New Polish gov't decrees austerity; U.S. steps up aid to avert uprising

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14 SOCIALIST ACTION NOVEMBER 1989 "Socialism as an economic theory is dead. Long live the free market," proclaimed Representative Donald E. Lukens (R-Ohio) after the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Oct. 19 to approve $550 million in aid to Poland aimed at supporting "democracy, private enterprise, and a free-market economy."

The House vote came less than two weeks after the new Polish government headed by Solidarnosc Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki announced the most sweeping pro-capitalist measures yet undertaken in Eastern Europe. According to Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz, the state will slash subsidies on basic consumer items and public services, large segments of state-owned industry will be reprivatized, credit will be tightened, interest rates will be allowed to rise, and wages will be frozen.

These measures were enacted at the insistence of the International Monetary Fund (IMIF), the watchdog organization of the major Western financial institutions. At the round-table agreements held earlier this year, Solidarnose leader Lech Walesa and his group of close advisers had agreed to support a threepronged plan of economic "reforms" as a condition for rescheduling payments on Poland's $39 billion debt to the imperialist banks. [See June 1989 and September 1989 issues of Socialist Action.] The first phase of these reforms was contained in Mazowiecki's October austerity package. The two subsequent phases of the reforms, to be implemented by 1991, call for the introduction of a stock market, an end to the monopoly on foreign trade, the generalization of bankruptcy laws, and the total "freeing" of prices and services. "To be blunt," stated the Oct. 19 issue of The Economist, "Poland has taken a major stride toward the reintroduction of capitalism."

Effects on Polish workers The effects of the government's economic measures were felt almost immediately. The price of cheese rose 100 percent in a matter of days, gas rose by 50 percent-and it is estimated that the price of coal (and therefore of electricity) will double by mid-November. In a country plagued by a 200 percent annual inflation rate, the price hikes—combined with the wage freeze—will have a devastating effect on the working class.

It is estimated, moreover, that up to one-third of the Polish workforce will be laid off within the next 18 months as a result of the plant closings contained in the "reform" package. While the government has provided a limited safety net for those who will lose their jobs, Solidarnosc economists acknowledge that as many as 2 million workers will have no unemployment insurance and no prospects of job retraining in the foreseeable future.

Pie in the sky Capitalist economists and government spokespersons in the United States have warned that "suffering is the first step toward reform"-that is, things will get worse for Polish workers before they get better. But at the end of the tunnel, these capitalist pundits insist, will be a land of milk and honey, with jobs and economic prosperity for all.

The promise of a better life ahead for the Polish workers once the pro-capitalist reforms are fully implemented is, of course, pie in the sky. The capitalists and their representatives in the IMF are aiming at turning Poland into a vast pool of cheap labor for imperialist investment. They are not concerned about economic development, nor are they interested in the general welfare of the Polish people.

De-industrialization and the conversion of Poland to the status of a semi-colonial, comprador nation is what the IMF and the capitalist West have in store for Poland.

At the behest of the IMF, major regions of Western Europe-where industries are also considered "unproductive" have already been turned into abandoned rust belts. Millions of workers have been thrown out of their jobs, swelling the ranks of the unemployed. With this immense reserve army of labor, the capitalists are pushing for the unions to accept wage cuts and greater "flexibility" in work rules.

The capitalist prescription for Poland's ailing economy is even more brutal. It entails dismantling the planned economy and reversing all the social gains of the Polish workers' state.

Hoping to avert civil war The first economic measures decreed by the new coalition government headed by Tadeusz Mazowiecki are providing Polish workers with a taste of things to come. Even Solidarnosc leader Lech Walesa, who was the man responsible for Solidarnosc's support to the pro-capitalist economic reforms contained in the round-table agreement, was forced to admit that the social cost of the government's austerity program was unbearable.

"If the price increases continue," Walesa said shortly after the price of gas shot up by 50 percent, "it is quite likely that we will be unable to contain the anger of the workers. In the long run this could unleash a civil war."

Aware that Poland's new austerity package could provoke a strike wave similar to the one that led to the formation of Solidarnosc in 1980, the Bush administration and the U.S. Congress have rushed to provide $300 million worth of food to get Poland through the winter. The additional aid is being earmarked for a six-month unemployment-compensation program.

It is unlikely, however, that this amount of aid will be sufficient to contain the anger of the workers. Walesa had publicly requested $10 billion in U.S. aid from George Bush— roughly 20 times the amount currently provided by the House of Representatives-to sweeten the transition toward capitalist restoration.

