Solidarity (Australia)
Encyclopedia
Solidarity is a Trotskyist organisation in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, formed in 2008 from a merger between three out of four groups emerging from the International Socialist tradition: the International Socialist Organisation
International Socialist Organisation (Australia)
The International Socialist Organisation was an Australian Trotskyist political organisation, founded in 1971, originally as the Marxist Workers' Group until it dissolved to form Solidarity in 2008 with two other socialist organisations...

 (ISO), Socialist Action Group and Solidarity. The group is a member of the International Socialist Tendency
International Socialist Tendency
The International Socialist Tendency is an international grouping of unorthodox Trotskyist organisations based around the ideas of Tony Cliff, founder of the Socialist Workers Party in Britain...

 and has branches in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 and Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

. Solidarity argues they are "committed to building social movements and the wider left" and "throwing [themselves] into struggles for social justice." They publish a monthly magazine, Solidarity.

Refugee rights

Solidarity is involved in the refugee rights campaign, and active in organisations such as the Refugee Action Coalition in Sydney that organise demonstrations, meetings and work in trade unions to end mandatory detention and offshore processing. Solidarity is opposed to any form of refugee detention and supports open borders . Solidarity endorsed the 2011 World Refugee Day demonstrations. Ian Rintoul
Ian Rintoul
Ian Rintoul is an Australian political activist and Sydney resident, best known in Australia as a refugee advocate, and as spokesman for the Refugee Action Collective....

 of Solidarity is a spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition. Rintoul controversially described Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard is the 27th and current Prime Minister of Australia, in office since June 2010.Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales and migrated with her family to Adelaide, Australia in 1966, attending Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School. In 1982 Gillard moved...

 as a "racist" in response to the announcement of the Malaysia solution.

Solidarity has argued that the refugee campaign must engage with supporters and members of the Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 and organisations such as Labor4Refugees.

Along with Mark Goudkamp, Sunil Menon, Peter Murphy
Peter Murphy
Peter Murphy may refer to:* Peter Murphy , British musician with the band Bauhaus* Peter Murphy , English Stuckist artist* Peter Murphy , Irish international footballer with Carlisle United...

 and John Morris, Ian Rintoul's house was raided by the Australian Federal Police
Australian Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police is the federal police agency of the Commonwealth of Australia. Although the AFP was created by the amalgamation in 1979 of three Commonwealth law enforcement agencies, it traces its history from Commonwealth law enforcement agencies dating back to the federation of...

 in 2004 in relation to allegations of aiding refugees to obtain "false passports" to avoid deportation. The charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence.

Northern Territory Intervention

Solidarity is involved in campaigns to end the Northern Territory Intervention
Northern Territory National Emergency Response
The Northern Territory National Emergency Response was a package of changes to welfare provision, law enforcement, land tenure and other measures, introduced by the Australian federal government under John Howard in 2007 to address claims of rampant child sexual abuse and neglect in Northern...

. Solidarity members were involved in a split from the Aboriginal Rights Coalition to the Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney, after a debate over Aboriginal control and identity politics
Identity politics
Identity politics are political arguments that focus upon the self interest and perspectives of self-identified social interest groups and ways in which people's politics may be shaped by aspects of their identity through race, class, religion, sexual orientation or traditional dominance...

. Solidarity argued that the campaign needed "open, democratic campaign meetings" of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal activists. The Aboriginal Rights Coalition has now folded. The Stop the Intervention Collective has been involved in campaigning against income management, and calling for jobs with justice
Jobs with Justice
Jobs with Justice is a national campaign for workers' rights in the United States. It was founded in 1987, and includes both individual members and affiliated organizations....

 for Aboriginal people.

Solidarity member Paddy Gibson is a spokesperson for the Stop the Intervention Collective and a researcher with the Jumbunna Institute of Learning at UTS.

