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New left faction threatens to white ant the Greens

Heath Aston

It sounds like something a budding Bolshevik might have whispered into the ear of a political confidant in early 1917.

"Capitalism is a violent and antagonistic relation between workers and those who exploit them. As workers, whether or not we are waged, we experience perpetual violence and ... this violence must be brought to an end. We therefore fight to bring about the end of capitalism."

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Far-left group call for Australia Day flag burns

Greens leader Richard Di Natale has distanced himself from a new far-left faction wanting to burning the national flag on January 26. Vision courtesy Seven News Melbourne.

The quote isn't sourced from revolution-era Russia.

It's part of the manifesto of a new faction that has established itself within the Greens in NSW.

In December, Fairfax Media revealed the emergence of the faction, calling itself "Left Renewal" and laying out one of the most radical agendas to come from inside a political party with elected members and aspirations to govern.

"Capitalism depends upon violent and authoritarian divisions within the working class, such as elitism, sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, religious sectarianism, and ableism (amongst others). It is only with the abolition of these authoritarian relations that we will be able to create a thriving movement capable of transforming society," Left Renewal's statement of principles says.

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The faction rejects the "legitimacy of the state", claims the "police do not share an interest with the working class" and says Australia was forged on an "act of genocide which exists within a broader framework of global imperialism".

This week it recommended burning the flag as a different sort of Australia Day barbecue.

It would be easy to dismiss Left Renewal as the plaything of a small band of young, politically-energised, far left activists and anarchists in the Greens, and in some ways that is true.

The group, which will hold its first public forum in inner-city Redfern next week (139 going, 269 interested, according to Facebook), has more than a whiff of the Judean People's Front – sorry, People's Front of Judea – about it.

As a purist collective, for example, Left Renewal, refuses to provide a spokesperson to address questions from the media but communicates with journalists through unsourced responses on Facebook and Twitter.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale quickly dismissed Left Renewal as an irrelevant and unrepresentative "splinter" on the left fringe of the party and invited its members to contemplate their ongoing membership of the Greens.

"If the authors of this ill-thought through manifesto are so unhappy with Greens policies, perhaps they should consider finding a new political home," he said in December.

Unfortunately for Di Natale, it's not that simple.

Left Renewal has deep links to two of the NSW Greens' most senior elected figures in veteran senator Lee Rhiannon and upper-house state MP David Shoebridge and has already made a mockery of Di Natale's insistence that the Greens are not a factionalised party.

Faction founder Tom Raue, a self-described anarchist, works as an adviser in Mr Shoebridge's office while co-founder Brigitte Holly begins a job in Senator Rhiannon's office this month.

Rhiannon and Shoebridge have been at pains to point out they are not members of Left Renewal but are equally keen to defend its right to exist.

In a co-written opinion piece in the Guardian last week, they took what has been interpreted inside the Greens as a clear shot at Di Natale, a former GP, and his consensus style of leadership.

"From forest defenders to middle-class doctors and student activists, the Greens party is a broad and accepting social movement that has always celebrated its diversity," they wrote.

The irony in their solidarity with those who want to tip the system on its head is that both politicians have done well out of the capitalist status quo.

Rhiannon and Shoebridge, a former industrial relations barrister, both own $2 million-plus homes in Sydney's eastern suburbs, according to parliamentary records and real estate data, and Rhiannon in particular has lucrative public pension pots from state and federal parliaments.

Still, the pair have aligned themselves with the "eastern bloc" or "watermelon" faction (green on the outside, red in the middle) that dismisses environmentally-minded, middle class Greens like Di Natale as "tree tories".

Over the years, I have been rung up and chastised by people on the left of the Greens for referring in stories to factions in the party.  Some of the same people have signed up to Left Renewal.

Di Natale must now confront this faction or risk Left Renewal wagging the dog just as conservatives grouped around Tony Abbott have hindered Malcolm Turnbull at every turn.

On Thursday Di Natale was forced to issue a statement hosing down Left Renewal's threats against Australia Day and again distancing the Greens from the faction in its midst.

The Greens start 2017 trailing Pauline Hanson's One Nation and facing the prospect of Australian politics lurching to the right in reaction to Europe and the US.

The Greens have made an art of expressing abhorrence at the antics of the right.

For Di Natale, the biggest threat to his party could be from the opposite periphery.

Heath Aston is  Fairfax Media journalist. Jacqueline Maley is on leave.