Polish workers reject austerity referendum

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Solidarity supporters in the streets of Gdansk June 12, 1987. 14 SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 1988 Firest Mande.

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Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski's proposed program for "economic change and deep democratization of political life" was soundly defeated by the Polish people in early December in the first national referendum held in 41 years.

Only 46 percent of the eligible voters supported the government's proposals, which, among its numerous provisions, called for the doubling of food prices and the tripling of rents and utility charges in 1988.

The Polish government's two ballot proposals had been strongly endorsed by Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev and by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, two of the major international capitalist institutions.

Solidarity, the outlawed trade-union movement, had campaigned for a boycott of the referendum through its underground publications.

Jaruzelski's economic program, in fact, was drafted at the behest of the IMF and the World Bank. According to the Nov. 15, 1987, New York Times, "The World Bank has urged Poland to speed up the pace of economic change and enact tough austerity measures to help reduce Poland's foreign debt, which is expected to grow from $34.5 billion this year to $37.35 billion in 1992."

The referendum's political reforms included a plan for a new parliament to be elected in 1981 under a liberalized electoral system. The main task of this parliament would be to draft a new constitution by 1991.

"No legalizing Solidarity"

Solidarity leader Lech Walesa explained Ever since Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev's speech on the 70th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the name of Leon Trotsky has surfaced repeatedly in the editorial columns and articles of the major capitalist newspapers in this country.

In his speech, Gorbachev loudly praised Stalin's crushing of Trotsky's Left Opposition in the Bolshevik Party because "Stalin safeguarded Leninism in an ideological struggle."

One such editorial in the Nov. 4, 1987, issue of The Boston Globe greeted Gorbachev's attack on Trotsky in a sympathetic manner. The Globe editorial, which argues that "Gorbachev's policies hold out the hope of a...more stable international order," states the following:

"Speaking as the proponent of a foreign policy founded on the need to persuade Western leaders that the Soviet Union has become a conservative big power abjuring subversion and seeking stability, Gorbachev denounced the foreign policy of the nternational ще 130 November 23.1987 1085. 85.S2: C$2 50.129 Subscribe today to International Viewpoint!

A biweekly magazine published under the auspices of the Fourth International. Introductory sub: 3 issues for $3. Six-month subscription: $25. One-year subscription: $47.

3435 Army St. Rm. 308, S.F., CA 94410. the reasons for his support to the boycott position. "We don't want to be accomplices of false reforms," he said. "We are not about to help the authorities create a fake appearance of democracy. There can be no democracy without political pluralism."

The Polish regime, however, made it clear that it would not consider legalizing Solidarity. Government spokesman Jerzy Urban explained in an interview in early October 1987 that the proposed reforms were "radical" only in the economic sector.

"I'd hesitate to call them radical in the political sphere," Urban said. "We don't want a situation in which we cause a new political conflict like in 1981," he added, referring to the conflict between the thenlegalized Solidarity movement and the govemment.

Capitalist media lament

For their part, the major capitalist media lamented the rejection by the Polish workers of the sham political reforms and increased austerity measures.

Tad Sculz, long-time New York Times editorial writer, blasted Solidarity's referendum position, characterizing it as a "well-meaning miscalculation of historical proportions." (San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 18)

Washington Post correspondent Jackson Diehl warned that "If the impetus for dynamic changes here is lost, the result could chill programs around Eastern Europe Trotskyists because 'they gave priority to export the revolution."

At odds for many reasons But Trotsky's understanding that the socialist revolution must be internationala scientific concept based on the writings and practice of Marx, Engels, and Lenin— was not the only policy he advocated which placed him at odds with the Stalinist bureaucratic dictatorship—and with the world imperialist powers.

Trotsky was opposed to the social inequality and political oppression of the Stalinist regime. He called for freedom of the trade unions and factory committees; for the right of assembly and freedom of the press; for the legalization of soviet parties; and for the democratization of the planned economy from top to bottom in the interests of the producers and consumers.

For all these reasons, Trotsky and his supporters were persecuted and killed by the Stalinists. In the Moscow Trials of the late 1930s, Trotsky and virtually every other member of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party of Lenin's day were sentenced to death. Most were executed. Trotsky was killed by a Stalinist agent while in exile in Mexico. Their names were erased from the history books.