Solidarity has taken the position that the Northern Territory intervention is not primarily driven by a drive for uranium mining
Uranium mining
Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the ground. The worldwide production of uranium in 2009 amounted to 50,572 tonnes, of which 27% was mined in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 63% of world uranium...

 in the Northern Territory, but by a government policy of "assimilation", arguing in a debate in Green Left Weekly
Green Left Weekly
Green Left Weekly is an Australian radical left-wing newspaper, written by progressive activists to "present the views excluded by the big business media". It was published by the Democratic Socialist Perspective from its inception in 1990 until January 2010, when the DSP merged into the Socialist...

  that the Intervention "is part of a neoliberal, assimilationist ideology that says the only communities that are 'viable' are those that can establish links with the 'real economy'... mining companies gain no greater rights through the “hub towns” policy or the intervention."

Climate action

Solidarity has been active in the climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

 movement and groups such as the Sydney University Climate Action Collective.

Solidarity is opposed to Labor's carbon tax
Carbon tax
A carbon tax is an environmental tax levied on the carbon content of fuels. It is a form of carbon pricing. Carbon is present in every hydrocarbon fuel and is released as carbon dioxide when they are burnt. In contrast, non-combustion energy sources—wind, sunlight, hydropower, and nuclear—do not...

 plan. In a factsheet about the carbon tax package released in August, "The truth about the carbon tax", Solidarity argues "the carbon tax package will not cut emissions" and has "given Tony Abbott an enormous free kick" and that there is an "alternative approach taxing the polluters to fund government investment in renewable energy.".

Solidarity has come under some criticism for its arguments against the carbon tax, and their argument that production, rather than lifestyle change, should be the focus of the movement. They initiated and signed a letter in response to comments by Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 Member of Parliament Kelvin Thompson that population was responsible for climate change, arguing that "the planning and environmental disasters of our cities are due to government neglect, not population."

They have critiqued the Climate Camp protests' focus on coal exports and the model of consensus decision-making used at the camps.

International socialism

Solidarity is part of the international socialist tradition and the International Socialist Tendency
International Socialist Tendency
The International Socialist Tendency is an international grouping of unorthodox Trotskyist organisations based around the ideas of Tony Cliff, founder of the Socialist Workers Party in Britain...

. The tendency originated with the ideas of Tony Cliff
Tony Cliff
Tony Cliff , was a Trotskyist who was a founding member of the Socialist Review Group which went on to become the Socialist Workers Party...

, who split from orthodox Trotskyism
Orthodox Trotskyism
Orthodox Trotskyism is a branch of Trotskyism which aims to adhere more closely to the philosophy, methods and positions of Trotsky and the early Fourth International, Lenin, and Marx than other Trotskyists....

 by developing a state capitalist critique of the Soviet union. Cliff also developed an analysis of the post war boom called the permanent arms economy and the theory of deflected permanent revolution which took some issue with Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution
Permanent Revolution
Permanent revolution is a term within Marxist theory, established in usage by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels by at least 1850 but which has since become most closely associated with Leon Trotsky. The use of the term by different theorists is not identical...

 in relation the revolutions in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 in 1949 and Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

 in 1959, which Cliff argued were not socialist revolutions. Cliff formed what was to become the British Socialist Workers Party and similar organisations spread throughout the world.

The first international socialist (IS) group in Australia was the Socialist Workers' Action Group that formed in 1978. That group later became the International Socialists and then the International Socialist Organisation, one of the groups that merged to form Solidarity. Tom O'Lincoln
Tom O'Lincoln
Tom O'Lincoln is an American born Marxist historian, author and one of the founders of the International Socialist Tendency in Australia. He attended UC Berkeley in 1966 and joined the International Socialists who had participated in the Free Speech Movement two years earlier...

, a founding member of the IS tradition in Australia and now a member of Socialist Alternative
Socialist Alternative (Australia)
Socialist Alternative is a Trotskyist political organisation in Australia formed by an expulsion from the former International Socialist Organisation in 1995. It is one of the largest groups of the Australian far Left, claiming to have the largest active membership. With branches across...

