there is a real contradiction between the maintenance of democracy and the introduction of capitalism. His opinion, and his party's, the Democratic Union (DU) led by former prime minister Mazowiecki. is that it is nonetheless necessary to ensure that these opposites are united.
The main party of the right, which belones to the Belvedere camp' (the name of the presidential palace) and at least some leadig sectors of the libera. democratic Congress, are much more prachica.
According to them, if it seems that society does not support capitalist res toration and that it is not possible Oct. 12, 1991 No. 9 KOWALEWSKI discusses the threat of dictatorship in Poland. JACEK KURON recognises that "During his visit to the USA, Walesa asked the authorities what their reaction would be if a state of siege were installed in Poland" through democratic meansa dictatorship will have to be installed. And that is precisely what appears to be increasingly the case It would be an exaggeration to say (as that recentiy does the paper prose meetings in the factories resemble those on the eve of the Bolshevik revolution.
But Aleksander Hall, a leader of the DU, is right when he says:
We must look truth in the face: in Poland, socialism can still count on a real social base.socialist views are clearly part of the Solidarity movement, particularly the trade union... danger of a return to socialism will grow as property relations change, so. ial inequality deepens, business Increase unemployment and the state reduces its role às a protector. The dynamic of this conflict will develop inexorably! has not yet got beyond the phase of the ine process of capitalist restoration accumulation of capital, on the basis of the decomposition of the command economy. The dynamic and legitimacy of this process is running out of steam more rapidly than it establishes new relations of production.
The capitalist class is still very weak in fratricidalstruggles whicharetearing " ap luly, a political scandal blow up.
During his visit to the USA, Walesa ton would be if a state of siege were installed in Poland and power was taken over by a Council of National Security, before the economy and state institutions disintegrated.
Questioned on this subject, president Walesa confirmed that he would have to use force if social and political tension escalated into anarchy and major the workers and trades unionists of Solidarity, Walesa said that in Poland nothing was working any more because of the evil influence of the communist nomenklatura, because parliamentarianism, and be cause of the egoism and irresponsibility of the new elite.
Impasse
The people are suffering and risk ar explosion. How do we get out of thes impasse? Through democracy or axtatorship? Let the people decide. 1 a= president to carry out their will To x nik Solidarosc rer Valesa has decides = it necessary use drastic solutions. He has sie army divisions at his p:
The National Liberal Party, its traditional base has been in the intelligentsia, beral Farty has entered a prot has entered a protracted period of crisis, with a section of its to push aside the old guard, and adopt a programme like that of European Christian Democracy, in stead of the inward-looking nationalism of the old guard. Q. Does the privatisation programme push towards the restoration of capitalism? is there an alternative?
A. As 1 already said, the Salvation Front's original idea was that of 'market socialism', a system of national planning with state industry, co-operatives and a significant private sector. Soon after their election Eury an go by then and polly by the Americans that this was unaccep table They Insisted instead on a rapid process of privatisation and marketisation, and lock, stock and barrel abandonment of a socialised economy. It was made clear that no opening to the world economy was possible otherwise. These pressures led to the programme of ening pune suboile he IMF promised in return $1 billio in aid. But this money has not been Thatcher: Walesa's role model doesn't want to break the law, but he will if there is no other way out and the masses authorise it: Stop eless and bee cause if you don't, it's people who'll take you on.
Meanwhile, the Centre Pact is putting orward its programme as that of ar infinished social revolution threatened by an offensive on every front by the posthe mamet cos no menklaturay nomenklaturist societies', by the old bureaucracy which embedded in the state apparatus an is supposed lies in the Di Walesa didn't condemn the coup ir *e U'SSR until the day it was defeated.
- e establishment of a restorationist dicaship in the USSR would have made ny zux easier, particularly given that it Romanian workers need independant unions forthcoming, primarily because of the pressure of the USA.
The spontaneous direction of the programme now adopted is towards the creation of a new capitalist order. Romania has remained starved foreign capital. In the context of the catastrophic economic legacy of the Causescu dictatorship, one possible line of development was consolidating and extending its links with the Soviet Union, as a counter-balance to an opening to international capital. But this is becoming less viable crisis in the USSR.
Because of this some sort of 'historic compromise on the lines of the New Economic Policy in the Soviet Union after the revolution - but in a much less favourable international context - was indeed the only viWest able option But because of the blockade of Romania and the refusal of international capital to accept the National Salvation Front, such inger possible. The US is prepared t * Romania stew in its own juice unti the National Salvation Front is broken.
The experience of Romania, like that of other cast European countries, is that the greatest compromises with international capitalism are no guarantee getting aid, and a rational integration nto the world economy. would have given credence to the idea, outside the country if not inside, that the Russian empire had experienced an offensive by post-communist forces'.
The fiasco of the Moreow coup does not eliminate the danger of a coup in Warsaw. Political democracy is a power hu. brake on capitalist restoranon, and the restorationist policy is a powerful actor in the destruction of the young fragile democracies in easter Europe The working class needs democracy, the throat of restorationists of all shades The defence and democratic gains is vital for the defence of workers' immediate interests and for the construction of a socialist alterative.
movement in Romanla? But of unionist because of the 0. If there were organised with international capital, La compromise is no sticks broadening of Q. Is there an Independent union A. Details are difficult to come by. During the inital montas arter theover throw of Causescu, small independent unions did emerge, but they were mainbased orplyeraty so the independent.
