Freedom Socialist • Vol. 29, No. 1 • February-March 2008

DATELINE AUSTRALIA

FSP's leadership training school: both a study retreat and a challenging invitation to political growth

by Alison Thorne

Honoring a tradition: gathering for a 1950s Socialist Workers Party retreat (FSP founder Clara Fraser, standing); Alison Thorne at Sahale, inset. Credit: FSP archives [historic photo]; FS [inset]

I work full-time for the Federal Government providing customer service. But once I have earned my pay packet, my real vocation is building the struggle for a socialist society as Melbourne organiser for the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP).

For any organiser, time to study and develop politically is at a premium. So, I jumped at an invitation from the U.S. FSP section to spend a month at its second leadership training school, held at Sahale retreat centre on the picturesque Olympic Peninsula. We students suffered no distractions other than deer who visited and salmon spawning in the river.

I returned to Australia energised and ready to attract and welcome new folk into the FSP's ranks.

Theory plus practice. Educational and training schools are a fine tradition in the communist movement. It was exciting to realize our real historical connection to forerunners whose lessons we were reading in books. The ideas of Russian revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky directly inspired the founding of the anti-Stalinist socialist current in the U.S. by labor militant James P. Cannon. And it was in Cannon's Socialist Workers Party that future FSP founder Clara Fraser developed as a socialist feminist trailblazer.

Cannon criticised both "the misnamed 'Marxist' who mulls over theory in a vacuum" and the "vulgar activist who is all motion and no direction." He proposed that "effective revolutionists unite theory with practice in all their activities." And that's exactly what we students did!

In my first two weeks, I was part of a group studying Trotsky's classic The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany. We were reminded that fascism is a trump card that capitalism will use if cornered. We traced the rise of German fascism and discussed how Hitler's Brown Shirts could have been stopped - if the social-democratic and communist parties had formed the united front urged by Trotsky.

Capitalism is in trouble again and a fascist movement is again coalescing. It peddles anti-immigrant sentiment and aims to build on dissatisfaction with "free trade" amongst workers and small businesspeople. The lessons Trotsky drew from the German tragedy can arm the working class to crush this menace.

School attendees also took part in daily workshops led by veteran FSP organisers. We honed our skills as spokespeople and event coordinators. We practiced problem-solving and giving and receiving criticism. And we explored how better to reach out to people interested in our ideas and our party and let them know we need them!

Bringing it home. During my second two weeks, I pursued individual study to strengthen my abilities as a political organiser. I read writings by Cannon and Trotsky and key works from the FSP's early days. I also read a biography about U.S. Black feminist and civil rights leader Ella Baker and was inspired by her collaborative mentoring of young grass-roots activists.

Cannon's Letters From Prison was gripping. These letters, written while he was jailed for his radical opposition to World War II, form a manual for revolutionaries with advice about party education, subscription campaigns, fundraising, selecting leaders and union work. His insights about the need for a serious party to hire a full-time staff were invaluable, especially because the Australian FSP section is embarking on that project this year.

Cannon also enriched my ideas about how our Australian magazine, which I edit, can gain a wider audience. Distribution requires as much attention as production! And Cannon's promotion of articles that explain workingclass traditions and past victories led us in Australia to introduce a history column in our pages.

His key message, that the press must serve the priorities of the party and that these are determined by the character of the times, caused me to think in a fresh way about our time. It is no secret that the decades since the ebbing of 1960s-era revolutionary struggles have been tough for socialists. We are a minority faced with a hostile corporate media and the corroding impact of individualism. In this climate, it's small wonder that socialists sometimes fall into routine and talking mostly with each other! But this behaviour is deadly, and it has a name: sectarianism. By acknowledging these pressures, we can make the conscious effort required to overcome them.

Last November, the reactionary Howard Government in Australia was defeated. The union movement played a key role in this. But the new administration is the least daring Labor Government in Aussie history. This will prompt workers who voted for change to think more deeply about the nature of the system - which will provide an important opportunity for socialists. As Cannon said, "The party has big tasks before it and it must grow bigger to meet them."

In Melbourne, we're planning to do just that. Interested? Email me at alison.thorne@ozemail.com.au and let's shake things up together!