Socialist Alliance splits

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