Polish Solidarity sets example for U.S. labor movement

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SOCIALIST ACTIO OCTOBER 1984 7 The June 17, 1984, statement of the Provisional Coordinating Committee of Solidarnosc in support of the striking British coal miners is a powerful testimony to what a democratic workers' movement is all about. Offered in opposition to the Polish government's strikebreaking act of selling coal to the British government, this statement also demonstrates the true nature of the Polish government.

Poland is a state where the major means of production have been nationalized but where a dictatorial bureaucratic caste oppresses the workers. These bureaucrats are of a similar breed to the current officialdom in the U.S. trade unjons. They are both dominated by motives of self-interest and self-preservation at the expense of the workers and against the workers.

In this country, in response to the attacks of the employers, the union officials sell concessions to the employers and at the same time prevent their membership from opposing concessions. In return they hope to maintain their dues base and their control of the union. They beg the employers to be reasonable while they give away most of the gains of the past 40 years.

Internally they are ruthless toward any opponents of their policies and any rank-and-file organization which has the potential to challenge their rule. They are more interested in maintaining their salaries than in defending the standard of living of the members who pay the dues. They have also opposed solidarity with other unions and all workers in an exchange for peace with their individual employers. These policies have led to the demobilization of the membership and the increased vulnerability of the unions to being busted.

The bureaucrats in Poland also oppose the democratic organization of the workers. Instead of a democratic distribution of what is produced … in Poland, the Polish bureaucracy takes what it needs at the expense of the pop1 year ($42) month ($22)

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tion.

Protestors in Poland defy martial, law.

ulation as a whole. It defends its privileges with the use of arms.

To maintain its privileges in recent years the Polish bureaucrats have made concessions to the employers of the world and have borrowed from them. By putting the country into debt they have allowed the international banks to profit from the labor of the Polish workers.

In order to maintain their credit rating with these bankers they are selling coal at below world market prices at the expense of the striking coal miners and the trade union movement in England. In the long run the debt problems of the Polish economy will also be exacerbated. They also promised to cut the standard of living of the Polish workers in order to secure these loans.

Socialism, not Stalinism

This is all done in the name of socialism. Nothing could be further from the truth. Prior to the rise of Stalin, socialism used to be defined as the society of the majority and the extension of democracy into the field of production, as production for use instead of for profit, and the end of exploitation of man by man.

Solidarity came into being in opposition to these policies. It began as a union formation in opposition to the austerity imposed by the capitalist loans. It developed quickly beyond a union fórmation, for in order to organize it had to oppose the lack of democracy in the country as a whole.

At each step in its development it has had to extend democracy, beginning in the workplace where it was first organized. The demand for workers' control over the production at the plant level organically led to the demand for workers' control of the economy in order to implement control at the workplace. Solidarity began to act as a political party, making demands for the reorganization of the state, but without a clear program or the realization that it was in fact a political party.

Although Solidarity suffered a defeat in December 1981, it is still a political force in Poland and will come back with more force and vigor because of lessons learned from past struggles. The statement on the British miners and the extension of workers' solidarity beyond the Polish borders clearly demonstrate its anti-capitalist and socialist direction.

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