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The folllowing letter was recently sent by Socialist Alternative to Solidarity (the latter is the IS Tendency Group in Australia) 28 September 2010 Dear Comrades, In your recent open letter to Socialist Alternative you state that "We have been encouraged to hear that the leadership of Socialist Alternative now envisages the possibility of fusing with Solidarity at some time in the future." Does this indicate that you are interested in opening up discussions between the leaderships of our respective organisations to explore the possibilities of genuine unity? The existence of two competing organisations that stand in the tradition of international socialism weakens both our organisations and the socialist left more generally in Australia. For this reason alone a serious exploration of the possibility of forming a unified organisation makes sense. However, it is not simply a question of both Solidarity and Socialist Alternative sharing a common political tradition. On the major political issues of the last decade or more - opposition to Australia's imperialist intervention in East Timor, opposition to the "war on terror", opposition to Islamophobia, our analysis of the current economic crisis, our analysis of the ALP as a bourgeois workers party, our analysis of the struggle for Palestinian liberation, our analysis of Chavez in Venezuela and so on - we have shared a broadly similar approach. This is reflected most recently in our quite similar assessments of the outcome of the federal elections which are in stark contrast to the political analysis put forward, for example, by the likes of Green Left Weekly. Significant differences between our two organisations have existed and continue to exist over questions of perspectives and party building and around a range of tactical and organisational issues. We are not for sweeping these questions under the carpet as they are very important for building a revolutionary organisation in Australia on a sound basis. But we are for exploring through a process of discussion whether these differences can be clarified and resolved or at least accommodated within the one organisation. We don't believe that moves towards a genuine unity will be simple and straight forward and we are definitely not for rushing the process. A unity that is not soundly based and consequently quickly falls apart or descends into factional warfare within a supposedly united organisation would be utterly counterproductive. However these considerations should not hold us back from making a serious attempt to explore the possibilities of a genuine unity. If you are interested in opening up discussions on the possibility of unity we would suggest that as a first step a preliminary meeting be held between representatives of the leaderships of both organisations some time within the next few weeks at a time and place convenient for you. Yours Comradely Mick Armstrong On behalf of the National Executive of Socialist Alternative ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