Apparently some independent participated in the miners demonstrations against the governlett? revolutionary socialists in Romania how should they relate to the National Salvation Front? What programme would they advocate?
A. You can't answer a hypothetical question like that without knowing the Ircumstances of the emergence of such a grouping. It is impossible to imagine this kind of development without similar moves in the rest of castern Europe, and probably the revival of the Europe as a whole A real change in the objective situation facing Romania could only come of the old from a socialist left internationally hich had state power in one or severa ountries, or could exert sufficient pre sure on international capital to case the enormous pressure on Romania. So it's very difficult to advance a 'Romanian' socialist programme in isolation.
But in my view in the initial the only possible attitude would have been one of critical support for the Na tional Salvation Front government.
Even today, if the National Salvation front came under the kind of insurrec tionary attack which it faced last June. when the miners intervened to defend it, it would be the responsibility of inde pendent socialists to defend it.
The Romanian working class remains strong, based on mining and other extractive industries. This core of the working class were the first to fight back against the Ceaucescu dictatorship, in 1977. Whatever the restructuring of the economy, these industries and this working class will survive. There is a long struggle ahead. Q. So what are the prospects for such a renewal of the European A. The way East Germany was absorbed into the Federal Republic, with subsequent drive to destroy the traditions of the GDR, was a major blow not only to the living standards of the but also to left in Europe and internationally. woon hree years ago it seemed that the USSI night be able to interveni politics as a much more powerful and independent actor than has since been shown to be the case. The possibility of a German-Soviet core to the recomposition of world politics no longer exists.
In my opinion the form of the demise system in the USSR and easten Europe rept wents a major defeat for European socialism; this defeat exists ar an objective fact, of your attitude towards it.
It is now a question of working out the premises for a new begins l socialist politics on a European scale, preparing a refoundation. We can see in such forces as the Movement for Communist Refoundation in Italy, and in the similar types of division in Spanish Communist movement. Revolutionary socialist forces have to participate in that refoundation process in a non-sec tarian and non-dogmatic way, while keeping their fundamental principles.
No. 9 Oct. 12, 1991
JAPANISATION is now taking British industry by storm.
Spurred on by the hope of emulating the profitability of Japanese manufacturing giants, and longing for their submissive company unions, British employers are aping their management methods.
But despite the rhetoric of 'jobs for life' and 'equality between management and shopfloor', the reality is clear enough. Japanisation means no unions, speed-up and massive job cuts.
The japanisation offensive now hitting the British car industry has come not just from Japan (via Nissan, Toyota, Honda and others). but also via the USA. American car giants such as Ford and Chrysler introduced what has been dubbed'management by stress' during the Their workforce were given a simple choice - accept japanisation or face closure. Most accepted. And the proposals had a sugar coating - workers were promised respect, long term jobs, a say in their work. This won the active support of union leaders.
But workers soon found out what really lay at the centre of the Japanese management techBritish bosses, Japanese methods such pians. sentatives. work of shop stewards. the 1980s.
Features niques. Workers have to take part in 'constant Improvement - where the workers themselves participate in suggesting how jobs can be cut by loading more work on to each employee. And genuine trade unions have no place in Negotiations between management and unions are replaced by either a single union deal or by a 'council", where non-union workers have as much influence as union repreSunderland In the Nissan plant in Sunderland, where the engineering union AEU has agreed to a single union deal, the role of the unions has al. most been wiped out. And, as Tony Johnson explains below, Rover's proposals for its Cowley plant will massively weaken the traditionally strong manual workers' unions with theoir netIf these new threats are not understood and countered by the left, japanisation could begin to deal massive blows to the British labour movement, inflicting the kind of structural defeat that Thatcherism failed to impose in binding arbitration clause - an option that right-wing union officials are likely to jump at"
The procedure also includes an 'optional' binding arbitration clause - an option that likely to jump at. But as well as to weaken the trade stressing the "team' and 'conImprovement concepts ment methods 'All of us will be expected to participate Quality Action Teams, Suggestion Schemes. other activities to continuously pany performance the document states. will be a requirement for Teams will consider allalternative ways or sanstying rustomer demand', it s oes on Full Rexibility of labour is a theme running through the entire document. It makes clear
PERSONNEL
But what of the much-trumpeted 'progressive measures' such as the guaranteed job? employees who want to work for Rover should stay with There is in fact no guarantee, the company will, no doubt, be Пентотокот their 'obertive and be forced Cowley such objec Promise of jobs When the closure of the South Works at the plant was announced in 1988, workers were told, in similar words to those would be a job for those that wanted one.
Early this year, 350 manual workers were forced to go. Just as the New Deal was an-
and minister of labour, is no longer repeating his usual motto - more leading political figures are discussing the difficulty of introducing capitalism while workers have extensive rights to organise and fight back against privatisation. Here ZBIGNIEW
its pestical ly based ones are sin mo. es pointed enreate are gage
PSYCHOLOCICAL WARFARE "The procedure also includes an 'optional'