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- This article is about the International Socialist Organisation in Australia. See also the International Socialist Organization.
The International Socialist Organisation (1970's - 2008) was an Australian Trotskyist political organisation.
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History
It was founded in the early 1970's, as the International Socialists, and expanded from its initial base in Melbourne until it had branches in every major Australian city. It had a lively internal life, but saw a breakaway faction in the 1980s called Socialist Action led by Tom O'Lincoln which later rejoined the IS. At this point they changed their name to the ISO.
A faction fight beginning in 1993 led to the expulsion of leading ISO members in 1995, mainly but not exclusively in Melbourne, who went on to form Socialist Alternative (SA).[1]. Another period of internal crisis beginning in 2001 led to a loss of members and a further split in 2003 when another grouping of members around former leader Ian Rintoul left to form a group known as Solidarity. Somewhat prior to this Tom O'Lincoln also left, eventually joining Socialist Alternative. The ISO was a part of the Socialist Alliance but at its national conference in 2007 voted to withdraw its involvement criticising the failure of the project to achieve its intended goals and the role of the Democratic Socialist Perspective in that failure.
The organisation's project to build a strong revolutionary socialist organisation whilst at the same time attempt to intervene and play a leading role in social movements came to an end with its breakup. On February 3, 2008, the ISO, the Socialist Action Group and Solidarity agreed to merge, with the new organization to be named Solidarity[2]. This merger made the ISO formally defunct, and left the new Solidarity the official representative of the International Socialist Tendency in Australia.
Activities
The organisation built a history of supporting militant direct action. It was active in the Right to March campaigns in Brisbane under the Joh Bjelke-Petersen government. It was part of Action against Racism which physically confronted the rise of the racist group One Nation led by Pauline Hanson and participated in the 2000 S11 demonstrations in Melbourne that disrupted a meeting of the World Economic Forum.
The organisation's main priority since 2003 was building the anti-war movement to oppose the Australian government's involvement with the occupation of Iraq. The group also identified the need to fight Islamophobia and work alongside the Islamic community in Australia.
It argued that the anti-war movement needs to build a broad-based united front against the war. It identified building locality based peace groups, in Brisbane Southside, Moreland, Newtown and Leichhart and the Just Peace group in Perth, as a way of building networks of anti-war activists.
During 2006, the ISO helped organise a national anti-war conference named "Unity for Peace" in an attempt to broaden the anti-war movement's base of support. The conference was the culmination of a speaking tour of the US anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and Dr. Salem Ismael from Doctors for Iraq and was attended by approximately 60 organisations and attracted 350 people[citation needed]. One initiative from the conference was to set up a national Unity For Peace steering committee. However, the attempt to set up a national network floundered as a result of limited resources.
External links
References
- ^ "Socialist Alternative and the ISO – Perspectives for Socialists" Socialist Alternative National Executive document, September 2, 2002. Accessed: October 21, 2009
- ^ "Forging Unity For the Struggle Ahead". Socialist Worker (Australia). 2008-02-13. http://www.socialistworker.org.au/online-features/forging-unity-for-the-struggle-ahead/. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
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