Strike wave sweeps Poland; Solidarnosc at a crossroads

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On Sept. 26, Poland's authorities chose a new prime minister, Mieczyslaw Rakowski, a veteran Stalinist known for his hard-line opposition to the legalization of Solidarnosc. It is expected that Rakowski's views will set the tone at the upcoming "round-table" negotiations between Interior Minister Czeslaw Kizczak and Lech Walesa.

Through these negotiations, the leadership of the Stalinist Polish Unified Workers Party (PUWP) is hoping to coopt the top leadership of Solidarnosc into agreeing to work within the 1982 law on trade unions. This law, drafted after martial law was imposed and Solidarnose was banned, limits the right to strike and lays down strict rules on what constitutes acceptable trade-union activities.

According to this scenario, Solidarnosc would be recognized in some form within the official Stalinist trade unions in return for its support to this law. In other words, Solidarnosc wouldn't be legalized at all. Forfeiting its independence from the regime, it would be dealt a powerful blow. In the article printed below, Polish author and activist Zbigniew Kowalewski discusses the meaning of the August 1988 strike wave in Poland and the dangers facing Solidarnose in the negotiations with the Polish regime.

The article appeared in the Sept. 7-13, 1988, issue of Rouge, the weekly newspaper of the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire, the French section of the Fourth International. It has been translated by Socialist Action.

On Sept. 1, 1988, close to 3000 young workers from the Lenin shipyard marched in the streets of Gdansk. In this manner, they concluded their 10-day sit-down strike. "There is no freedom without Solidarnos," they chanted, taking up the demand they had raised when they occupied the shipyard in May 1988. This demand was raised by strikers throughout Poland Their numbers were three or four times greater than on May 10. In May, they had been the last in the country to end their strike. This time, they were the ones to call on the other strikers, who were still holding out, to go back to work. But their call was issued half-heartedly and with great bitterness.

Many among the marchers spoke of betrayal on the part of their leadership. Lech Walesa encountered serious difficulties when he sought to impose his return-towork order on the strike committee and, later, on the mass of strikers, most of whom were 20 years younger than him. It took him a number of days to convince the obstinate militant strikers of Jastrzebie and Szczecin to end their strike.

On Aug. 31, the anniversary of the historic Gdansk Agreements, the bureaucratic regime had agreed to meet and discuss with Walesa. He who had long been depicted as the "ex-leader of the ex-union Solidarnos" and a "private citizen," he who was insulted every day by the regime, was suddenly recognized as a valid go-between. Walesa's sudden recognition was not due solely to the importance of the August 1988 strike movement. What the bureaucracy fears, in reality, is a wave of future strikes that could result in the dynamic of a general strike.

The degree of decomposition of the regime is already such that future-struggles are sure to be on the horizon. After the recent strikes and student demonstrations, the state apparatus and the ruling Polish Unified Workers Party (PUWP) have been gripped by a feeling of powerlessness. The impression is that the bureaucracy is increasingly unable to govern the country. The new strike wave only confirmed the predictions of the most pessimistic bureaucrats who had to admit publicly that they saw no end in sight to the "vicious circle" of strife.

The king has no clothes. Gen. Kiszczak—the chief of police and one of the main architects of the military crackdown of December 1981—has now concentrated in his hands all the instruments of repression ... and of political initiative. It is he, the man responsible for deciding when the workers shall be crushed, who has been chosen by the central committee of the PUWP to meet with public enemy No. 1, the electrician from Gdansk, Lech Walesa.

Walesa had set forth two conditions for such a meeting to take place. He wanted to be met not as a simple citizen but as the president of Solidarnosc, and he wanted to discuss the legalization of the trade union.

No commitments Things, however, did not proceed as Walesa had hoped. In the official communiqué, issued at the conclusion of their meeting, there was no mention made of the roles or titles of the two negotiators. Gen. Kiszczak, it was stated, met with Lech Walesa; it was not the Minister of the Interior who had met with the president of Solidarnosc. Worse still, no commitment was made by the bureaucracy to even promise future negotiations to legalize Solidarnosc. The third witness at this meeting, the Catholic Church, had to publicly acknowledge this fact.

In the end, Walesa returned to Gdansk against all evidence to the contrary, that he had opened a path toward negotiations. His longstanding hope is that the bureaucracy will agree to discuss once again with Solidarnosc-or rather with him "as one Pole meeting with another," to use Walesa's favorite expression.

In the meantime, Kiszczak obtained the only thing he wanted from the meeting: He got Walesa to call off the strikes. His other objective was to derail the young generation of radical rebels who are yearning today to smash the system of bureaucratic rule and oppression. It was this generation that took the lead in the strike protests and that has a support network in the universities.

Still, even though the radicalizing youth have joined the ranks of the anti-authoritarian movements such as Liberty and Peace or the fledgling Polish Socialist Party (PPS), they still do not have a leadership that can match their degree of combativity and determination. And the void created by this lack of leadership is becoming alarming.

