Polish workers form
A NEW current has been formed within the Polish underground socialist Opposition movement; Workers adopted a drait platform based on the concept bureaucratic revolution.
Copies of this platform and other documents of the Workers Opposition have been sent to the papers of the revolutionary left in Europe over the signature of Zbigniew Kowalewski. a former regional leader Solidarnose in the Lodz region.
Many readers of Socialist Viewpoint will recognise many of the positions argued by Workers Opposition as broadly similar to the Trotskyist conceptions of political revolution for the overthrow of Stalinist burecrucracies Eastern Europe and the defence of nationalised property relations through management.
Only the explict call for a revolutionary Marxist party to lead the struggle, and demands designed to mobilise organise the mass movement and combat the violent repression of the state machinery are missing from these initial draft texts, which mark a substantial political advance over the am.....
GENERAL
INFORMATION
IN THE spring of 1985, a new socio-political current started to form within the Polish social movement. The editorial boards of four underground journals set up a co-ordinating that took the name the Workers Opposition Press" (PPOR).
They published a draft progamme around which they are seeking to bring together those forces that have declared themselves in favour of an antibureaucratic revolution, waged by the working class and aimed at achieving the full liberation of the working class.
the has of an antithroughout workers
A. Kreute and biguous formulations of the
Solidarnose programme.
Further
Workers Opposition will be published in future issues of
| Socialist Viewpoint.
.. . ..
immediate demands and of organisation themselves.
committee
*Alliance of the PPOR: Front Robotniczy, Sprawa
Robotnicza,
Glosno,
Robotnick (Workers' Front, Workers working for are revolutionary left.
published excerpts trom the
Socialist Viewpoint No. 10 February 1985 p.25 new alliance
Can aDARS material from tradition
• •
•
The PPOR wants to contribute to the survival building and broadening the mass workers struggles around partial and selfthe the workers
The following journals have joined factories, and
Wolny
Silesia since
Cause, Out Loud, Free Worker). The first two have been published since the summer of 1984 by groups that selfworkers management and identify with the
In its first issue, Front Robotniczy state in
"Open
| Letter to the PZPR" written in 1964 by Jacek Kuron and Karol Mozelewski. In so doing, it demonstrated its intent to link up with the revolutionary of the Polish antibureaucratic opposition, which, by the way, the authors of that work have today abandoned
For its part, Sprawa Robotnicza announced in its first issue that it considered Itself a link in the international working class community". It wrote, moreover, that it "has enemies with whom no accord or alliance can ever be concluded - they are the bureaucracy (that is, the social layer that exploits the workers); as well as the bourgeoisie, which guarantees bureaucracy. Of the long bankrupt
Wolny Robotnik is the organ of the Union of Workers Councils of the Polish Resistance Movement (ZRP. PRO). This organisation, which is based on clandestine groups in the has operated in Upper 1982. In a draft programme published at the start, the SRP-PRO came out for overthrowing the bureaucratic dictatorship based on a general strike led by workers councils tormed clandestinely, and for establishing workers power in the order to guarantee the building of socialism.
Glosno is the organ of the Provisional Co-ordinating of the Mines
(TKKG)
of
Solidarnose.
operates in Upper Silesia. The TKKG has made itself known in the West by its support for the British miners strike, which attracted important notice in the British left and far left particular in the in press,
Statesman and the London Labour
Briefing
The TKKG is a co-ordinating committee of the undeground trade union commissions in many mines, conflict with the Regional Executive
••.
....
•
DRAFT
PLATFORM
1. The Class Struggle
The political struggle that has been going on in Poland since 1980, which has been generally termed a fight between the society and the regime, is primarily a class struggle.
It is essentially a struggle between the working class, which is subjected to economic exploitation and deprived of all political or economic power, and the bureaucratic state power, which is based on the PZPR, as well as on the military and police machine and the economic and administrative apparatus.
Only the working class has the capacity to overthrow the bureaucracy, and it is only thanks to it that the social groups can liberate themselves from the yoke of the bureaucracy.
