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A Political Retrospective
Mar. 31st, 2014 06:45 pmI found out on Saturday morning, just as I was preparing to staff the ALP stall at the Kew Festival, that Frans Timmerman had died after some time suffering from an incurable illness. Frans and I had worked quite closely as co-covenors (administration and policy, respectively) of the Labor Left-Pledge Unions faction of the ALP (the "hard left" as that enlightened journal, The Herald-Sun, described it) in the late 1990s and early 2000s. A highly disciplined organiser, Frans gave me an appreciation of a necessary modus operandi in practical politics which I am, by sentiment and idealism, perhaps not as well suited for.
It was around February 1996 that I rejoined the Labor Party, having previously been a member around 1984-1986, before a few years involvement in semi-Trotksyist politics in the guise of what is now the Democratic Socialist Perspective. My timing of rejoining was just before the election of John Howard as Prime Minister, where the forward-looking proposals of the Keating government; republicanism, engagement and integration with south and east Asia, indigenous reconciliation and native title, etc. would come to a screaming halt and reversal.
About a year later I became involved in the Pledge group, primarily through contact with Peter M. The Pledge group was organised as a minority split from the mainstream Socialist Left following that group's support for privitisation of public assets and a lack of proportional power-sharing within the faction. Despite a working alliance within the branch and organisational level with the more conservative Labour Unity group to protect our handful of MPs, over time nearly all of our union base had drifted back to the SL.
It was this environment that I threw myself into the various policy committees of the Party. For some years I chaired the indigenous affairs policy committee (we passed some fairly radical policies through conference), and was also involved in the committees relating to economics, energy, housing, information technology, education, health, and others. There were several MPs I worked for as en electorate officer, before being transferred as a statewide field officer for the Parliamentary Party as a whole. I also was a State Conference delegate at the time, taking the opportunity to stir the possum a few times. In each and all of these activities Frans was there, backing me one hundred percent. I believe he realised that I was not well suited to machinations of collective and binding caucuses, so putting me in charge of policy was the appropriate leadership role.
Over time however the need for a shift back to the SL became more apparent, especially as the centre-right gained further ascendancy. It started with my argument that there should be an exchange of preferences on the policy committees. Eventually this become proposals to do so on the branch, administrative, and public office level as well. Frans was ever pragmatic about it, noting that there was no point being a minority faction holding the balance of power when there wasn't one. The vote to work with the SL on this level was lost with a large section of our remaining union representatives supporting the status quo. Frans and I quit our positions as the conveners, and signed up with the SL with most of the branch members.
At the end of that year I moved to East Timor, and shortly afterwards Frans moved to Katoomba to run his bookshop. We stayed in contact but we weren't nearly as closely involved anymore; I took a few years off involved, organisational politics in general, albeit with a more recent re-involvement. Frans' passing has hit me pretty hard, even though it was expected for some time. In remembering the times past, it has actually inspired me from contemplative reflection of why he worked so hard at ensuring that there was some inkling of a continuing radical tradition within the ALP.
It was around February 1996 that I rejoined the Labor Party, having previously been a member around 1984-1986, before a few years involvement in semi-Trotksyist politics in the guise of what is now the Democratic Socialist Perspective. My timing of rejoining was just before the election of John Howard as Prime Minister, where the forward-looking proposals of the Keating government; republicanism, engagement and integration with south and east Asia, indigenous reconciliation and native title, etc. would come to a screaming halt and reversal.
About a year later I became involved in the Pledge group, primarily through contact with Peter M. The Pledge group was organised as a minority split from the mainstream Socialist Left following that group's support for privitisation of public assets and a lack of proportional power-sharing within the faction. Despite a working alliance within the branch and organisational level with the more conservative Labour Unity group to protect our handful of MPs, over time nearly all of our union base had drifted back to the SL.
It was this environment that I threw myself into the various policy committees of the Party. For some years I chaired the indigenous affairs policy committee (we passed some fairly radical policies through conference), and was also involved in the committees relating to economics, energy, housing, information technology, education, health, and others. There were several MPs I worked for as en electorate officer, before being transferred as a statewide field officer for the Parliamentary Party as a whole. I also was a State Conference delegate at the time, taking the opportunity to stir the possum a few times. In each and all of these activities Frans was there, backing me one hundred percent. I believe he realised that I was not well suited to machinations of collective and binding caucuses, so putting me in charge of policy was the appropriate leadership role.
Over time however the need for a shift back to the SL became more apparent, especially as the centre-right gained further ascendancy. It started with my argument that there should be an exchange of preferences on the policy committees. Eventually this become proposals to do so on the branch, administrative, and public office level as well. Frans was ever pragmatic about it, noting that there was no point being a minority faction holding the balance of power when there wasn't one. The vote to work with the SL on this level was lost with a large section of our remaining union representatives supporting the status quo. Frans and I quit our positions as the conveners, and signed up with the SL with most of the branch members.
At the end of that year I moved to East Timor, and shortly afterwards Frans moved to Katoomba to run his bookshop. We stayed in contact but we weren't nearly as closely involved anymore; I took a few years off involved, organisational politics in general, albeit with a more recent re-involvement. Frans' passing has hit me pretty hard, even though it was expected for some time. In remembering the times past, it has actually inspired me from contemplative reflection of why he worked so hard at ensuring that there was some inkling of a continuing radical tradition within the ALP.
