Opposition to Walesa grows in Solidarnosc
1989 1989-11Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 14 →
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'Task Force was set up to fight for the interests of the workers' SOCIALIST ACTION NOVEMBER 1989 15 Walesa and his advisers.
The most prominent leaders of the fight against Walesa are Andrzej Gwiazda (former vice president of Solidarnosc), Marian Jurczyk (leader of Solidarnosc in the port city of Szczecin), Andrzej Slowik (leader of Solidarnosc in Lodz and Bydgoszc), and Jozef Pinior (the main leader of the Polish Socialist Party-Democratic Revolution).
The character and scope of the opposition to Walesa within the official structures of Solidarnose has received little-if any-covdermined if it became known that sizeable currents within Poland not only oppose the austerity package imposed by the IMF, but increasingly oppose the penetration of capitalism into Poland.
We are printing below excerpts of interviews and statements by these opposition leaders in which they evaluate the round-table agreements and the new Mazowiecki government. These excerpts are reprinted from the French socialist newsweekly Informations Ouvrieres.
Marian Jurczyk is a central leader of Solidarnosc in the port city of Szczecin.
"The purpose of our fight [against Walesa] is to defend the identity of our union. Whereas we are defending the heart and soul of Solidarnosc, Walesa and a small group of his close advisers registered a new trade-union formation on April 17, 1989.
"It was a totally new union both formally and legally speaking. Except for the name and logo of the union—and the president who was elected at the union's founding congress in 1980everything else is different....
"The statutes of the original Solidarnosc were thrown out the window; the founding program of Solidarnose was discarded. New officers of the union—people who were never elected by any official union body—were registered by the authorities. In many cities, parallel structures to those currently existing were set up by Walesa in agreement with the state and party authorities....
"The second reason for our opposition to Walesa concerns the contents of the roundtable agreements. During these agreements, for example, a clause was introduced that limits the right to strike. I do not know of Andrzej Gwiazda is a central leader of Solidarnosc in Gdansk who was elected vice president of the union at its founding congress in 1980.
"Since 1985, the KKW [the National Executive Commission consisting of people appointed by Walesa] has asserted in its press that it is necessary for the Polish people to accept a decrease in living standards so as to allow the reforms to go through.
"Such statements have been repeated on various occasions by Walesa himself. No member of the trade union is entitled to issue such statements....
"The group of Solidarnose members participating in this [round-table] discussion only represented a fraction of the trade union. They share Walesa's point of view and were appointed by him.... There was no Solidarnosc delegation to the round-table agreement.
"There have been attempts to convene the National Commission (KK) of Solidarnosc, which was democratically elected by the first Congress in 1980. But all of these attempts have been opposed by Walesa and his group.
"Twenty-two KK members in a 1986 pilgrimage of workers to Jasna Gora asked Walesa to convene the National Commission (KK). Walesa ignored their appeal. It is for this reason that all the members of the elected KK who were angered by Walesa and his group, 16 of them to be exact, decided to set up the Task Force. any genuine union that willingly agrees to renounce the right to strike. Such a union could not exist for long.
"We would like to help the Mazowiecki government, but I don't think his government will survive too long. The spiraling increase in prices will provoke a nationwide social explosion." (Informations Ouvrieres, Sept. 13-29, 1989.
"We have various points of view within the Task Force, but all members agree on the defense of the democratic principles and procedures. The founding trade-union congress adopted statutes. It is important for a trade union to respect its statutes....
"Solidarnosc was set up to defend the interests of the workers. This should be reaffirmed. All together, Polish workers only receive 5 percent of the riches they produce. In this context any strike is good. When the Polish workers receive 40 percent of the riches they produce, we can then discuss the validity of strikes.
"The Task Force is now in the process of elaborating a political orientation for the coming period. Not only are the living standards decreasing, but serious economic problems are developing.
"For example, according to the new economic law decreed on Jan. 1, 1989, the prime minister is entitled to turn bankrupt state firms over to private individuals. On this point, an independent economic analyst, Mrs. Jadwiga Staniskzkis, has asserted that through this law the party's functionaries are becoming the new owners of the companies.
"Indeed, it is very simple for these state functionaries to let a firm go bankrupt and then pass it on to private ownership-either directly to themselves or to one of their friends—without having to pay a cent. This has already been done in some sectors of the Lenin shipyards in Gdansk.
"What is actually needed is for the workers themselves to take over their firms and become owners and elect their managers. By this I mean a process of genuine socialization. Wages should be increased. The firms' profits should go directly to the workers. (Informations Ouvrieres, March 8-15, 1989.)
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