Solidarity with Jozef Pinior!

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Polish trotskyist Jozel Pinior, orga- of a professional blacklist. nizer of the Socialist Political Center Like many other Solidarnos leaders (SOP) in Wroclaw, Poland, is once again from the 1980-89 period, Jozef Pinior has having problems because of his political made a request to the Ministry of Justice, Pinior is the best known of the Polish overtumed and his record expunged. Trotskyist activists. In 1981, be was a This demand has been refused for his member of the presiding committee and Last conviction, which took place in 1988 treasurer of Solidarosc in the Lower dunng a massive strike wave. This bas Silesia region (Wroclaw). A member of provoked widespread indignation in the Regional Strike Committee (RKS) of Poland not only among trade unionists underground solidarnose from Dec. 13, but also among certain political forces 1981, he became president in October who support the present government as 1982, replacing his comrades W. well as in the leftwing parties of a StalinPrasyniuk and P. Bednarz, who had been ist orientation.

Between 1982 and 1987, he was a ed in Poland. Pinior's Polish co-thinkers member of the national leadership of sol- are asking for material support to pay the idarnosc (the underground 1KK and then legal costs for the four appeals that Jozef the public TRS). In 1987, be was a Pinior bas to make. This will cost about (PSP), Since 1990, he has organized the Polish Minister of Justice (with a copy As a result of his political activity- The letters/petitions should be sent to: mostly organizing strikes and solidarity Zbigniew DYKA, Minster of Justice, activities-Pinior was arrested and Ministerstwo Sprawiedliwosci, Al. Ujazimprisoned several times by the Stalinist dowskie, 00-950 Warszawa, SIcr. poczt., are considered as ordinary crimes because cowniczy Fundusz Przemyslowy, as we all know there are no "political Rekodzielnicza 16, 50-991 Wroclaw, Skr.

despite the change of regime in 1990, It (even modest ones) should be sent by is clear that his political opinions, which bank transfer to:

But it is above all his "criminal" record Poland, Account No: 389206-01020386that prevents him from gaining access to 017879-152-1.

and trade-union activity.

arrested in the meantime.

founding member and one of the main $5000.

leaders of the Polish Socialist Party Socialist Political Center.

authorities. All these arrests and convic- 33, Poland.

tons appear in his police record—-they prisoners'" in Poland.

A lawyer by training, Jozef Pinior has 07.

not been able to find stable employment he does not hide, are a factor in this.

...Byelorus rock (continued from previous page)

could not perform here for political reasons, he performed in America. He is a major figure, very popular here.

He was born there in a Byelorussian family. That is, his father was Ukrainian and his mother, Byelorussian.

SA: Are there folk elements in Byelorussian rock music today?

VI: Yes. Every group has them in differing degrees. I can think of one, for example, that played pure rock, but in Byelorussian, and the use of the Byelorussian language itself forced them to employ folk music intonations. I can think of another that uses arrangement of folk songs, and certain melodic patterns in their own compositions.

SA: Is there a clear difference between the Byelorussian rock music and Russian rock music scenes? In Wales, there is a clear difference between rock music in Welsh and English, because rock music in English is commercial; it is possible for groups to make a living by performing it. But rock music in Welsh is an idealistic endeavor, with a different sort of relationship between the performers and audience. Welsh rock musicians would be considered traitors if they sang in English.

VT: It is the same here. Take the Bonda and Kryama groups. They only sing in Russian at their rehearsals as a joke to reinforce the idea that they will never perform publicly in it. Byelorussian rock music developed quite independently. No local school of rock music in Russian ever developed in Byelorussia.

If anything, Byelorussian rock music developed under the influence of Polish rock music and Hungarian rock music. That is because first the Hungarians and then the Poles showed that it was possible to have national schools of rock music.

Among the first Byelorussian musicians, the Mroya ["Dream"], was not so much under the influence of Polish rock as under the influence of political organizations, unofficial organizations, such as "The Bell."

But the Bonda dno18 most of the tunctions for which his train ing is appropriate. Thus be is the victim asking that his trials and convictions be A broad democratic campaign has startLetters of protest should be sent to the to Pinior).

With a copy to: Jozef Pinior, c/o PraPoczt, 1442 Poland. Or fax (4871) 51 20 The financial solidarity contributions Jozef Pinior, Bank Zachodni, Wroclaw, by a different route, because Polish rock differs sharply from rock in English, which is also performed in Poland, Germany and so on, that is, from commercial rock. Polish rock in the Polish language has a flavor of its own. Byelorussian rock musicians began trying to do that too. And under the influence of national consciousness, they came to turn more to Byelorussian themes.

When we started writing about rock music, we wrote about ensembles in Moscow. We helped Russian rock music become popular here, in the sense that we broke the censorship against this type of music and helped it become known. But later we realized that we were spreading a foreign mass culture. It was foreign to us.

We looked for something of our own. We started to form a rock club among the musicians around us. They were Russian speaking. But a national consciousness had already ripened. And one of the tasks of the rock club was to develop Byelorussian music.

Some of the musicians recognized the need for Byelorussian music, but they said that they could not write lyrics in the language. "We can sing in Byelorussian, but we cannot compose in it. Give us lyrics in Byelorussian and we will sing them."

SA: Can it be said that there are two musical mass cultures in Byelorussian? In Ireland there were at the beginning of the present struggle. There was a rock music culture, linked to the international youth radicalization, and a traditional-music culture linked to the national movement. At the onset, the two schools were antagonistic, but after a time, to a considerable extent, they fused.

VT: In Ireland, there were clearer political differences. Here we had a totalitarian system. The difference was between what came from the state and what did not. The Byelorussian rock groups were not taken into the state structure. They couldn't make money from their performances.

They went to work in Siberia, where wages are higher in order to earn money to buy guitars. Here you had to work nearly a year to ear enough money to buy a guitar. They gave free concerts, because musicians outside the state structure were not allowed to charge. So, they were independent.