Polish miners on strike

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SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 2015 11 C halt. Strike and protest action in the oal mining in Poland has ground to a entire industry was scheduled to begin on Feb. 2. This follows a decision by the Inter-Union Protest and Strike Commit­ tee of the Silesian-Zaglembian region to wage a sympathy strike with miners from Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa—the largest metallurgical coal producer in the European Union.

The workers are protesting plans to scrap some social benefits, as well as the dismissal of union leaders, according to a statement on the union’s website.

Over 2000 miners of the Silesian coal basin (southern Poland) went on strike in January—with tactics including sit-ins and hunger strikes—in response to the governmental decision to close down four mines at the state-owned company Kompania Weglowa. This is the EU’s larg­ est coal-mining group overall, with a production capacity of 34 million tons of coal. It consists of 14 mines and employs ... Boston (continued from page 10: “The struggle to desegregate Boston’s public schools”)

from the first day of school. Angry white mobs did not throw rocks and bottles at the yellow paint of the school buses;

they were aiming for the Black skin of the students huddled fearfully inside.

Violence was so intense that on the opening days of school in 1974, only a small number of Black students actual­ ly dared to board the buses and attend school. At South Boston High, white mobs shouted “Niggers, go home!” and threw bottles and rocks. Several stu­ dents were injured. A metal detector was installed by the school’s doors, and the state police were assigned inside the schools to ensure student safety.

In fact, liberal white officials were also not safe. Judge Garrity received so many credible death threats that fed­ eral marshals were assigned as protec­ tion around his suburban home. In an anti-busing demonstration of several thousand held on City Plaza before the start of the 1974 school year, a figure of Garrity was burned in effigy.

Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy faced crowds so hostile and aggres­ sive that he was physically attacked in public. Kennedy appeared at the City Plaza demonstration, where he had not been invited, and tried to speak from the platform. Rally organizers belliger­ ently refused and prevented him from approaching the microphone. Leaving the podium exposed him to the angry crowd, who turned on him viciously.

Senator Kennedy fled into the John F.

Kennedy Building for safety. In his au­ tobiography, “True Compass,” the sena­ tor recalls that, confronted by “a fullfledged mob,” he “turned resolutely and strode toward the doors” (p. 349).

... Malcolm (continued from page 12: “Malcolm X’s message to young people today”) completed without comment or com­ plaint but with a pasted-on smile and a show of gratitude.

Church demanded you follow doctrine or else bear the consequence of unimagi­ nable suffering for all of eternity. The Army told you to follow orders and be prepared to kill “gooks” on command. Politicians said the government deserved your unswerving loyalty and trust. The president told the “silent majority” to pledge allegiance.

Good Americans listened and obeyed. In his memoir, Professor Mark Edmundson vividly recalls a scene from his adoles­ cence about learning the right lessons: “My father and I were alone, watching television, the eleven o’clock news. … War and protests were on the box. We were silent through the combat footage. … Then came the other kids. The Harvard over 50,000 workers, accounting for half of all workers in the country’s mining sector.

The strike started with a walk-out on Jan. 7. After several days, Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz reached a “restructuring” deal with the unions at Kompania We­ glowa, but the strike continued to spread to other mining companies.

Portions of a Facebook report by “Lewi­ ca,” dated Jan. 15, follow:

“Currently, miners working in the pits owned by other big mining groups (Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa and Kato­ wicki Holding Węglowy) are joining the strike, while Silesian municipalities are petitioning the national government in defense of workplaces essential to the so­ cial well-being of the region.

“Right now, all 14 sites are on strike, (Left) 1975: Racist slogans during busing struggle in Charlestown, Mass.

While Kennedy continued verbally to support the court order for desegre­ gation, in practice he submitted to the white mobs—his electoral base—and stopped speaking out in favor of busing.

This position actually placed Kennedy to the left of the presidential candidates in 1976, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, who took anti-busing stands.

In a predominantly Roman Catholic Boston, the Church learned something from these organized outbursts of big­ otry and remained silent, playing no positive role whatsoever, other than issuing some mild statements against violence. Unofficially, some Catholic priests joined with anti-busing demon­ strators and gave them the semblance of Church blessings.

Commentators typically dismiss the Boston desegregation struggle as a foolish, ill-conceived adventure in so­ cial engineering that was doomed from the start. The possibility of failure was quite real, especially in a city where the minority community was too small and isolated to wield any political clout.

But today’s popular wisdom glosses over the difficult reality. Boston’s Black community confronted a stark choice:

fight for racial equality and improved educational opportunity for its chil­ dren, or acquiesce to on-going discrimi­ nation and disadvantage for decades to come.

The Boston desegregation effort fi­ nally did not succeed. White families who had boycotted the public schools ultimately abandoned them, with many whites transferring to parochial schools or leaving the city entirely. A school sys­ tem that was 68% white in 1970 be­ came 14% white in 2012. An integrated school system could not exist when types made their way onto the shadowy screen … with their posters and NVA flags and their chants….

“My father went apoplectic. He fell into a fury. His face turned blood red. He snorted from out his great misshapen nose. They were spoiled brats. Lazy! Mo­ rons! He cried out: ‘Get back home. Get home and do what you’re told. Do what YOU ARE TOLD!’

