Interview with Zbigniew Kowalewski: "Solidarity still lives!'

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Zbigniew Kowalewski was one of the main leaders of Solidarity in the Lodz region, one of Poland's most important industrial centers, and an initiator of the movement for workers' self-management on a national scale. He is the author of numerous works on the Latin American revolutionary movement, on the Black movement in the United States—in particular the role of Malcolm X-and other liberation struggles. He was a delegate to the first National Congress of Solidarity. Since Jaruszelski's coup d'etat, he has been in exile in France.

Socialist Action: How has Solidarity been able to function since it was declared illegal in 1981?

Zbigniew Kowalewski: The social resistance by underground Solidarity to the totalitarian state has lasted three-and-a-half years. It would be very difficult to find antecedents for this lengthy resistance in the history of the workers' movement, with the notable exception of the Bolivian trade union movement.

In Poland the long-term existence of a mass trade union under conditions of clandestinity is a real phenomenon. Its organizational bases are the underground trade-union commissions, which have been able to maintain themselves in the majority of small and medium factories as well as in many institutions and universities.

The material support comes from dues. Today only those who pay dues regularly are considered members, not those who had been members while the union was legal. The percentage of Polish workers who pay dues to their underground union is much greater than, for example, the percentage of French workers who pay dues to their legal trade unions.

The normal routine of activity in the underground commissions consists of providing workers with independent information. In Solidarity, it is under- SOliDARNOSE -stood very well that such information is a key factor in maintaining and developing the resistance to the regime.

It is estimated that between 700 and 1000 trade union publications are currently distributed. Some national and regional weeklies produced by Solidarity have reached a circulation of 20,000 to 60,000 copies. In many shops underground bulletins are handed out. In one case, at the Lenin steel mill in Nowa Huta, 6000 copies are run.

In some places trade-union and general training courses are offered for militant workers. Democratic-minded intellectuals participate in these, demonstrating their continued attachment to an alliance with the working class. In some cities underground radio stations are broadcasting. There are numerous cases of publishing houses that print books banned by the regime.

A national organ, the Provisional Coordination Commission (TKK), continues to function. The police have never been able to dismantle or paralyze it, even though they have, at times, arrested several of its members.

The fundamental structural weakness of Solidarity is the inefficiency at the local and regional levels-with some exceptions-of interfactory cooperation. The underground commissions frequently lead strikes or other economic struggles around partial or immediate demands: wage increases, better working conditions, and defense of the traditional workday. These struggles are not infrequently won.

But there are no strike movements at the interfactory level and that constitutes a serious problem.

S.A.: What is the current economic situation in Poland?

Kowalewski: The economic crisis, which is terrible, continues and there is no end in sight. The regime does not control the economic process. Planning is a fiction. Economic management has disintegrated.

There are innumerable formal and informal centers of decision-making. The informal centers are constituted by bureaucratic pressure groups that have bases in different industrial branches and geographical zones. These groups function as lobbies that compete for greater access to investment funds and to scarce production materials.

The government is not capable of halting the growing tendency toward overaccumulation [of funds and resources], which results from the competition between these bureaucratic lobbies. The counterpart to this situation is growing restrictions in 14 SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 1985 popular consumption and exploitation of the workforce.

The real income of the population has fallen by 30 percent during the past several years. In 1982 alone prices of foodstuffs increased 163 percent and are continuing to increase. Workers are forced to work longer days through the imposition of mandatory overtime.

The historic conquest of the working class-the eight-hour day—is thereby reversed. The eight-hour day was won in Poland in 1918. Recently the government has authorized shop managers to impose a nine-hour workday if necessary. It also declared that there will be up to two hours off during the day, when production stops for lack of parts or raw materials. This means that workers can be legally obliged to stay in the factory for 11 hours.

S.A.: The Polish regime recently backed down from its proposal to impose steep increases in food prices. What explains this?

Kowalewski: The government has not withdrawn its proposal to once again increase the prices of basic necessities. Rather, it has decided to introduce the increases progressively. It was a tactical retreat—a maneuver-in the face of a threatened 15-minute national strike which was called jointly by the underground leadership of Solidarity and Lech Walesa.

