In preferencing any candidates or in negotiating non-aggression pacts or holding back from running candidates in elections, the criteria are essentially the same Ñ for the election of a Labor government, support for workers in struggle, and the right of workers to organise. For each candidate or party we must take into account the main pressures on that party or candidate against supporting workers' struggles.
In preferencing the Greens in either the House of Representatives or the Senate we need to establish 4 points with the candidate or party:
We should offer to not run against Labor candidates who undertake publicly to be committed, regardless of ALP caucus, to:
Last preferences go to One Nation. Second last preferences go to the Coalition.
The Socialist Alliance is standing to give a voice to working-class struggle in politics.
Accordingly, our preferences should be distributed to candidates who are also standing on or for working-class politics, or who are sponsored by working-class organisations.
The key issue in working-class politics is support for class struggle and the right to organise. This is the defining point around which failure and betrayal occurs. If we are asking workers to trust us, we are also asking them to trust our judgement on this issue.
At best, a scale of a more or less "progressive" list of radical and leftish policies presented as the key to socialist policy Ñ instead of working-class struggle Ñ obscures the fundamental issue for socialists in politics. At worst, the scale of "progressive" has been used by Stalinised Communist Parties to justify alliances with anti-working-class forces.
The DSP proposal on preferences says, "[I]n the Senate, where who will govern is not the issue, our main aim, besides getting Socialist Alliance candidates elected, should be to increase the representation of candidates who are more progressive than Labor, chiefly the Greens. Progressive politics in this country would gain from a greater presence of progressive "dissidents" in the Senate, as can be seen from the role played by Bob Brown on many issues."
If as the Socialist Alliance we are to play any role in regrouping political forces who might be won to supporting working-class struggle (forces identified by the DSP as "progressive"), then we are not going to do this by offering our preferences carte blanche, simply because a party is deemed "progressive". We are not a lobby group. We can and should put to the Greens the basis on which we can in conscience advocate that advanced workers place reliance on the Greens. "Progressive politics" in this country has meaning for socialists chiefly as the politics of class struggle. Dissent in the Senate is an altogether subsidiary question.