“That last Do what you are told, was a standing disciplinary slogan in our house. We heard it often”(Edmundson, Teacher, pp. 225- 226).

It’s also a scene that must have been played out all across the country as par­ ents tried to raise “good kids.” The rules were not complicated. Keep your head down, follow orders, go along to get along, and, above all, do what you are told and ask no questions. That was the path­ way to success in America.

In 2015, if the powers that be had their way, life would be pretty much the same. Obedience without question is still the watchword. The government still de­ with miners protesting underground. Other forms of protests include hun­ ger strikes and railway blockades. Over 10,000 people, both miners and ordinary citizens, protested in Bytom on Tuesday.

“The city is struggling to save the last of its mines. The unemployment rate in Bytom is reaching 21%, as a result of the 1990s “restructuring” of the coal sector.

“Leaders of the miners’ unions declared that if an agreement is not reached with the unionists by Jan. 20, miners would be joined on strike by workers from the railway, energy, and postal sectors. ... The opinion polls show that the miners’ strike is backed by 68.5% of Poles.

“The closure of the four mines [at Kom­ pania Weglowa] will result in the loss of 5000 jobs in the region where the coal industry is the largest employer, with a most of the students were racial and ethnic minorities. The Boston School Committee officially ended the desegre­ gation program in 1999.

Nonetheless, the cause of desegrega­ tion and the fight for it were worthy and essential ones. The culture and prac­ tices of white racism that ruled Boston had to be exposed and challenged; the tradition of “separate but equal” had to be broken. That much was accom­ plished.

Much more remains to be done, not only in Boston. In a country where resegregation has re-emerged in every major city, the struggle for racial equal­ ity has been losing ground.

If Black lives matter, then education matters. Black families have received the worst quality education in Amer­ ica and have received the fewest edu­ cational opportunities. Black people are several times overrepresented in prison compared to their percentage in the general population. While there mands unswerving loyalty and trust, trimming civil rights, spying on you for your own good. Wars are launched as lies smooth the way, and when the first lie is exposed another lie takes its place. No weapons of mass destruction in Sad­ dam’s arsenal? Okay, then, we’re bringing freedom to the grateful Iraqi people, and don’t look at the dead bodies piling up.

Once again, by act of Congress, the army is recruiting in public schools where stan­ dardized tests can make or break your life. Answer the right way, maybe you go to college. Answer wrong, well, have you thought about enlisting, son? The mes­ sage that youth are least likely to hear is the imperative to “think for yourself.”

But the people in charge don’t always have their way—not completely, not all the time. What is different today, com­ pared to 50 years ago, is that more youth speak up, ask questions, and are willing to fight for their beliefs. Whether they know it or not, they are living in the spirit of Malcolm X.

In the 1960s some young radicals of the decisive influence on the local economy....

“It seems quite obvious that the govern­ mental proposal [to close four mines] is a method of paving a way to the priva­ tization of mines in Brzeszcze, Bytom, Ruda Śląska, and Gliwice. Universal En­ ergy, a company owned by one of the wealthiest Polish businessmen, Krzysztof Domarecki, has already made an offer to buy three out of four pits that are to be closed. Another Polish millionaire, Jan Kulczyk, is making great profits import­ ing coal from Russia through a transshipment terminal in Braniewo, a bor­ dertown near Kaliningrad Oblast.

“Basically, it is the UK’s 1984 all over again. Silesia is one of the last remain­ ing embers of resistance, and the mining industry is probably the most unionized trade sector in Poland. We call for sup­ port with Polish miners who keep fight­ ing for their lives and the well-being of their communities that are threatened by the government plans.” n may well be more Blacks in college than in jail, too many minority students are shunted to community college and un­ derrepresented in competitive colleges.

The kind of movement that has taken to the streets against police brutality and social neglect shows the power of collective action needed to demand quality education for the most needy in America. The struggle for desegrega­ tion and education substantive educa­ tion, part of the on-going struggle for civil rights, is far from finished.

Remembering the Boston desegre­ gation battle 40 years later means to recall, especially, the young Black stu­ dents who demanded change, despite the powerful forces arrayed against them. They boarded buses knowing they would step off into hostile crowds hurling epithets, stones, and bottles. Any decent and honest account of that era must acknowledge these Black youth as heroes who can inspire young people in their own struggle today. n New Left took the writings of Mao Tse-Tung and turned them into simplistic slo­ gans suitable for all occasions. Malcolm X, a creative, restless thinker whose work was unfinished, does not deserve such a fate. His speeches can’t be reduced to a set of sound bytes. References to Mal­ colm’s words serve better as a starting point than a conclusion.

Malcolm is not a Black plaster saint, nor is he a relic of the civil rights era. He re­ mains a catalyst and an inspiration whose message is to continue the struggle for equality and freedom.

Malcolm X has not faded into the past for a simple reason: he is needed today.

Fortunately, young people still want to learn; they still search for meaning in the world, and still need teachers. They can hardly do better than discover the words and example of Malcolm X, who said, first, “think for yourself.” n A version of this article first appeared in the May 2005 issue of Socialist Action. It has been updated for the current issue.

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