Given this maneuver by Jaruszelski, the call for the strike was withdrawn. Many Solidarity militants consider that the withdrawal of the call was a mistake. Currently, the Solidarity leaders are considering the possibility of launching an important national strike in June to protest price increases and the lengthening of the workday. This is the expression of the fact that social tensions are increasing.

For two-and-a-half years the underground leadership did not present proposals for strike struggles on a national level. If now they are returning to this tactic, it means that today the masses are in a more fighting mood. The regime takes very seriously the possibility of Solidarity fighting back and its capacity to do so.

The state-controlled unions continue to be boycotted by a large majority of the workers and do not enjoy any legitimacy. In order to try to gain some legitimacy, they have to raise a timid voice of protest against the price increases. But they do that only after authorization from the regime. Without the regime's consent they would not dare to lift a finger.

S.A.: What was the attitude of the Polish government-which calls itself socialist-toward the recently ended British miners' strike, the longest mass strike in British history? And how did Solidarity respond to the strike?

Kowalewski: The regime and its "unions"

Last January the Polish government proposed to raise food prices in order to meet the requirements of the International Monetary Fund for the repayment of the $28-billion debt to Western banks. Then, last month, at least according to the government's explanation, the decision was reversed because of the protest of the official trade unions.

Solidarity, which had called for a 15-minute protest strike against the price hikes, cancelled the planned protest but warned that the government would try to reinstate the increases later.

The Polish government has begun to arrest Solidarity leaders for having discussed a proposed work stoppage at a meeting called by Lech Walesa. Wladyslaw Frasyniuk, Bogdan Lis, and Adam Michnik were all detained on Feb. 13 and are still being held.

The Polish government plans to hold a one-day trial shortly before Easter. It is expected that the three Will receive sentences of two or three years. HUTA world events from a revolutionary Marxist perspective. Twelfth World Congress of the Fourth International as well as regular reporting and analysis of events from Nicaragua to Poland. subscription is $22, and one year of International Viewpoint is avallable for $42. Subscribe now! Write to Box 80B, 2520 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL 60614.

futcryk palka PROCES wrazaa laworske Modeprewsk.

expressed a lot of support—in propaganda-for the British miners' strike, but Arthur Scargill himself characterized their behavior as "hypocritical and antisocialist."

Why? Because the regime took advantage of the strike to considerably increase its coal shipments to Great Britain and, at the same time, improve its political relations with Mrs. Thatcher.

Jaruszelski acted like a scab—which is nothing new. On several occasions in the past the Polish "communist" regime was a strikebreaker on an international scale-in Spain, in France, etc.

The offical "unions" ignored the call of the British trade unions to block shipments of Polish coal. A Solidarity headquarters with a poster of Lenin.

In Solidarity's underground press there were numerous articles on the British miners' strike in which admiration for the tenacity and combativity of the strikers was expressed and in which Jaruszelski's attitude was harshly condemned.

With respect to Solidarity's attitude, the fact that Scargill was known for his hostility to the Polish workers and supported Jaruszelski's coup d'etat had a big effect. Some articles commented that "the hand of the Kremlin" could be seen in the strike, paying Scargill back for his having seen the "hand of the White House" in the Polish strikes.

This is sad. It shows how much "campism" is alive in the workers' movements of both East and West. Nevertheless, several important bodies of Solidarity, especially in Warsaw and Silesia, issued statements and sent messages of full solidarity with the British miners and the National Union of Mineworkers.

They affirmed that if Solidarity were legal it would not permit Polish coal to be utilized for scab purposes. They invited Scargill to correct his attitude toward the Polish workers' movement, given the solidarity that exists between their bosses, Thatcher and Jaruszelski.

Scargill and the leadership of the NUM ignored these messages, which is a shame. As far as 1 know, not one single body of the NUM has adopted an attitude of reciprocity. This does not favor the development of sentiments of international working-class solidarity. On the part of the Polish workers, we have made modest steps forward, but they have not yet found their counterpart.

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