, has written a history of the international socialist tradition in Australia, "Marching Down Marx Street".

Involvement in campaigns

Members of Solidarity and its founding organisations have been involved with several political movements and industrial actions and disputes in Australian history.

This includes the campaign to end the Vietnam war
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, the Right to March campaign in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

, the campaign to end uranium mining at Jabiluka
Jabiluka
Jabiluka is a uranium deposit and mine development in the Northern Territory of Australia that was to have been built on land belonging to the Mirarr Aboriginal people...

, the campaign to end the first Gulf war
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...

, the anti-capitalist movement and the S11
S11 (protest)
S11 refers to a series of protests against meetings of the World Economic Forum on 11, 12 and 13 September 2000 in Melbourne, Australia, where approximately 10,000 people of many ages and a wide cross section of the community were involved. One of the groups involved in the protests called itself...

 protests the campaign against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the refugee campaign under the Howard Government
Howard Government
The Howard Government refers to the federal Executive Government of Australia led by Prime Minister John Howard. It was made up of members of the Liberal–National Coalition, which won a majority of seats in the Australian House of Representatives at four successive elections. The Howard Government...

 and the campaign against higher university fees and later Voluntary student unionism
Voluntary student unionism
Voluntary student unionism is a policy, notable in Australia, under which membership of – and payment of membership fees to – university student organisations is voluntary....

.

United front

Solidarity believes that socialists should unite with other forces in campaigns for social change and subscribe to an interpretation of Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

's idea of the "united front
United front
The united front is a form of struggle that may be pursued by revolutionaries. The basic theory of the united front tactic was first developed by the Comintern, an international communist organisation created by revolutionaries in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.According to the theses of...

". The late Bob Gould, described the "common orientation as ... electoral support for the Greens and then Labor under the preferential system and a broader united front tactic towards the ranks of the Greens, the trade unions and the Labor Party," in an article describing the formation of Solidarity.. According to other organisations of the IS Tradition such as Socialist Alternative
Socialist Alternative (Australia)
Socialist Alternative is a Trotskyist political organisation in Australia formed by an expulsion from the former International Socialist Organisation in 1995. It is one of the largest groups of the Australian far Left, claiming to have the largest active membership. With branches across...

 however, the theory of the united front is applicable only to mass social forces and mass parties as a strategy for breaking workers from their reformist social democratic leadership, not as a synonym for campaign work initiated by small socialist groups.

Anti-capitalism

The forged group chose the name "Solidarity" as a representation of their politics. Solidarity stands for the wider solidarity
Solidarity
Solidarity is a Polish trade union federation that emerged on August 31, 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. It was the first non-communist party-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. Solidarity reached 9.5 million members before its September 1981 congress...

 that they believe needs to be seen in uniting those fighting for reform
Reform
Reform means to put or change into an improved form or condition; to amend or improve by change of color or removal of faults or abuses, beneficial change, more specifically, reversion to a pure original state, to repair, restore or to correct....

s around different issues into a united fightback against the capitalist system.

Solidarity believes that capitalism is a system where production
Commodity (Marxism)
In classical political economy and especially Karl Marx's critique of political economy, a commodity is any good or service produced by human labour and offered as a product for general sale on the market. Some other priced goods are also treated as commodities, e.g...

 exists for profit
Profit (economics)
In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total opportunity costs of a venture to an entrepreneur or investor, whilst economic profit In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total...

 and not human need, and that through environmental degradation
Environmental degradation
Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife...

 and climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

 capitalism has become a threat to the planet. Solidarity believes that the working class
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...

, through its power to take strike action
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

 and change production, has the power to change the whole of society.

