Revisiting Tradition: Labor and Socialism

Labor doctrine, it seems, constantly spawns Labor revisionism. On 2 April 2002 the 'Sydney Morning Herald' printed the manifesto of two Young Labor members, Troy Bramston and Ben Heraghty, beginning with the provocative: "It is time that the Labor Party's key platform - the socialist objective - is dumped ... This tired political statement is irrelevant to the modern party". Apart from the accusation of 'sentimentality' against those who cling to the 'irrelevant' objective, a worrying aspect of the statement is the reference to the "profound changes in the nature of world politics and economics and the emergence of global forces which shape our everyday lives". Arguably it is for these very reasons that a commitment to the traditional objective is more relevant than ever. More plausibly, Bramston and Heraghty give a list of relevant issues which could be specified in an updated pledge: union affiliation, full employment, health, education and welfare - though the authors are quite wrong to suggest that the socialisation objective has nothing to do with "democracy and freedom" or "social justice".