Socialist Alternative is very pleased to announce the release of our new theoretical journal
Marxist Left Review
You are welcome to join us in launching it at our next public meeting, "What is Marxism?", introduced by MLR's editor, Sandra Bloodworth.
7pm Tuesday 14 September
at the SA centre, upstairs, 246 King St, Newtown (see a map here) - pizza/light refreshments will be available at the end of the meeting.
Here's the contents list for MLR no. 1 - with the article on the Greens available in its entirety online to whet your appetite. To read the rest, buy it at the launch for $12, or online for $15.
A Marxist critique of the Australian Greens
Over the course of nearly 40 years, the Greens have been transformed from a tiny environmentalist organisation into a sizeable and serious party perceived to be to the left of the ALP. This article will look at the origins of the Greens and the class basis of their politics; examine the demographics of their voters and membership, and comment on their organisational and political dimensions before looking at their current political trajectory.
Read more...
Marx and Engels on women’s and sexual oppression and their legacy
Most feminists of the 1960s and 1970s recognised Engels’ The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State as a key text, whether inclined to agree with or oppose him. The main debates were summed up in a conference held to commemorate the centenary of the book’s publication. The papers are published as Engels Revisited: new feminist essays. Yet for all the debates about the book, there is very little understanding of the actual content and importance of not just Engels’, but also Marx’s contribution to establishing the basics of a fight for women’s liberation.
The origins of Socialist Alternative: summing up the debate
While Socialist Alternative is still far from being the mass party we need to be – a party that could intervene in and attempt to lead every struggle by workers and the oppressed – we have, despite the generally difficult political climate, made modest steps forward and are now the largest organisation on the revolutionary left in Australia. This article is an attempt to sum up the lessons of the debates in the International Socialist Tendency (IST) about the assessment of the political situation and perspectives for building revolutionary organisations that led to the formation of Socialist Alternative in 1995.
The Northern Territory Intervention and the liberal defence of racism
The idea that Aboriginal inequality is caused by the racist attitudes of ordinary people is widespread. Yet it was not working-class attitudes to Aborigines that drove the Australian government’s 2007 intervention into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities. Instead, elements of the middle class played a crucial role.
Henryk Grossman and the responsibility of socialists
Henryk Grossman is best known for his explanation of economic and financial crises. These are particularly relevant today. But Grossman is worth considering for another reason. His economic theory was formulated and can only be understood as an element in a broader, classically Marxist analysis of capitalist society and the way it can be superseded. Despite a fable fabricated by social democrats and Stalinists in the 1930s and still uncritically repeated, Grossman was no believer in the automatic breakdown of capitalism. In contrast to views that are currently dominant on the left, Grossman thought that the construction of organisations that could help the working class to take political power lay at the heart of the responsibility of socialists.