2. Self-management
The fundamental aim of our struggle is to get the working class to transform itself from an object into a subject. This will only be possible through a system of generalised
Such a system would involve self- management councils in the enterprises, linked together by horizontal and vertical structures on the regional and national scale, as well as institutions of self- management organised on a
Self-management, a form of direct political and economic democracy, will thus become the principal factor in organising social and poltical life.
3. Political pluralism
Self-management can only function in conditions of unrestricted political pluralism. It cannot be foreseen today what will be the exact forms of the social organisations and representative bodies set up.
Commission (RKW) of Solidarnosc, which is It also underground national leadership of the union. Commission that includes a representative of each of its components and functions by consensus in order to New maintain their autonomy. This commission is responsible for the publication of a common monthly bulletin called Prze/om (Breach), issue of which appeared at the end of and is in the autumn of 1985.
• be the role of the free elections to the Diet that we would like to see. But it is clear from the start that the principle of political pluralism has to govern all torms of participation in political life for the society. 4. The revolutionary struggle The transformation of the working only possible through revolutionary changes. The beliet in the that could prove fatal.
In fact, there is no way to reconcile the introduction of a system of sell-management, that is, the bureaucracy.
One course for the antibureaucratic uprising could be a revolutionary general strike turning into an active strike (i.e., a takeover of the factories by the workers), supported by actions outside the factories.
It is only in such revolutionary conditions that we could expect a soldiers, to join in the uprising of the working class, when they see 5. Self-organisation requires a revolutionary strategy, that is, a strategy based on consistently advancing the self-organisation of the working class.
Such self-organisation is the the development of the workers' struggle, from the present fight for partial objectives to the future struggle for a system of selfof self-management will find its fullest expression.
Every battle, even on the most limited question, bears within it an representing the
The PPOR has formed an Executive elements: the first • • • •• allied with it.
We cannot say exactly what will class from an object into a subject is possibility of a compromise with the bureaucracy is a dangerous illusion principal task. the realisation of the interests of the working class, with the domination of movement part of the army, primarily ordinary that the working class forces have a A revolutionary goal of the struggle provocation. common element in all the phases of independence. management, in which the principle Socialist Viewpoint No. 10 February 1985 p26 embryo of the future revolution, inasmuch as it contributes to the self-organisation of the workers. This is why the demands put forward by the workers movement in its programmatic documents must always take into acount three 1. They have to correspond to the needs of the working class. 2. They have to be in tune with the level of consciousness of the workers at the time. 3. They have to make possible, in the struggle itself and on the basis of its success, to raise the level of self-organisation of the working class and of the other social groups 6. The independence of the workers movement Today, the existence of an independent workers movement is the main form of self-organisation and the main precondition for the struggle of the working class. The fight against the bureaucracy entered a qualitatively new phase in 1980, when the strikes opened up the way for the formation of Solidarnosc, the first national independent structure representing the workers that we have seen in the history of the bureaucratic system in
Today, building and strengthening workers organisations in the plants independent from any organisation or institution outside the working class remains the 7. Pluralism within the workers Pluralism is necessary within the workers movement in order for it to be able to develop politically. The right of the workers to organise freely in clubs, groups, currents, and political organisations has to be
Open politicisation of the workers movement, based on clear principles, can only strengthen it. Attempts to smother this process, under the pretext that it "weakens the union" is "factional" activity, or "provocation" on the other hand, can only undermine the movement, or in fact divide it, and they involve all the characteristics of 8. Self-determination Understanding the class character of social relations in Poland involves rejecting the nationalist imagery that reduces our fight to a struggle against the Soviet Union for
The basic dividing line in our nation is not a schematic opposition between patriots and traitors but one of opposing interests among different social groups. This is why national independence, as an effect
of the struggle of the working class for social liberation represents from the standpoint of the working class, the full achievement of the indispensable right to self-determination. 9. International workers solidarity The Polish working class is not isolated in the struggle, It has friends and allies abroad. They are the workers of the entire world.
The Polish workers movement can and must draw on the strength of international workers solidarity. The differences between East and West cannot hide the fact that the workers of both camps are linked by common interests, by a common struggle for a common end - the transformation of the working class from object into subject - against common enemies.
