RE: Bureaucracy

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

I wrote:
>> Applied to the CPUSA, the phrase "democratic centralist" involves an
abuse of the word "democratic."<<

CB: >Are you saying that the majority's votes were ignored in some election
of Gus Hall ? Earl Browder ? John Reed ? Henry Winston ?  Sam Webb ?  on a
provision of the Constitution ?

> Give me specific examples of where the vote of the majority was not
followed in the CPUSA ? <

Actually, that was a typo. I meant to write the "CPSU" -- specifically
referring to the period of the 1920s and after, since I have limited
knowledge of the inner workings of the CPUSA. (That it was a typo makes
sense in the context of the larger message: it was followed by the sentence
"The elections in the old USSR were a sham, while the members of the CP
didn't have real democratic control over the leaders or over the Party
Line.")

But wasn't Earl Browder -- a long-term leader who was quite popular with the
CPUSA's rank and file members -- kicked out of the leadership of the CPUSA
for disagreeing with the Party Line handed down by Moscow?

gotta go...

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine