November 12, 1966
Copies to: Ed Shaw, New York;
Jean Simon, Cleveland;
Reba Hansen, New York, NY
Dear Reba,
This answers your letter of November 2 with which you enclosed a copy of Jean
Simon’s letter of October 12. I was surprised and concerned by Jean’s
proposals to change the constitutional provisions providing for an independent
Control Commission elected by the convention, and making it a mere subcommittee
of the NC, which would mean in effect a subcommittee of the PC. This would be
the de facto liquidation of the Control Commission as it was originally
conceived.
As far as I can see all the new moves and proposals to monkey with the
Constitution which has served the party so well in the past, with the aim of
“tightening” centralization, represent a trend in the wrong direction at the
present time. The party (and the YSA) is too “tight” already, and if we go
much further along this line we can run the risk of strangling the party to
death.
As I recall it, the proposal to establish a Control Commission, separately
elected by the convention, originated at the Plenum and Active
Workers’Conference in the fall of 1940, following the assassination of the Old
Man. The assassin, as you will recall, gained access to the household in
Coyoacan through his relations with a party member. The Political Committee was
then, as it always will be if it functions properly, too busy with political and
organizational problems to take time for investigations and security checks on
individuals.
It was agreed that we need a special body to take care of this work, to
investigate rumors and charges and present its findings and recommendations to
the National Committee.
If party security was one side of the functions of the Control Commission,
the other side—no less important—was to provide the maximum assurance that
any individual party member, accused or rumored to be unworthy of party
membership, could be assured of the fullest investigation and a fair hearing or
trial. It was thought that this double purpose could best be served by a body
separately elected by the convention, and composed of members of long standing,
especially respected by the party for their fairness as well as their devotion.
I can recall instances where the Control Commission served the party well in
both aspects of this dual function. In one case a member of the Seamen’s
fraction was expelled by the Los Angeles Branch after charges were brought
against him by two members of the National Committee of that time. The expelled
member appealed to the National Committee and the case was turned over to the
Control Commission for investigation. The Control Commission, on which as I
recall Dobbs was then the PC representative, investigated the whole case, found
that the charges lacked substantial proof and recommended the reinstatement of
the expelled member. This was done.
In another case, a rumor circulated by the Shachtmanites and others outside
the party against the integrity of a National Office secretarial worker was
thoroughly investigated by the Control Commission which, after taking
stenographic testimony from all available sources, declared the rumors unfounded
and cleared the accused party member to continue her work. There were other
cases in which charges were found after investigation to be substantiated and
appropriate action recommended.
All these experiences speak convincingly of the need for a separate Control
Commission of highly respected comrades to make thorough investigations of every
case, without being influenced by personal or partisan prejudice, or pressure
from any source, and whose sole function is to examine each case from all sides
fairly and justly and report its findings and recommendations. This is the best
way, not only to protect the security of the party, but also to respect the
rights of the accused in every case.
As far as I know, the only criticism that can properly be made of the Control
Commission in recent times is that it has not always functioned in this way with
all its members participating, either by presence or correspondence, in all
proceedings—and convincing the party that its investigation was thorough and
that its findings and recommendations were fair and just.
It should be pointed out also that the idea of a Control Commission
separately constituted by the convention didn’t really originate with us. Like
almost everything else we know about the party organizational principles and
functions, it came from the Russian Bolsheviks. The Russian party had a separate
Control Commission. It might also be pointed out that after the revolution the
new government established courts. It provided also for independent trade unions
which, as Lenin pointed out in one of the controversies, had the duty even to
defend the rights of its members against the government. Of course, all that was
changed later when all power was concentrated in the party secretariat, and all
the presumably independent institutions were converted into rubber stamps. But
we don’t want to move in that direction. The forms and methods of the
Lenin-Trotsky time are a better guide for us.
I am particularly concerned about any possible proposal to weaken the
constitutional provision about the absolute right of suspended or expelled
members to appeal to the convention. That is clearly and plainly a provision to
protect every party member against possible abuse of authority by the National
Committee. It should not be abrogated or diluted just to show that we are so
damn revolutionary that we make no concessions to “bourgeois concepts of
checks and balances.” The well-known Bill of Rights is a check and balance
which I hope will be incorporated, in large part at least, in the Constitution
of the Workers Republic in this country. Our constitutional provision for the
right of appeal is also a “check and balance.” It can help to recommend our
party to revolutionary workers as a genuinely democratic organization which
guarantees rights as well as imposing responsibilities, and thus make it more
appealing to them.
I believe that these considerations have more weight now than ever before in
the 38-year history of our party. In the present political climate and with the
present changing composition of the party, democratic centralism must be applied
flexibly. At least ninety percent of the emphasis should be placed on the
democratic side and not on any crackpot schemes to “streamline” the party to
the point where questions are unwelcomed and criticism and discussion stifled.
That is a prescription to kill the party before it gets a chance to show how it
can handle and assimilate an expanding membership of new young people, who
don’t know it all to start with, but have to learn and grow in the course of
explication and discussion in a free, democratic atmosphere.
Trotsky once remarked in a polemic against Stalinism that even in the period
of the Civil War discussion in the party was “boiling like a spring.” Those
words and others like it written by Trotsky, in his first attack against
Stalinism in “The New Course”, ought to be explained now once again to the
new young recruits in our party. And the best way to explain such decisive
things is to practice what we preach.
Yours fraternally,
James P. Cannon