And even if Walesa's $10 billion request were met, this would only postpone the day of reckoning. The worldwide capitalist system is in its death agony. It has no progressive role to play anywhere in the world. It has no solutions to improve the well-being of the majority of the Polish people. Sooner or later, the Polish workers would be compelled to rise up against the penetration of capitalist exploitation, unemployment, and austerity.

How long the honeymoon?

The government headed by Tadeuzc Mazowiecki, the first government in the past 40 years not headed by a member of the Stalinist ruling party (the Polish United Workers Party, has aroused the hopes and expectations of the Polish people.

The limited, but not unimportant, measures of political democratization undertaken by the new government (reform of the penal code and the courts, liberalization of the press, and the new electoral laws) have been widely supported.

But the essential reins of political power remain lodged in the hands of the Polish bureaucratic caste. The all-powerful office of the presidency is in the hands of Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, the man who decreed martial law in December 1981. And the key ministries of Defense and Interior—as well as the policeremain under the strict control of the bureaucracy.

Jozef Pinior, a leader of the left-wing opposition organization, the Polish Socialist Party (Democratic Revolution), characterized the response of the Polish people to the Mazowiecki government as one of "cautious optimism."

"Everyone was pleased when Mazowiecki was chosen," Pinior stated, "but there has been no dancing in the streets. The streets are quiet; the demonstrations we see now are very small. Walesa should have been able to arrive at the Palace of Culture at the head of 200,000 people."

Pinior continued, "The establishment of the Mazowiecki government does not mean that the society has taken power.... I think Mazowiecki is in his honeymoon period. It will last a month at most. Then there will be another wave of strikes."

At the time Mazowiecki took office, Poland was experiencing the most extensive strike wave of the past two years. Over 100,000 road construction workers and post office workers were on strike for a month over pay. Wildcat strikes of railworkers had also broken out in many of the major industrial cities of the country.

But within a week after Mazowiecki took office, the strikes ended. The workers decided to give the new government a chance to improve their economic situation. They were also under intense pressure from Walesa and Mazowiecki, who called for a moratorium on strikes and denounced any remaining strikers as "provocateurs.

Opposition to Walesa's line With the announcement of the new austerity measures in mid-October, it can be expected that strikes and other forms of opposition to the coalition government will occur in the coming weeks and months.

This is all the more likely given that Walesa and his group of advisers do not speak for the majority of Solidarnose members— and even leaders—in their decision to form a coalition government with the Stalinist bureaucracy and in their decision to implement the IMF's austerity program.

The best militants and leaders in Solidarnos-people who oppose the pro-capitalist reforms to one degree or another—are already waging an internal fight within Solidarnosc against Walesa's policies and for the convening of an emergency Second National Congress of Solidarnosc. They are demanding that Solidarnosc's representatives in the government be accountable to the rank and file. [See accompanying story on the opposition currents within Solidarnosc.] One of the Polish opposition leaders with the best understanding of the threats to the workers' standard of living posed by the pro-capitalist reforms is Jozef Pinior, a central leader of the Polish Socialist Party-Democratic Revolution. In response to the decision to reprivatize much of Poland's nationalized industry, Pinior stated:

"More and more people will see that privatization is not the solution. There is now a free market in food, and only a couple of days ago the prices went up another 40 percent....

"We demand that Mazowiecki abolish the post-Stalinist system. We also want the workforce to control the economy through self-management committees.

"If there are strikes exclusively over pay, then we will support them. But we think they should turn into demands for control of production through self-management committees."

Pinior's views are sound. The challenge for the opposition currents within Solidarnose in the period ahead will be to offer a political perspective for the upcoming struggles along the lines raised by Pinior and his party. This will pave the way for the realization of the original goals of Solidarnosc-the creation of a society based on genuine institutions of workers' democracy.

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try. The capialis niting class in the Unied Marian Jurczy:

Soon after the Walesa wing of the Solidarnosc leadership agreed to conduct "roundtable" negotiations with the Polish Stalinists last spring, a big public debate broke out in Poland over the wisdom of these negotiations-and, later, over the outcome of the negotiations. Prominent leaders of Solidarnose began to raise their voices loudly in opposition to the policies put forward by erage in the mainstream media in this coun States, which owns and controls the media, would like us to believe that the entire population of Poland supports Walesa unconditicnally and is clamoring for a return to capitalism.

The ruling-class propaganda blitz to the effect that "Socialism is Dead" would be un-