-Selections from the World Press BRITAIN
Socialist Challenge
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"The struggle of Solidarity against the bureaucratic system gave rise to forms of organization and struggle which contained lessons for the workers of every country. Control over hiring and firing; veto rights over workers managers; democratic organization of strikes and unions; access to the me dia; direct access by tens of thousands of workers to the negotiations between party leaders; massive use of factory occupations; and the extension of Solidarity's membership and influence into every sphere of Polish society--all these things represented a threat not only to the bureaucracies in Eastern Europe but also to the capitalist system in the West. Despite the crocodile tears, Solidarity's radical actions had few friends in the Western governments..
"The defeat of the Polish workers would be a defeat for the workers of the whole world, especially if a Soviet invasion occurred.
"The effects of such a move would be incalculable. Anti-communism and antisocialism would be strengthened everywhere. Movements like the CND in the West would be completely undercut by the ideological impact of such events.
"Already the crackdown on the Polish workers has put the peace movement in West Germany on the defensive, opening it up to demagogic attack from government leaders. If the Polish workers are defeated a similar process will take place everywhere with the right wing being strengthened in all the trade unions and mass workers' parties. The Stalinist suppression of the Polish workers would immensely strengthen the hands of U.S. imperialism, giving it much more room for manoeuvre, especially against the revolution in Central America.
"Never has the interaction between the international and national class struggle been more clearly demonstrated. Never has the silent but real community of interlests between Stalinism and imperialism in
I the face of mass workers struggles been so single define of the pati workers is the those like Tony Benn who hesitate to speak up in defense of the Polish workers must be forced to act".
In an accompanying article, the British revolutionary paper described the problems of building a solidarity movement in the
'''There are difficulties in the Polish situation'. That was one comment miners' president Arthur Scargill made just after the
"Scargill also maintained his support for 'free independent trade unions in every nation', but added, it is clear that Solidarity is not a trade union in our accepted sense of the word. It is, I suspect, a political movement.'
"The 'dificulties' Arthur Scargill appears to have in standing full square with the Polish workers are shared by a number of leading personalities in this country's labour
"Even worse, it is left wingers who have tended to react most cautiously to the Pofor example, has said virtually nothing in public since the imposition of martial law. The majority of the Labour Party's national executive refused to suport a call from Eric Heffer for a Labour Party demo on 20 December in support of the Polish workers..."
However, the paper pointed to some hopeful developments:
"...strong statements have come from Communist Party member Mick Mc Gahey, president of the Scottish miners. On 29 December, he offered to go to Poland as an expression of his support for the miners
"He explained that Scottish miners 'are calling for the freeing of all those who have been detained arising from resistance to the imposition of martial law...'
"The TUC /Trade Unions Council/ and general secretary Len Murray were also quick to condemn the crackdown. Murray has applied for a visa to visit Poland, a point he made when he and other members of the TUC General Council visited the Polish ambassador in London on 27 Decemhas happened in Poland'.
Statements like that give the Labour movement in the country something to build on in establishing real and active support for Solidarity.
"But this will not happen if the right wing in the Labour Party and the TUC is seen to be giving the lead in condemning
"It is true that many of the larger meetings and demonstrations in this country which have been held in protest over the events in Poland have been dominated by cold war rhetoric.
"But that is inevitably the case if the left muffles its voice, or prattles on about the 'difficulties' in giving one hundred per cent support to Solidarity".
"The only possible answer to the repression in Poland, " the weekly paper of the Revolutionary Communist League, French section of the Fourth International, wrote in its December 24, 1981 issue, the international solidarity of the working class. The bourgeois and the bureaucrats have frontiers that they respect in order to maintain themselves in power. The workers have no frontiers but common interests.
"In France, as in many other countries, the workers have shown that they want to mobilise...They have understood instinctively that the struggle of the Polish workers is a fight for a true democratic socialism without bosses or bureaucrats. "
An article on the center-page said: "Over the past ten days, an enormous wave of solidarity has welled up in France, as in other countries, in support of the Polish workers and their union, Solidarnosc
"'The only way... to unite the protests,
to focus all the indignation expressed by hundreds of thousands of workers who have gone out to demonstrate since the proclamation of the state of siege is to form a national action committee of the
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workers movement in support of Solidarnosc."
On the back page Cyril Smuga wrote:
"An entire people has risen up to resist the bureaucratic terror....
"In this struggle, the aid of the
European workers movement will be decisive for the resistance. It can launch inquiries...It can give material aid so that Solidarnose can reconstitute its network. It is our duty to help. As the Polish revolutionists of the nineteenth century said, the fight is for 'Our Freedom and Yours''.
U.S.A,
The Militant
Under the headline "SWP maps solidarity effort to defend Polish workers", the January I issue of The Militant, the weekly paper that reflects the views of the Socialist Workers Party, one of the main founding parties of the Fourth International, reports on a speech by party leader Larry Seigle at a forum in New York City on December 18.
