Democratic Centralism - Cult or Party?

[Tokyo]

To the leninists who've posted on this thread: Do members of DC parties disagree with this statement these days?

It's a quote that is much abused. But what it's actually saying is that if a mass workers' party is in place, and you're a socialist, then you're for the party. You can say that it is wrong "on certain specific issues or at certain moments" - a very important clarification! But if you think that the party as a concept is wrong, then you're an anarchist, a counter-revolutionary, or whatever, or you believe that it no longer represents the leadership of the working class - as Trotsky later came to see the CPGB. He rather overlooks this last possibility, of a bureaucratic coup, in this statement.

Of course, this only applies to a mass workers' party. It's quite possible to believe that any or all of the small groups which exist in this country are on the wrong course and still be a Trotskyist.

 

[Chuck Wilson]

I have spoken to former members of the Spartacist League and have come to the conclusion that membership of that grotesque cult has been quite a traumatic experience for some.

In a letter to the Weekly Worker (no527) former Spart member Lisa Mount stated "I no longer subscribe to Workers Hammer or Workers Vanguard purely out of blind terror that I’ll get sucked back into the world of hell I was in when I was with them. I’m sure others can relate."

Sounds a bit Jodie Marsh to me.I am sure that if she were a Trot her book would be 'My Life - a drama.'

 

[hibee]

i'm an authoritarian socialist.But in my view Democratic centralism has nothing to do with real socalism and if followed through would be much more likely to lead to stalinism and iwould rather have Blair,Hughes or Cameron than that.Groups like the SWP have always been fundamentaly to the right of Labour. With no confidence that working class people can be trusted with anything constructive they see them purelly as destrutice and needing to be led.

Was the way in which the Blair clique took over the Labour party and transformed it from a social democratic organisation to a Thatcherite-cum-christian democrat one not Leninism in action? Entryism at the very least.