David Hollings argues against the idea that democratic centralism can be “reduced to a three stage formula of debate, vote and unity of action”.
This is in fact a weaker form of democratic centralism which raises the vote from a mechanism for deciding which course of action to pursue to a mechanism to decide which course of action is best… As the vote can only decide a course of action and not the correct answer, there must be attempts by those on both sides of the question to be continually engaging with the arguments and re-evaluating their position on the matter.
► Read “The role of debate in a democratic centralist organisation” here.
Note: This piece was published before rs21 was established as an independent organisation in January 2014. rs21 was founded by a group of people who had been in the opposition within the SWP and who left in response to its persistent mishandling of rape and sexual harassment allegations against a leading member.
