Polish workers resist

Scan page 4

Officially, Solidarity is dead. It no longer exists either in law or in fact. Repeatedly official spokespersons of the government claim that they have not the slightest worry about continued Solidarity underground activity.

They claim success for the amnesty offered to those in hiding. According to official figures released on Jan. 4, 1,120 people came out of hiding, including 411 who gave themselves up between Nov. 1 and Dec.31, when the amnesty expired.

Press spokesperson Urban claimed that those remaining underground numbered less than 100 and were now "generals without an army."

At the beginning of this year, the leaders of 13 new, officially inspired trade unions met to establish a unified national council. On Jan. 6, the Communist Party announced that its strength and activity had been restored. It claims 2.2 million members who are now said to be more active, especially among the workers.

The authorities declare themselves well satisfied with relations between Church and state. The Polish Primate, Cardinal Glemp, had a five hour meeting with General Jaruzelski on Jan. 5.

The Warsaw daily Zycie Warszawy insisted that the meeting gave the lie to all suggestions that tensions existed between the two bodies and there are now plans to establish full diplomatic relations between Poland and the Vatican for the first time since the war.

The official picture of normalization 4 Socialist Action March 1984 is not entirely a bluff. Opposition sources acknowledge that the government has been able to restore its effective authority.

The Solidarity underground leaders are nevertheless much more confident about their position than at earlier moments in the two years since the crackdown on Solidarity began.

Indeed, one of the underground's main leaders, Zbigniew Bujak, made the following claim in an interview for the underground journal Tygodnik Mazowsze published on Nov. 24: "At present, we exert a greater influence on our country's political life-as well as on other matters-than we did toward the end of our open and legal existence.

"In the three months before Dec. 13, 1981 (when martial law was imposed) the authorities were only pretending to negotiate with Solidarity. In fact, they were already by-passing the union making all their decisions apart from it, and preparing for the introduction of martial law.

"Now the situation has been reversed The authorities pretend that the union doesn't exist, while in reality having to take it into account before taking any important step.

"By lifting martial law and by acknowledging the situation as "normalized" while the underground exists, the authorities have signalled their reconciliation to the fact of our existence."

Bujak's assessment is based on the continuing numbers and organization of the resistance. In addition to the hundred or so people in hiding-who include the main leaders of the movement-there are some thousands of permanently active sands of them).

Beyond these, a much wider layer of people continue to pay dues to Solidarity or take its newspapers regularly. Bujak claims that these number a million or more. Others put the figure in hundreds of thousands. These supporters are especially concentrated in the main industrial centres and large enterprises.

Just as important has been the change of perspective amongst the activists. They no longer expect a showdown with the state right now. They tend to compare their strength with what happened before Solidarity, and feel much stronger in that time scale. They have to concentrate less on general propaganda against the regime and deal more with bread and butter issues.

This has strengthened the movement's unity by concentrating on less divisive JARNO dendet MARZEC&2 OBOZ INTERNOWANYCH ZK WIERZCHOWO Stamp designed by Polish prisoners and program. The sinews of leadership from the TKK-the national committee-downwards have been strengthened.

The government is trying to convince the workers that they can use new official institutions for their own practical purposes. It is allowing the new unions to voice criticisms, uses wide consultation on price increases and lets the new political front organization, PRON, make demands for changes in policy.

The authorities are hoping that such flexibility, along with its cooperation with the Church hierarchy will eventually make workers apathetic toward the underground.

The Solidarity underground is raising demands for the release of seven jailed Solidarity leaders and four KOR leaders (KOR stands for the Workers" Defense Committee that championed the cause of independent trade unions in the late 1970s). It is calling for a price freeze, cost of living allowances and united trade union action in defense of living standards.

The government's handling of these issues gives some support to Bujak's assessment of the situation. It has not brought the Solidarity Seven and KOR Four to trial and seems keen on avoiding doing so. It has moved with great caution over prices and seems to be still debating how to handle the election arrangements.

In short, uprooting the traditions of independent trade unionism is proving to be a long and difficult battle.

(Abridged from Socialist Action, Feb. 3, 1984, published in London. Mi 1CDonald is the editor of Labour Focus on Eastern Europe.)