"Seigle said that it is impossible to defend Solidarity without understanding that imperialism is the deadly enemy of the Polish workers, as it is for the working
Further on, the paper continued:
"In fact, Seigle said, everything that 'strengthens the position of imperialism, that covers up for imperialism, paves the way for imperialist aggression'
"Referring to the top AFL-CIO officials, the speaker said: 'They don't have an independent program. They follow the domestic policy of big business. They follow the foreign policy of big business.'
'''This explains why the AFL-CIO officials are 'so enthusiastic' over the so-called solidarity campaign with Poland, Seigle said. 'Because it's just what imperialism is doing. It fits right in. They can join the orgy of anticommunism and do it all in the name of the workers' struggle, in the name of the unions, in the name of union democracy and union
"Just as socialists campaigned to spread the truth about the Iranian revolution in the face of reactionary, proimperialist propaganda during the hostage crisis, Seigle said, the primary responsi -bility today is to "tell the truth about what Solidarity is fighting for in Poland, to explain what our stake is here, and to mercilessly expose the hypocritical campaign coming out of Washington, and Paris, and London, and the other capitals
'''If we do this, we will get a hearing. We will win over young workers, militants, whose instincts tell them that when Douglas Fraser and Lane Kirkland (top union bureaucrats) start to campaign alongside Ronald Reagan, it's time to look a little deeper into what's going on.
'We will win to our ranks young people Iwho want to defend the revolution that is in El Salvador, in Central America, and in the Caribbean.
"'If we tell the truth about Poland and about imperialism in meetings like this-and where we work, on radio, television, everywhere-- that will be the kind of solidarity that we owe to our brothers and sisters in Poland, 'Seigle said ".
In the December 28 issue of Intercontinental Press, published in New York, Larry Seigle, SWP leader, explained the way to build solidarity with the Polish
"The most immediate effect of the suppression of Solidarity, however, is to heighten the danger of U.S. military action against Cuba, Nicaragua, Grenada, and the advarcing revolutionary movements in El Salvador and Guatemala. Under the protective cover of the imperialist propaganda drive against Soviet 'imperialism', preparations for such a military move are being intensified.
"Internationalist consciousness of the states and within the portion of the world remaining under capitalist rule, is essential to the defense of the workers states
"Such proletarian internationalism, however, cannot be fostered by the suppression of workers democracy. Rather, workers democracy and proletarian internationalism go hand in hand...
"The inseparable connection between workers democracy and proletarian internationalist consciousness can be seen in Cuba. It is no coincidence that the most democratic workers state in the world, revolutionary Cuba, is also the land where the toiling masses have achieved the highest level of political consciousness, including internationalist consciousness. It is the most politically advanced working class in the world.
"And it is this understanding that makes Cuba an unshakeable defender of the Soviet workers state and at the same time places Cubans shoulder to shoulder with revolutionary fighters throughout the world --from Indochina to Nicaragua...
"...The imperialists view with horror the prospect of a successful political revolution in Poland. Despite their hypocritical statements of support for union rights in Poland, they understand that a victory for the Polish working people would open the possibility of bringing to power a revolutionary government, like the one in Cuba. And the thought of a Cuba in Eastern Europe is a horrifying one for
"These views, however, did not prevent the imperialists from having an international field day of anti-Soviet and anticommunist propaganda.
"One of the 'civilized' world's leading union busters, Britain's Primer Minister Margaret Thatcher, expressed unwavering support for union rights in Poland...
the imperialist propaganda campaign carried out under the guise of 'solidarity' with Poland reached unrivaled heights. In Paris, the Socialist Party leadership, along with the SP-led unions, organized a protest march against the actions of the Soviet and Polish governments. The major bourgeois parties held a demonstration at the same time and same
"In the United States, the bureaucracy of the AFL-CIO trade union federation jumped into the anticommunist campaign with a vigor noticeably missing when it comes to defending the rights of workers against capitalists.
"Their moment of glory comes when the rulers encourage them to play a more prominent role in carrying out imperialist policies, as they have done with their phoney solidarity campaign around Poland.
### 'AFL-CIO' demonstrations against the Soviet Union have been organized throughout the United States, promoted by the news media and hailed by the capitalist politicians.
"These reactionary demonstrations have been mirrored by actions called by 'leftwing' anti-communist groups, such as the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, (DSOC), which is affiliated to the Second International. DSOC joined with other groups to hold a 'solidarity action in New York City December 16....
"However their real priorities were indicated by the fact that the location chosen for the protest was not some symbol of American imperialism, but the Polish
The fortnightly newspaper of the Spartacist League, a small group that claims to be the only orthodox Trotskyist organization in the U.S., hailed the crackdown in Poland. The evolution of this group is interesting. Its main leader, James Robertson, was a leader of a "thiro camp" socialist tendency in his youth and led a split from the SWP in 1963, arguing that it was not sufficiently critical of the Cuban leadership, which he considered a bureaucracy not qualitatively different from the Stalinist regimes of Eastern Europe
In its January 8 issue, this paper writes:
"Encouraged by Radio Free Europe and the Polish pope, it was clear that Solidarnosc was moving to overthrow the Warsaw regime and break with the Soviet Union. As we pointed out last issue, Jaruzelski's countercoup came at the last possible moment as a move from a position of power. Secret government sponsored polls in 198081 showed that only 3 percent of the population would vote for the Communists in a free election; another 20 percent for socialists of varios sorts and 43 percent for Christian Democrats--i.e., for capitalist counterrevolution in the name of the pope and (bourgeois) democracy.
