Books in the History of the DSP series

This second volume of The History of the Democratic Socialist Party and Resistance covers the exciting and turbulent 20-year period that opened with the election of the Whitlam government in 1972. It was a time of change and struggle: ';Kerr's coup' sacking the Labor government Battles between the Fraser government and unions trying to protect wages against surging inflation The ALP's Prices and Incomes Accord The Hawke government's deregistration of the militant BLF and airline pilots' union The rise of anti-uranium and environmental campaignsThroughout this period, the late John Percy was a central leader of the Socialist Workers Party as it became a party based in the industrial working class, developed and modified its political understanding and grew to surpass the Communist Party as Australia's largest socialist organisation.This is not an academic history, but an insight into the successes and mistakes of twenty years of campaigning for socialism. It will be of value to everyone struggling today.

Contrary to reports at the time, Marxism and socialism did not die in 1991. While some on the left succumbed to demoralisation, the Democratic Socialist Party saw the new situation as both a setback and an opportunity. The reports in this volume document the DSP’s efforts over a decade to expand and rejuvenate revolutionary socialism in Australia and internationally.For more than four decades, including the period related in this volume, John Percy was a central leader of Resistance and the Democratic Socialist Party. Over many years, his widely varied political activity included work on an intended three-volume History of the DSP and Resistance. Volume 1, covering 1965-72, was published in 2005. Volume 2, 1972-92, was not totally complete when John died in August 2015, but most sections were finished, and the others contained sufficient indication of John’s intentions to allow them to be filled out and the volume published in 2017.*No comparable manuscript existed for Volume 3. However, throughout the period 1992-2002, John regularly gave organisational reports to meetings of the National Committee and/or the DSP’s decision-making or educational conferences. Most of these reports and talks were subsequently published in the Activist, the DSP’s internal discussion and information bulletin. Based on extensive selections from those reports and talks, Volume 3 is a documentary history.As the world confronts intensifying environmental, economic and social crises, this is a record from whose successes and failures activists today can draw lessons for their struggles.