There is one simple but cruel lesson, even though it is a lesson that is often forgotten: A negotiator should only discuss the masses—as occurred in Gdansk in August 1980.

A subsitute, such as the Catholic Church, is worth what all substitutes for workers' democracy are worth: Nothing. From his meeting, Walesa did not even obtain a pledge from the authorities that no striker would be persecuted or fired. All that he got was a vague commitment from the Catholic hierarchy to guarantee the safety of the workers.

Prior to the negotiations with Walesa, in the middle of the strike wave, the Catholic Church had demanded that the regime reestablish trade-union pluralism and that it respect the dignity of the workers. Apparently, the Church got the word from the Vatican that its prolonged conciliatory attitude toward the regime was responsible for the loss of its prestige and influence among the Polish masses. Hence, with this new approach, the Church has come out reinforced from the recent strike wave. It will undoubtedly attempt to use this authority for its own interests, which are not the interests of the independent workers' Dangers of a pact But the dangers are not limited to this. The "moderate" wing of the anti-bureauKowalewsl Boston:

Thurs., Oct. 15, 1 p.m., Suffolk Univ. Rm. to be announced Sun., Oct. 16, 7:30 p.m., Old Cambridge Baptist Church, 1151 Mass. Ave, Cambridge. $3. Mon., Oct. 17, 1:30 p.m.

Univ. of Mass. Harbor Campus, Video Screening Rm, Wheatley (For info., call 617-497-0230)

Detroit:

Wed., Oct. 19, 7 p.m., Wayne State Univ., Student Center Bldg., Rm Hilberry A.

Cincinnati:

Thurs., Oct. 20, 7 p.m., Univ. Cincinnati, 502 Swift Hall Fri., Oct. 21, 11 a.m., U. of C. 425 T.U.C. (call 513-272-2596)

Cleveland:

Sat., Oct. 22, 7:30 p.m.

Cleve. State Univ.

Rm. to be announced.

Youngstown:

Sun., Oct. 23, 7 p.m.

International Organization of Odd Fellows Hall, 14 South Main St., Hubbard, Ohio. (For Ohio info., 216-429-2167)

cratic opposition is calling for a "pact" with the regime "to end the crisis"-a strategy in direct opposition to a strategy of mass struggle.

The "moderates," according to Adam Michnik, one of this wing's representatives, are proposing something akin to the Moncloa Pact in Spain [between the unions and the capitalists], but in its Polish version. This pact would permit the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to move forward in implementing their objectives in Poland.

For those who are aware of the disastrous effects of the Moncloa Pact on the Spanish the dictator who never was." U.S. tour schedule Chicago:

Tues., Oct. 25, 7:30 p.m. U.E. Hall, 37 S. Ashland.

Donation: $3.

Minnea./St. Paul:

For info. on Oct. 26-28 meetin in this area, call 612-430-147€ Kansas City:

Mon.,Oct. 31, 9:40 a.m.

Penn Valley Community College, K.C., Missouri.

Campus Center, Rm. 503.

Mon., Oct. 31, 1:30 p.m.

Johnson County Community College, Rm G.B. 137, Overland Park, Kansas. (For info. on other meetings, call 913-384-6528.)

Los Angeles:

For info. on Nov. 1-4 meetings in this area call 213-250-4608.

San Francisco:

Sat., Nov. 5, 3 p.m. "Struggle For Socialist Democracy in Poland and the Soviet Union." Lecture and film showing of "Ten days that shook the World.* 3435 Army, Rm. 308. Donation: $5 ($8 includes dinner)

workers, no further explanation is needed. This would mean that "experts" and "advisers" would take charge of the situation against the workers.

The National Executive Committee of Solidarnosc (TKK) has been paralyzed by this "pact" proposal. In fact, the TKK has been noticeably absent from the recent struggles. Its passivity is unmistakable. In the best of cases, it has served to register the sentiment for struggles which have taken place independently of them. But everything indicates that the Polish working class and youth will not let themselves be demobilized and tamed.

the revolutionary San Francisco (Ctd.) Mon., Nov. 7, 10 a.m.

Humanities Rm. 248, S.F.S.U. Wed., Nov. 9, 12 noon, Stephens Rm. 422 U.C. Berkeley. (For more info. on S.F. meeting call 415-821-0458.)

Baltimore:

Thurs., Nov. 10, 7 p.m.

Towson State University (For info., call 301-296-3391)

New York:

Fri., Nov. 11, 7:30 p.m.

Location to be announced. (For more info. on Nov. 11-14 meetings in New York area, call 718-499-5961.)

Since April 1988, they have been in a state of upheaval.

Next door, in the land of the "Big Brother," the bureaucratic perestroika "reforms" have not yet provoked a mass reaction from the soviet workers. But the oppressed nationalities are beginning to raise their heads in a number of soviet republics. And if the demand of trade union pluralism—of independent unionism— becomes anchored in the struggles of the oppressed nationalities, this could unleash a dynamic which would have immense repercussions in Poland and provide a new impetus for struggle by Solidarosc.

On the eve of his death in 1924, Lenin