They identify with the ideas of classical Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

 which sees society as divided by opposing class interests, that of the ruling
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...

 and the working class. They argue that workers are exploited
Wage slavery
Wage slavery refers to a situation where a person's livelihood depends on wages, especially when the dependence is total and immediate. It is a negatively connoted term used to draw an analogy between slavery and wage labor, and to highlight similarities between owning and employing a person...

 by the capitalist class in the pursuit of profit and have no democratic control over society though they produce all its wealth. They believe the capitalist system is subject to the ongoing tendency towards crisis, witnessed most recently in the Global Financial Crisis and the associated debt crisis
2010 European sovereign debt crisis
From late 2009, fears of a sovereign debt crisis developed among investors concerning some European states, intensifying in early 2010 and thereafter.....

 throughout the Eurozone
Eurozone
The eurozone , officially called the euro area, is an economic and monetary union of seventeen European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender...

.

They believe workers across the world have an interest in fighting together, and can only be successful in winning socialism if it is a worldwide struggle
Proletarian internationalism
Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is a Marxist social class concept based on the view that capitalism is now a global system, and therefore the working class must act as a global class if it is to defeat it...

. They oppose all forms of immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

 controls and anything that divides workers from one country against those in another.

They believe that the ruling class is well-organised and control the state
State (polity)
A state is an organized political community, living under a government. States may be sovereign and may enjoy a monopoly on the legal initiation of force and are not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. Many states are federated states which participate in a federal union...

, media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...

, judiciary
Judiciary
The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state. The judiciary also provides a mechanism for the resolution of disputes...

 and military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...

, so the movements need to be just as organised. They believe that a socialist party
Vanguard party
A vanguard party is a political party at the forefront of a mass action, movement, or revolution. The idea of a vanguard party has its origins in the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...

 is needed to succeed in a revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...

ary situation, and are attempting to lay the basis for such a party in the struggles of today. They see revolutionary organisation as central to strengthening movements for social change, organising people within it and aiding it in developing the ideas and strategies to win.

Socialism from below

They believe that socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

 cannot be introduced through parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...

 or through a coup, but through mass democratic movements of the working class. While they believe elections matter and call for a vote for the Greens
Australian Greens
The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, is an Australian green political party.The party was formed in 1992; however, its origins can be traced to the early environmental movement in Australia and the formation of the United Tasmania Group , the first Green party in the world, which...

 followed by Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

, they do not believe the make up of parliament is what brings change.

Solidarity reject the idea that the USSR or China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 ever represented socialism, and agree with Tony Cliff
Tony Cliff
Tony Cliff , was a Trotskyist who was a founding member of the Socialist Review Group which went on to become the Socialist Workers Party...

's theory of 'state capitalism
State capitalism
The term State capitalism has various meanings, but is usually described as commercial economic activity undertaken by the state with management of the productive forces in a capitalist manner, even if the state is nominally socialist. State capitalism is usually characterized by the dominance or...

' which sees these societies as driven by the same dynamics as capitalism.

Oppression

Solidarity opposes nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

, racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

 and all forms of homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...

 and sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...

. They stand for self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...

 for Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

 and Torres Strait Islanders
Torres Strait Islanders
Torres Strait Islanders are the indigenous people of the Torres Strait Islands, part of Queensland, Australia. They are culturally and genetically linked to Melanesian peoples and those of Papua New Guinea....

.

Solidarity claims to stand up for Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s and Middle Eastern
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...

 people against the rise in anti-Muslim racism
Islamophobia
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....

 they see as associated with the War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...

.

Australian nationalism

Solidarity believes the Australian state is imperialist in its own right, and oppose Australian military intervention in East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...

, Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

 and other countries in the Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific or Asia Pacific is the part of the world in or near the Western Pacific Ocean...

 region. They believe the Australian state was founded on the violent dispossession of Aboriginal Australians.

External links

Solidarity (Australia)

International Socialist Tendency

External links

Marching Down Marx Street Tom O'Lincoln's Red Sites document discussing the history of the International Socialist Tendency in Australia.
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