DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST PERSPECTIVE

The Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP) in Australia has suffered a destructive split organised by the Leninist Party Faction (LPF), a minority whose perspective of retreating from left regroupment and engagement with broader forces in struggle had been decisively rejected by large majorities at the last two DSP congresses.

From the May 2005 NC, it was clear that there were different assessments about the value of Socialist Alliance within the leadership of the DSP. But this is a difference that we could have easily and constructively dealt with within a united DSP if the minority leadership had kept a sense of proportion and responsibility about their differences. Instead, they chose to factionalise the DSP and develop new theoretical differences, including labeling the democratically adopted course of the DSP as “liquidating” its revolutionary socialist politics.

The following three articles are drawn from the Resistance Books pamphlet Change the System, not the climate! It is available from <http://www.resistancebooks.com> for $5.50 plus p/h. The first two article were presented to the Democratic Socialist Perspective's January 2007 Socialist Summer School.

Two of the authors, John Belamy Foster and Dave Holmes will be speaking at the Climate Change/Social Change conference in Sydney, April 11-13. Visit <http://www.greenleft.org.au/conference.php> for more information

Dear comrades,

We in the Democratic Socialist Perspective (DSP) — a Marxist organisation in Australia — wish to offer our greetings and revolutionary solidarity to the delegates at the founding congress of the provisionally-named United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

We have been following with enthusiasm the struggle of the oppressed in Venezuela, led by the government of President Hugo Chavez. Our respect and admiration for the gains won, in the face of opposition from the greatest superpower in history, is immense.

The following resolution was adopted with the support of 80% of delegates at the 23rd Congress on the Democratic Socialist Perspective on January 4, 2008. Regular delegates: 46 for; 12 against; no abstentions. Consultative delegates: 34 for; 8 against; no abstentions.

1. As the reputation of the Venezuelan Revolution, the first socialist revolution of the 21st century, has spread around the world, socialist ideas are once again commanding the attention of millions. Challenging retreatism, sectarianism and dogmatism in the left, this new advance will create new openings for international socialist renewal and regroupment.

The 23rd Congress of the Democratic Socialist Perspective will be held January 3-6 in Sydney. The congress is open to all DSP members and guests invited by branch or national leadership bodies.

The congress will set the political course of the DSP and elect a new national leadership body and national office bearers.

Delegates were recently elected by local branches on the basis of support for political platforms (see below) submitted for consideration at the congress. This followed a period of pre-congress discussion in branches facilitated by the publication of written pre-congress discussion in 13 issues of the DSP's internal discussion bulletin.

Statement by the Democratic Socialist Perspective, September 17, 2007

The Democratic Socialist Perspective offers its solidarity to the people of Bolivia and the government of Evo Morales in the face of the campaign by US imperialism and the local oligarchy to overthrow the Morales government and destroy the process of change it is leading. We wish to draw attention to this threat and urge the widest possible expressions of support to help the Bolivian people defend their revolution.

Stuart Munckton

Este informe pretende reafirmar la línea general y las posiciones sobre la fase actual de la revolución bolivariana recogidas en el informe del 12 de febrero adoptado por el Ejecutivo Nacional del DSP. Los acontecimientos posteriores han mostrado que el análisis general, que indicaba la apertura de una nueva fase en la lucha de clases desde las elecciones presidenciales del 3 de diciembre, era correcto. Aquel texto contenía más información sobre algunos de los análisis y formulaciones recogidas en este informe, a los que deberán remitirse los camaradas para complementarlo y desarrollarlo.

Click here for the Spanish version of this talk

[The general line of the following report was adopted by the DSP National Committee meeting on April 29 2007.]

This report seeks to reaffirm the general line and positions on the current phase of the Bolivarian revolution in the February 12 report adopted by the DSP National Executive. Subsequent events have shown the general analysis, of the opening of a new phase in the class struggle since the December 3 presidential elections, to be correct. The report contains more information on some of the analysis and formulations raised in this report, that comrades should refer in order to complement and flesh out this report.

By Stuart Munckton

[The general line of this report was adopted unanimously on February 12 by the DSP's National Executive.]

The victory in the December elections

The victory of President Hugo Chavez in the December 3 presidential elections, on an explicit platform of creating socialism, was a major victory in the class struggle in Venezuela, and it opens the way to a new phase in the struggle to decisively deepen the revolution, breaking the political power of the objectively pro-capitalist state bureaucracy, and the economic power of the capitalist class. This victory cannot be understood either in purely electoral terms, or in a purely “Chavista versus opposition” framework.