'Workers will react to capitalist appropriation of the economy'
1989 1989-11Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 14 →
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'Round-table agreements are a threat; new Solidarnose congress is needed' ..58 Jozef Pinior is a central leader of the Polish Socialist Party-Democratic Revolution.
"Political wisdom has led the bureaucracy to look for an agreement with the Church and the opposition. Their strategy is transparent. It involves organizing the transition from totalitarianism to an authoritarian regime and an anti-working class economic reform.
"The authoritarian regime was put into place by the round-table agreements. It consists of a president with unlimited powers [Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski], 35 percent democracy [a reference to the voting restrictions in the recent elections]-and complete control by the nomenklatura over the army, the police, and the means of mass information with which to maintain themselves in Andrzej Slowik is a central leader of Solidarnosc in the Lodz region.
"A year ago, the KKW, Walesa's personal working group, decided that it was time to ask for the registration of new trade unions. We opposed this. Solidarnosc exists. The authorities are not entitled to disband it.
"There is no need for any reregistration. We Pamphlet from Walnut Publishing POLAND:
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"The Walesa opposition has agreed to support this process toward the embourgeoisement of the nomenklatura. These reforms are supposed to make the economy more dynamic. In fact, they are aimed at providing the world with cheap labor and dooming the youth and the majority of the workers to destitution. This was the basis of the round-table discussion.
"The 'Magdalenka opponents' [Walesa and his supporters who negotiated the round-table agreements at the Magdalenka Palace] are flooding the country with speeches about the need for responsibility. They are pressing the people to legitimize the very same people who instituted martial law and broke Solidarnosc.
"Today the legendary figure of the Polish workers is traveling through the country calling on the workers not to take strike action. He is not ashamed to ridicule all opposition members who do not agree with him.
"Solidarnosc, the movement in which the oppressed put all their hopes, is transforming itself into perestroika. Sooner or later this will end up in a rebellion of Solidarnosc's grass-roots....
"The nomenklatura does not have any program to develop the productive forces capable of satisfying the social needs of the population-and it is stupid to think that the workers will not react to the capitalist appropriation of the means of production by the ruling elite." (Informations Ouvrieres, May 10-17, 1989.) should have been given back our original registration, that's all. What we want is the relegalization of Solidarnose on the basis of its original statutes....
"Not a single trade union in the world can accept a decrease in living standards. That is why we demand that wages be indexed to prices. Neither can we accept the liquidation of Social Security in any form. There is no way we can accept an increase in the number of working hours per week. And we cannot tolerate unemployment being used as an economic tool of the government. Such a position is unacceptable....
"We see these round-table agreements as a threat. We are afraid that the worst-off will be the hardest hit.
"We think that the segment of our tradeunion leadership that negotiated the agreements was not ready for the discussion. There were no preparatory meetings in the factories or in the regions where the issues on the table could be freely discussed by the workers.
"We will be fighting for a new congress of Solidarnosc to straighten out this situation. (Informations Ouvrieres, May 3-10, 1989.)