Within the wider conversation about party formation, proto-party politics, and the overall need for a party capable of providing endurance and direction to disparate struggles, there is a tension between examples often presented by the British left as model organisations for party structure/activity.
This was recently explored in depth by Joe Todd in a report for the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, comparatively presenting the DSA and the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB/PVDA) as examples of opposing approaches to the question of democratic autonomy and discipline/control. Within this report, the DSA is presented as a bottom-up organisation which “maximises autonomy and pluralism” (p.4) and the PTB/PVDA as maximising “control and unity” (p.4). From these examples, we find ourselves in a position in which the two abstracted options appear to be a downward flow of power, in which the party base membership is an extension of the leadership and carries out nationally-directed campaigns, or an upwards flow of power, in which the party base membership lead their own self-activity, decision-making is highly federalised, and the national leadership struggle to enforce political discipline or mandate national campaigns.
Instead of dogmatically copy-and-pasting these organisational forms onto our hypothetical “new party”, it is important that our priority is facilitating both the development of cadreified leadership, as seen in the PTB/PVDA, and the development of a lively organisational base as seen in the DSA.
The basic idea being put forward here is that the development of successful left political initiative cannot seek to solely be top-down nor bottom-up, but must seek to create durable, effective means through which information and sovereignty flow between highly organised localised base groups and a unitary structure. Local base groups act as nodes of power, engaging in social investigation and class analysis and campaigning on issues directly within working-class communities. In turn, the unitary structures of the organisation are aimed at serving as the means through which localised analysis is cohered into a wider political strategy.
The primary site of engagement with the party is with the base group, actively seeking to be useful to the social reproduction requirements of working-class communities; however, if this strong local organising is not then cohered into a singular political vehicle for state power which can provide leadership, direction and endurance beyond fleeting moments of resistance, then our efforts remain disconnected and disparate. A unified strategy for eco-socialist transition must be the basis of our work and provide direction to struggle, but our practical organising experience at the base must guide the development of strategy.
The starting point for any potential new left initiative in the coming years must be the community and the workplace, but this cannot neglect the importance of building a left political bloc with which to contest state power. From the base to the party, from the party to the base.
