The Monty Python folk are brilliant and enduring social
commentators. As it transpired, the only group the People’s Front of Judea
hated more than the Romans was the Judean People’s Front – “Those splitters!”
Leftist groups, like the churches, are prone to dividing
into factions. Saving souls and making revolution – or at least a radically
better world to live in – is serious business. Although Maoists and Trotskyists
may hold almost identical opinions on a majority of social issues, a bitter
divide will nevertheless separate them.
The Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP – the ‘P’ formerly
stood for Party), the major force within Socialist Alliance and its youth wing,
Resistance, has recently suffered a major rupture of its own. The DSP Leninist
faction has aligned itself with another former DSP faction, the Melbourne-based
Direct Action, to form the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP).
The split is a result of disagreement on political and
organisational issues following the creation of the Socialist Alliance in 2001,
and the question of whether the move towards the Socialist Alliance becoming a
party in its own right, rather than a coalition of broad-left groups, has
compromised the original political ideology of DSP.
It is still unclear how the split will affect Left politics
in Sydney. The
NoToPope Coalition was largely organised by DSP, and it will likely remain the
most recognisable Left group in Sydney,
particularly under the Socialist Alliance banner. The RSP plans to focus more
specifically on solidarity links with the Bolivarian Revolution in Latin America. More information about the split is
available on both groups’ webpages.
The DSP building on Abercrombie Street is not likely to be
affected by the fracture – the idea of two socialist groups squabbling over
private property being perhaps beyond even the Monty Python boys.
Photo: Ali Blogg –
The previous home of the Socialist Alliance
Source:
South Sydney Herald August 2008 www.southsydneyherald.com.au