Polish strikers demand END BUREAUCRATS' PRIVILEGES

Scan page 1

VILLEULL. LILL VOLGUREDILT all on collis ur ollice vul culay is a starting pout umon congress aiso comes out But the more advanced the ment of Workers Councils in But that was nearly ten years for today's battles.

For Political Revolution! forces and party officials.

Alongside these demands are calls for:

*release of all political prisoners.

*reinstatement ised workers.

*access to the mass media and freedom of the press.

*publication of full information on the social and economic situation-effectively 'opening the books' of the bureaucracy.

And, as well as demanding independent trade unions, workers are already in the process of building them on a local and national level.

In Lublin for instance, the railway workers who were among the first to strike on wages are now in the process of electing a new Workers' Council.

But it is in the shipyards that events have been the most advanced. Negotiations between unofficial leaders and the management were broadcast over loudspeakers to the assembled workforce. 10,000 workers occupied the yards overnight as townspeople supplied them with food.

Concessions In attempts to head off the strike wave, the Polish bureaucracy has given concessions on wages. But the more the working class feels its power, the more it seeks to make its gains permanent.

Compromises on wages will not end the pent up hostility that flows from years of Stalinist bureaucratic repression. As this militancy comes to the surface, the movement of the working class can only be defeated by the bureaucracy adopting a policy of confrontation.

As we go to press, there are reports that phones of militants are being cut off and some oppositionists placed under house arrest.

Polish workers are reported to be consciously trying to avoid a Soviet intervention, and refraining from the kind of riots of 1956 and 1970-in which troops were hanged by workers and CP offices burned-which might prompt military intervention.

Rut the more advanced the IT MAD AT AT NO HISE movement becomes, the more determined the bureaucracy will be to break it.

Despite workers' attempts to avoid confrontation, the fact that they are seeking permanent changes makes a clash inevitable.

Yet Polish workers know from their long history of struggles against their Stalinist rulers that every gain can be taken away if demands are limited to reforms that stop short of the political overthrow of the bureaucracy.

In the aftermath of earlier struggles, even concessions as far-reaching as the establishmont nf Workare Canneile in 1956 have been subsequently destroyed by the bureaucracy.

At the end of their strike in January 1971, the Gdansk workers even forced Party leader Edward. Gierek to address a mass meeting, at which he made a number of promises.

-No change He assured those workers who complained that Party leaders like himself were irremovable that he had only 2-3 years to go, and that the Party would consider imposing a limitation on terms of office.

But that was nearly ten years ago: none of the promised changes have occured.

Gierek also pledged that he would re-constitute " elected bodies. But the concessions on this score were en incionificant DUAN VEN DU MISHMIC that the official trade unions in the shipyards have been brushed aside by strikers and played no part in negotiations.

It is no accident therefore that the shipyard workers of Gdansk are now the most politically developed, and the greatest threat to the bureaucracy. Their record of struggle and experience of fighting the bureaucracy is a starting point for tadar'o hattlaa

ROODOO

The shipyard workers struck last Thursday, not over wages, but against the victimisation of a militant who had been a leader of the 1970 strike movement. One of their demands (which they have won) was the reinstatement of Anna Walentynowicz.

Defiance The decision now by the 200 strong strike committee to defy bureaucratic attempts to isolate the strikes by forming an independent "All Poland Trade Union Congress" also comes out of those experiences of 1970- of thana aunanionna af 1070 The formation of such a mass, unofficial body is a bigger challenge to the bureaucracy than any number of one-off riots.

As we go to press reports indicate that the strike action is escalating throughout the Baltic region, and the joint committee, the MKS has already announced that:

"Once the strike has ended the MKS will not dissolve itself but continue the realisation of the demands and organise free trade unions"

The fact is that the bureaucracy cannot co-exist with such an independent body-especially if it establishes itself as a national movement.

The choice for the Stalinists is not easy. One option is to play along for a while with the new committee in the hope of taking it over by corrupting its In 1956, Gomulka, representing the Polish national bureaucracy, came to power on the back of such a mass movement of workers-only to snatch workers' gains back from them. It was the left Stalinist Gomulka who ended collective farms and handed the land over to the present 3 million peasant farmers-a force for conservatism.

And it was Gomulka who began drawing the massive loans from Western bankers that have now saddled the Polish economy with £8,500 million in debts, as well as making agreements with the Catholic church.

By 1970 Gomulka had dropped the 'left' facade-and sent in troops to repress the Gdansk strikers. But the resistance became more widespread -and a section of the army refused to move.

At this point Gierek stepped in. Gomulka was ousted-and Gierek declared that he had always opposed his policies.

But as soon as the left' talking Gierek had got the strikers back to work, the promised concessions were withdrawn.

Continued p.2

Scan page 2

INTERNATIONAL IST PRESS, Wednesday 20 August 1980

----- pull-quotes -----

INDEPENDENT UNIONS NOW