Modern Communism and the Political Legacy of Hardial Bains - Part 10: Democratic Centralism

The vision of a modern communist party presented by Hardial Bains rested on the foundation of politically vibrant basic organizations which guarantee the right to conscience of all their members. He asserted that without such a foundation democratic centralism could not function and a communist party would be communist in name only.

With such a solid foundation, the roles and responsibilities of the other levels of the organization become clear. By definition, if the members are sovereign, in the sense that they are the main decision-makers within the party, then no other individuals or bodies are sovereign. The members make all of the most crucial decisions collectively within their basic organizations and the basic organizations are the main guarantors of that sovereignty. They decide on the admission of new members, the training of members and, if necessary, the discipline of members, up to and including expulsion.

The basic organizations select from among their own ranks their delegates to the party congress, which is the main collective decision-making body of the party. They set the agenda for their delegates and instruct them on what positions they should take on the issues facing the congress.

Through the mechanism of the party congress, in which all delegates enjoy equal status, the members deliberate on the national and international situation and adopt a general program of work for the upcoming period. They also elect a Central Committee which is entrusted to make decisions regarding the implementation of the work between congresses. The Central Committee does not have the authority to adopt a new program of work, nor does it have the authority to reverse any of the decisions of the congress. To do so would be to negate the sovereignty of the membership.

Due to the vastness of the country, CPC(M-L) also established Regional Committees, generally on a provincial basis and elected by the entire membership of the region at a regional conference. The role of the Regional Committees is to provide the members in a particular region with a collective forum in which to discuss political problems emerging in the implementation of the work of the basic organizations and to assist the basic organizations in overcoming those problems. It also has no decision-making authority apart from those decisions it must take in the course of implementing the work entrusted to it by the membership at the regional conference.

The Central Committee and Regional Committees do have the authority to establish specific committees to carry out their duties and to elect individuals to take responsibility for various aspect of the work. They also elect a Secretary, who is responsible for ensuring that the committees function. However, neither the committees nor any of the secretaries, including the First Secretary of the Central Committee, have any decision-making authority or other status above that of any other member. Again, for them to possess such powers, either as an individual or through their office, would negate the sovereignty of the members. On many occasions Hardial Bains explained that, as First Secretary and National Leader, he had greater responsibilities, but no greater rights than any other member.

The issue of rights is crucial to any discussion of organization. Hierarchical forms of organization also have a hierarchy of rights, with those in higher positions possessing more rights than those at lower levels in the organization. For example, under the Canada Elections Act only the national leader of a political party has the right to select candidates and during the past decade more than one party leader has vetoed candidates selected by constituency organizations. Parliamentary caucuses of all parties have given themselves the right to oppose decisions adopted at policy conventions. But a communist party is supposed to be a party of a "new type", a party in which the membership is supreme and not the party apparatus or the parliamentary caucus.

Democratic centralism as envisioned by Hardial Bains and practiced within CPC(M-L), was not a hierarchical form of organization, but a method of ensuring that the membership retained control of its organization. Of course, in any human organization the issue of authority is extremely complex and individuals can establish their authority in a field of endeavour through their level of expertise. The opinions of such individuals will obviously carry more weight within an organization than those of an individual who has not established such expertise. This is why some people are considered to be leaders in particular fields and only the most perverse would consider this to be anti-democratic. Rather, it is those who insist that their position carries with it a greater right to opinions than someone else who are anti-democratic. Such people exist in every organization; the issue is whether the political culture of an organization encourages or discourages such people from usurping the rights that belong to the collective.

All of these issues came to the fore within CPC(M-L) in the mid-1990s with the adoption of the Historic Initiative, a key aspect of which was the necessity to build a mass communist party. The Constitution of CPC(M-L) was originally drafted to meet the needs of a party of professional organizers and many of its requirements of membership were far too onerous for ordinary workers to comply with. In addition, many clauses reflected an obsolete style of organization and political culture which had long since been abandoned in the Party's actual practice. As a result, Hardial Bains initiated a discussion throughout the Party on the necessity for a new constitution. These discussions dealt with the practical problems facing a modern communist party, as well as the specific problems faced in building a mass communist party.

How do you balance the rights of professional members with those of mass members, who have far fewer responsibilities? What should be the responsibilities of mass members? How do you ensure that a mass membership does not dilute the revolutionary character of the Party? Is it preferable to have parallel or combined structures? Can an organization remain democratic if different levels of membership have different rights or if their votes are weighted differently? These were some of the questions that emerged in the course of discussing a new constitution which would successfully balance the rights of the individual with the rights of the collective. To a large extent, the answers to these questions will determine the overall question raised by Hardial Bains: "What Kind of Party?" Unfortunately, while he dealt with some of the broader aspects of this question in his last few speeches, Hardial Bains died before the practical problems of a new constitution could be worked out. That problem had been placed on the agenda for solution at the Party's Seventh Congress, but due to his untimely death, the problem of drafting of a new constitution which can serve the needs of a mass communist party remains to be taken up for solution.