's not just a Marxist party, but a "revolutionary" one, meaning obviously that there are Marxist parties that aren't revolutionary, and its not just a revolutionary Marxist party but a "vanguard" at that.
This kind of language reveals an underlying ultraleft posturing. That is something we need to consciously rid ourselves of, because it comes out of th...
