National traditions have a lot to do with how democracy works

Like him I was expelled in 1984 in McLennan's "Democratic Left" purge of the old CPGB.

However, that was an exception and quite against the whole tradition of British communism.

Whereas parties on the Continent, whose whole political system is centralised and bureaucratic, have applied the principle of democratic centralism in an undemocratic and bureaucratic manner (notably the Russian and French CPs) in keeping with their national traditions this has not been the case in Britain - until McLennan.

An even more fundamental difference within the CPGB in 1939, when Harry Pollitt opposed the new party line against support for war with nazi Germany.

Harry resigned as general secretary but continued to serve as a full-time party worker and member of the executive committee.

But of course, until Thatcher, the British tradition of government has never been rigidly centralist - the only previous attempt at it was by Cromwell.

So, while Dave Groves was too sectarian in criticising Karl Dallas's remark about "so-called democratic centralism" the principle is sound - William Morris, long before Lenin, proposed much the same idea. But: it must be democratic!

And, unfortunately, it hasn't always been so, because national traditions are more important than political theory in determining how principles are applied in practice.

Jimmy Jancovich
Paris