The question of international solidarity is one of close cooperation of the various national contingents of the revolutionary workers movement; it is one of interaction between the development of the class struggle, for example, in Poland, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain. 10. Socialisation The indispensible precondition for the liberation of the working class is for it to lay the economic foundations of its liberty, that is, the socialisation, outside of the state and in the framework of a system of workers' self-management, of the means of production that are today statized.
It is in this way that the working class will obtain the material guarantee of realizing its interests, as well a the legitimate interests of the other groups in society. The aim of the revolutionary workers movement, flowing from the essence of the social relations against which it rebels, is not the reprivatisation of state property or giving it autonomy but to genuinely socialise it.
We regard the taking of political power as a means for the working class to assume economic power. Workers' Opposition Joint work by radical worker activists with a view toward forming a workers opposition to the bureaucracy is essential to draw up a programme for the Polish workers movement and to gain support for the revolutionary struggle aimed at establishing a system of self-management, a self-managed republic in the full sense of the term.
By establishing co-ordination among the organisations, or in the future by building revolutionary parties, we are not opposing ourselves to the workers movement in the broad sense. To the contrary, we want the revolutionary current, which is a component of this its own structures so that it can better contribute to building an independent mass workers movement.
From that flows the basic significance of this platform. That is, the victory of the Polish workers depends in the first instance on struggle against the bureaucracy. self-management has to be based ona revolutionary political identification by the workers. It involves the workers becoming conscious of their social and economic interests, as well as the independence of the politicalorganisational institutions of the working class. of those who share the ideas .....
Appeal
IN view of the deterioration in living and working conditions and the need for effective defensive actions and for unifying them, it is urgent to create, around a political platform. an alliance of various workers groups determined to fight for the interests of the working class. for workers self-management, and the liberation of labour. and activists ready to take part in drawing up the platform of the Workers Opposition, which is what we call our common bloc. The name points up our political choices and the class character of our struggle.
Unlike the "national independence opposition" and the "democratic opposition", we put the fight for working class causes first. This does not in any way mean that we underestimate the importance of democracy or national independence. To the contrary, we think that the liberation of labour is only possible in a politically sovereign country, and not one subjected to economic exploitation. We think that democracy can only be oppressed and exploited classes. Neither "actually existing socialism", or "verbal socialism". nor any version of capitalists -American, Swedish or perhaps Polish - represents such a face of the clear facts that this Socialist Viewpoint No. 10 February 1985 p27 movement, to be consolidated within adopting a strategy for revolutionary
In practice, the advance to social
Soviet leader pea/sm nationalism.
This is why it is the responsibility
We will open up the columns of our publications to workers groups achieved fully in a system without
We refuse to keep silent in the
1985.
Gorbachev: platform apto Soviet workers, not Polish expressed in this platform to unite their forces in the struggle for our common cause. Wolny Robotnik, no. 30, June 1985
.. country - which claims that it is "socialist" or that it is "building socialism" - is becoming more and more dependent politically and economically on the West. that is, on monopoly capitalism: and on the Kremlin, that is. the Soviet bureaucracy.
We say no to a Poland reduced to the role of a colony, a source of raw materials and cheap labour, to a Poland where the only liberty vould be to enrich oneself at the expense of the workers.
We think that the workers today have to take up a flag under which they can march united in the fight to defend workers' rights. without divisions because of ideological differences. Neither the PZPR nor the opposition, in its present political configuration, in our opinion can play such a role. Because of their attachment to conceptions of a unit of the entire society against the regime. the central structures of Soldiarnose are not playing it either.
In a situation in which the wrong policy of its leadership has led Solidarnose into passivity and in which the preponderance of procapitalist currents in the opposition outside Soldiarnose is becoming more and more clear. when the exploitation of the workers is increasing. we decided to take up the struggle, in the conviction that victory is ours sooner or later, and that it will be won by a workers movement that rejects both bureaucratic and capitalist exploitation. Executive Committee of the Workers Opposition Press Alliance, Wolney Robotnik, No. 30, June