Controversy over history

With the limited political opening known as glasnost, a few prominent Soviet historians have dared to raise the need to examine the early "official history" of the Soviet state. Yuri Afanasiev, for example, the rector of the Moscow State Historical Archives Institute, in early 1986 harshly criticized history textbooks for "failing to properly deal with the Stalin period."

Soon after, a string of attacks on Afanasiev began to appear in leading party journals and newspapers. Afanasiev was accused of being sympathetic to "Trotskyism," though he was quick to point out that he had never mentioned Trotsky or Trotskyism in any of his speeches and that he resented the accusations.

Still, despite his numerous oaths of loyalty to the Communist Party, Afanasiev and become a significant blow to Gorbachev. In the last year, Jaruzelski had emerged as the strongest ally of the Soviet leader and the sponsor of the most radical reform." (Dec. 21)

Gorbachev, whose "perestroika"- economic restructuring—reforms are similar to those proposed by Jaruzelski, has reason to be concerned about the referendum results in Poland. But he also has much to be worried about in the Soviet Union itself, where the workers are equally opposed to the reforms.

One revealing example of this resistance occurred in September 1987, when bus had fallen out with the inner circles of the party leadership. He had gone too far by advocating a serious study of the past. Anyone else who follows Afanasiev's footsteps in demanding the truth about the early period of the revolution is sure to be charged with "Trotskyism" as well.

The fate of Yeltsin Much has also been written about the removal of Boris Yeltsin as leader of the Moscow Communist Party in late October. He is usually presented as a close protege of Gorbachev who had to be sacrificed to help Gorbachev gain more time in consolidating his "reform" faction inside the party.

While it is undoubtedly true that there are deep contradictions and rifts among the different layers of the Soviet bureaucracy, it seems quite clear that what provoked Yeltsin's removal was his decision to allow a convention of independent socialist clubs to be held in Moscow last summer.

Among other things, this convention called for a multiparty system—a demand which was perceived by the bureaucrats— rightly so—as a dagger aimed directly at them.

Another parallel reason for Yeltsin's removal is that he acquiesced to a number of elections in Moscow factories where drivers in the industrial town of Chekhov staged an unprecedented strike to protest changes in the wage system that would have significantly reduced their salaries. After three days of strikes, the Soviet authorities were forced to resume the previous wage system.

The Dec. 11 San Francisco Chronicle reported that, 'In the Soviet Union, a survey found that only 30 percent of the people surveyed support economic restructuring." The Chronicle went on to explain that, as in Poland, "The reason is that people don't want to see price subsidies slashed or ended on basic goods."

Other reasons reported in the media include widespread opposition to the introduction of unemployment, inflation, and increasing pay differentials—all attacks on the historic gains of the Soviet working class which are certain to accompany these "market-oriented" reforms.

Dementi Agency workers, under the new Gorbachev system, elected managers against Communist Party recommendations. This was viewed as a direct hit at the party's patronage system.

While Gorbachev may be for glasnost, he has stated with no ambiguity that he will not tolerate a challenge to the bureaucracy's single-party monopoly on political rule.

Task of the workers A drive to restore Leon Trotsky to his rightful place in Soviet history-alongside that of Lenin—is the task of the Soviet workers themselves. No wing of the bureaucracy can be expected to carry through this fight.

Any genuine rehabilitation of Trotsky would mean allowing his works to be published in the Soviet Union and available for all to read. But this the bureaucracy cannot allow for it knows that Trotsky's writings would represent a direct call to action against the entire oppressive bureaucratic system.

In Poland, on Nov. 7, over 150 peoplemainly students and young workers— demonstrated in the streets of Wroclaw to demand the rehabilitation of Leon Trotsky and the reinstatement of Boris Yeltsin to his post as Moscow party chief.

This is a small-but significant-sign of encouraging developments still ahead.

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By 1879, the commercial mining of asbestos had begun in Canada and the Soviet Union, where it continues today. The mineral began to assume a key role in industry because of its bonding strength and its ability to withstand heat. The United States

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