PSP-DR calls for election boycott

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Socialist Action pamphlet!

SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1989 13 sociologists at Warsaw University reveal that within the working class, after 1984, one could observe a precipitous lowering of illusions in the market economy. The explanation for this turn of events is simple. Growing sectors of the working class were already experiencing the social effects of market reforms.

In November 1987, this tendency expressed itself in a surprising manner. The Jaruzelski leadership organized a national referendum to give legitimacy to its economic reforms. More than 60 percent of Polish citizens boycotted the referendum or went out to vote "no."

But Walesa and his followers had decided to continue on their own path. In order to clear the way, they proceeded more and more openly toward a purge of the national and regional leaderships and staffs of Solidarity.

The list of top trade-union leaders who have been fired because they didn't meekly follow the Walesa line is quite lengthy. Andrzej Gwiazda and Anna Walentynowicz in Gdansk head it up. Among others are Marian Jurczyk in Szczecin, Seweryn Jaworski in Warsaw, and the entire historic team of Lodz, headed State bodies are revamped The accord signed on April 5 in the Magdalenka Palace is very broad. Its complete text is around 200 pages. The regime has accepted, with many reservations, the limited measures of social protection of the workers proposed by the Solidarity leadership.

But the sliding scale of wages (a major demand of the Polish workers) was not defended by the Solidarity delegation. Instead, In its leaflet for May Day 1989, the Polish Socialist Party-Democratic Revolution explained its attitude toward the new elections provided for in the roundtable agreement. The following are excerpts from the leaflet.

Since the establishment of the state framework of the People's Republic, the elections to parliament and the National Councils have served to legitimize the Communist Party's [Polish United Workers Party, or PUWP] monopoly of power....

As a result of the accords at the roundtable, some opposition groups will be participating in the coming elections. They have agreed to do this, despite the fact that the function of the elections has remained the same. The opposition's role will be to help the Communists' regime acquire a new legitimacy. The function of the new parliamentary groups, which will be kept to a minority of 35 percent, will be even more limited because their members, for obvious reasons, will represent a range of views, while the so-called Coalition [the PUWP and its satellites] will vote as a bloc on the important questions.

The Polish Socialist Party-Democratic Revolution calls for boycotting the elections to the Diet and the Senate for the following reasons:

1. You cannot have democracy by percentages. Either it exists, and in that case we elect a Diet that represents us, or it does not, and in that case the only response is a boycott. Thirty-five percent opposition in the Diet is enough to legitimize the electoral farce but too little to influence the fate of the country.

2. The creation of a Senate whose powers are too limited and too poorly defined will not change the parliamentary relationship of forces.... Instead of a Senate, we demand a return to the program of the Self-Managed Republic and the creation of a Selfwin an introduction and artem by Cort Finamoro represent the workers' interests. 3. The establishment of the office of president guarantees the continuity of the present system. The president will be elected by the parliament controlled by the PZPR [the ruling PUWP] and not the voters. This institution makes it possible to make arbitrary decisions such as dissolving parliament, imposing martial law, and changing laws. The struggle for free elections continues! Warsaw, April 10, 1989, General Council of the PPS-RD pamphlet "Poland: Solidarnosc and the fight for workers' democracy"

By Zbigniew Kowalewski, with an introduction and article by Carl Finamore This 52-page pamphlet contains an abridged translation of three chapters from Kowalewski's 1985 book, "Give Us Back Our Factories: Solidarnos and the Struggle for Workers' Self-Management in Poland," as well as three articles by Kowalewski on the meaning of the current events in Poland Price: $1.50. (Please send additional 65 cents for postage.)

and for list of all 17 Socialist Action pamphlets, 3435 Army St., Rm. 308, SF, CA 94110

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POLAND: The fight for workers' democíacy