Gains in Gdansk

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The publication of the full agreement as signed by both the Central Strike Committee in Gdansk and the Polish government makes possible a much closer analysis.

It is at once clear that while. major gains have been made by the strikers, the bureaucracy is seeking means to manoeuvre in order to limit these gains and later eradicate them altogether.

Yet the continued militancy of growing sections of Polish workers have already cut off one line of attack by the bureaucrats-which was to attempt to restrict the new independent unions to specific geographical areas around the Baltic ports.

Conceded

The agreement specifically concedes the right to form independent unions:

"It is considered useful to establish new self-governing trade unions to be an authentic representative of the working class."

These, it is conceded, will be established by the Central Strike Committee. This is important because in Gierek's- first offer the elections would have been organised by the state-run official unions-as in the case of the elections that followed the 1970 strikes.

Now the strike committees can choose whether to become "the founding committees of the new self-governing unions" or to operate as workers' councils or committees.

The right to strike is guaranteed-as it was for a short period after the • struggles of 1956.

But the chief restriction on the new unions is the subject matter they are to be allowed to deal with. The agreement specifically states that the unions "will not play the role oi a political party"

"The new trade unions should have real possibilities for publicly giving their opinion on key decisions determining the living conditions of working people.

"The principles of distributing the national income for consumption and accumulation, the distribution of the social consumption fund for various purposes (health protection, education, culture), the basic principles of remuneration and wage policies, and particularly the principle of automatic wage correction in conditions of inflation, long term economic plans, investment and prices policies.

To discuss these topics the unions will •OW$ have publications.

But it is clear that future struggles will take place both over action on such questions, and over the attempt by the bureaucracy to limit the political development of the workers in their new organisations.

Gone Beyond Indeed workers have already gone well beyond these restrictions by having displaced Gierek and many other bureaucrats, by fighting on for further changes in management and in government, and by having, for the first time in a Stalinist state, forced the release of political prisoners by mass strike action.

The agreement safeguards the interests of the bureaucracy when it declares that "Censorship should protect the interests of the state" and specifically of its "economic secrets" . And the only unambiguous paragraphs conceding access to the media are in relation to the Church.

But another clause suggests that the matter will by no means rest there, since it concedes that:

The necessity was stressed full respect for the freedon of expression of convictions in public and professional life."

The Central Strike Committee shows its political strength in the demands it has incorporated into the agreement to benefit the poorer peasants.

Clauses relating to access to equipment and ensuring profitable production for poor peasants are included.

Alliance

While there is of course a danger that rich peasants could emerge as the basis of a restorationist movement seeking to overturn nationalised property in Poland, the danger would be far greater if the workers do not seek to establish a firm alliance with the poorest layers of peasants, offering them a way forward against the Stalinist Much of the agreement focusses on economic demands, some of which, as in the case of pensions, go much further than simple economic concessions.

The strikers have extracted a pledge, for instance, "ensuring"

an adequate number of places will be provided at creches and kindergartens "for children of working women' Other demands relate to improved housing, a shorter working week and more holidays.

While the Tory press in general supports the settlement and the extension of new loans to prop up the tottering Polish bureaucracy, the capitalists have pointed out that the only way the economic concessions can be paid for is through increases in productivity.

Such a "solution" tacitly accepts the continuation of bureaucratic control and mismanagement in Poland, and the continued isolation of Poland and the deformed and degenerated workers states from the advanced capitalist economies. . But this is also the starting point of the Gdansk agreement. The central strike committee ironically joins with the bureaucracy in a final plea for greater effort by the working class;

MKS [Central Strike Committee] appeals to workers affiliated to it to proceed after the end of the strike with actions to increase productivity, conserve materials and energy, and a sense of discipline at every workplace, co-operating to this effect with the managements of enterprises, work establishments and institutions. Women shipyard workers in Gdansk