Joining the ALP: The 54 Values

My intentions, going forward, are to join the ALP. Whilst I have at times felt more aligned with the Greens, I feel that they're neither historically, nor currently, equipped to consolidate government in Australia, nor do they seem to have aspirations to. Like it or not, we've got two major parties. Besides, the ALP have always been my core party, and it would be disingenuous of me to go elsewhere.

Before joining a political party, the steps seem to be to research it: its views, its constitution, its platform, and its factions. This is, obviously, a ridiculous amount of information to take in - but that sort of comes with the territory. However, this is perhaps the first major hurdle... Who, especially among working class folk who are the target of the ALP, has the time? And yet, there is little to get around this. The National Platform, with the Constitution included, is 240 pages alone. This is not the journey of the embattled worker...

For now, I'm going to talk about the Values listed on pages 10 through 13 of the ALP National Platform.

The Platform does contain a 4-page summary of its 57 Values, which is helpful. And yet, even these are steeped in tradition, historical reference, or idiom. I ask, who among us thinks every person of voting age will understand instantly the reference alluded to in "4. We have a great objective – the light on the hill: a Labor mission, both enduring and evolving." A beautiful sentiment, but a useless one to the common voter, or for me without digging (In fact, the Value was put forth by Bob Hawke at the National Conference on 26th June, 1991, almost a full 5 months before I was born...) Yes, this point is expanded upon in the twin pillars - enduring and evolving - in the next two Values, but the essence of the original Value (4) is rather lost without more research.

The Values also, very strangely, reject much of the history of the ALP (which is something I only know from lots of digging, outside of this document). As a party that was founded under the trade unionist movement, both 11 and 13 seem to go against the nature, and invalidate the efforts of, many of the party's forebears.

"11. We believe, as our forebears did, in the strength of parliamentary democracy and the power of politics to do good."

"13. Labor is a party of principle, not protest. We strive for government and we seek to be measured by our deeds, marshalling the energy of the nation to uplift the horizons and liberate the talents of the Australian people."

Added to that, the rejection of protest goes directly against the experiences of many of the "heroes" as the Values term them (quite rightly) in Value 10:

"10. We are a practical and pragmatic party, tinged with and touched by a romantic spirit. We have a tradition of ideals and ideas forged through cooperation, faith, consensus and trade unionism. Our heroes are social democrats, the world over: Robert Owen, William Morris, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Keir Hardie, Jessie Street, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and Nelson Mandela."

If Nelson Mandela was not a man of protest... I honestly don't know what else he could have been.

Further, 17, whilst admirable, is quite problematic. "We look at the world differently to our opponents: we see it through the eyes of those without privilege, power or title." Whilst the ALP does have a significantly higher proportion of POC and women among its parliamentarians than the LNP, it is far from free of a majority of old, generally middle-to-upper class white men. It is a parliamentary body steeped in privilege, whether they espouse to see through those eyes or not.

But, in fairness, the many of the Values tell of true (and good) victories of the ALP, and with the knowledge that the Labor Party was never meant to be one that rejected Capitalism, they do call for an honest support for the poor and working class. (I will not get into views yet about whether that is possible or not under Capitalism. That's a discussion for another post.) Many of the Values discuss actual tangible effects of ALP success - Medicare, the Racial Discrimination Act, etc. (Though the suggestion that these Values have always been true is neither given nor, I hope, believed within the ALP.)

To that last point, more credit should be given. Within 35, the ALP clearly states a previous transgression of their own which they have now rejected. This is good to see! "We no longer hide behind the walls of ‘fortress Australia’: we face the world with confidence and the future with optimism. We choose to compete because we know we can succeed."

After all 54, I can say that I agree with most, believe the essence behind all of them, but don't really trust that the entire ALP is behind them. Part of joining the ALP is to agree to the following pledge:

"I hereby pledge myself to the Australian Labor Party to faithfully uphold to the best of my ability its Constitution and Platforms and to work and vote for the selected Labor candidates. I am not a member of any other organisation which pledges its members to support candidates for public office. I will forfeit my membership if I nominate against any endorsed Labor candidate. If I employ labour, I will actively encourage trade union membership."

This gives me much to think on... And I still have 227 page left to go, of this document alone!