"The International Spartacist Tendency drew the conclusions last September as Solidarnosc took up the Cold War propaganda themes of 'free elections' and 'free trade
unions' throughout Eastern Europe. 'Stop Solidarity's Counterrevolution!' before it is too late, we said. And, for now, the power grab by this 'company union for the bankers and the CIA' has been blocked. After the initial methodical roundup of Solidarity leaders, the flurry of resistance has died down... The immediate danger of counterrevolution has been checked.
The Spartacists rejected arguments that the capitalists and their governments tacitly accepted the crackdown.
"A lot of liberals and rad-libs, in order to justify their support to Solidarnosc, are fabricating the notion that Western bankers are supporting Jaruzelski's crackdown. , Recently Cold War liberal James Wechsler, in a column entitled 'Bankers Battle Hymn' in the New York Post (23 December 1981), claims there is a cabal of 'Western bankers and American communists and trotskyists incongruously united in apologia for the ruthless crackdown by the Polish commissars and their Kremlin sponsors'. By Trotskyists, he means the Spartacist League and cites the headline of the last issue of Workers Vanguard 'Solidarnoso Counterrevolution Checked. '''
AFL-CIO News
The weekly paper of the AF'-CIO began its article December 19, 1981 by quoting a statement by the U.S. trade union confederation:
"By imposing martial law, banning the activities of Solidarity and its affiliated unions, and jailing many of their leaders, the Polish government is seeking to deprive the Polish people of their strongest instrument of democratic progress and to stamp out the spark of freedom.
"Amid this new assault on Polish liberty, the American workers reach out to their brothers and sisters in Poland. We renew our pledge to assist Solidarity and its members by all the moral, financial and physical means at our disposal".
The paper continued: "AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said that in its support of the Polish workers the federation will cooperate fully with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and all other associations and members of the international free trade union movement, in taking every possible legal action in support of Solidarity. The ICFTU immediately filed a formal complaint against the Polish government with the Internatiozal Labor Organization...
"As a signatory of ILO conventions No. 87 and 98, the Polish government is committed to respecting union rights of Freedom of association, organizing, and collective bargaining."
The article went on to quote a speech sy the Secretary Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, "homas R. Donahue, at a rally at the federation headquarters:
"Donahue also lashed out at media comrentators who have pictured Solidarity as the culprit in the current confrontation with the Polish authorities.
'''That is sheer nonsense, ' he said. Solidarity has demonstrated... great sophistication about its bargaining tactics and a patience and a willingness to compromise that few in the western democracies or in the Eastern European dictatorships expected...
"The government's provocations, on the other hand, have surely not shown the same degree of flexibility. The threat to pass a law banning strikes and further regulating trade union activity were indeed the final straws--not the other way
The paper also carried extracts from the speech of the Chairman of the AFL-CIO Committee on International Affairs Martin J. Ward at the same rally:
'''In all of our actions in support of Solidarity, we have made it clear that we have no wish whatsoever to interfere in Solidarity's policies or to give any political or economic advice. Solidarity has not asked for our advice in such matters, and
"The workers of Poland alone can decide what they need and want to do. Our job is to provide fraternal support and encouragement and to provide the materials CANADA
Socialist Voice
The fortnightly paper of the Revolutionary Workers League-Ligue Ouvriere Revolutionnaire, Canadian section of the Fourth International, reported in its Janvary II, 1982 issue:
"Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau had a grim Christmas message for Polish and Canadian workers.
'''Any effort to prevent a civil war is a positive step. If a military regime has the effect of preventing a civil war, then i can't inherently say it is bad, 'he told a pre-Christmas press conference.
"Amid the uproar that these comments provoked, Trudeau maintained his position. In his annual end-of-the-year interview with CTV's Bruce Phillips, he added: 'We see unions in Canada are always asking for more. I don t suppose the union movement in Poland is very different, they would want more, but at some stage it was obvious that the government couldn't give anymore.. ...hopefully the military regime will be able not only to keep Solidarity from excessive demands but keep the Communist government from excessive repression. " CUBA
Granma
The January 8th issue of the Cuban Communist Party daily carries a compilation of dispatches from the official press service Prensa Latina on the situation in Poland. It reports, among other things:
"A regional tribunal in Katowice sentenced a group of Solidarnosc agitators who tried to promote a strike at the Huta Katowice steel plant after the proclamation of the state of siege.
"These provocateurs were also sentenced for publishing a bulletin, entitled , the 'Free Trade Unionist, ,' in which they instigated the murder of members of the Polish United Workers Party".
A correspondent of Prensa Latina, Nelson Marcos Garcia, reported from Warsaw:
"Other news is that all the primary and secondary schools are functioning normally and that the army is aiding in carrying out educational tasks.
"The soldiers are taking part in meetings with the students to explain to them why the state of siege was declared and helping to transport children who live far from school."
The dispatch also summarizes an article in the Soviet daily Krasnaya Zvezda, as follows:
"The daily... rejected the threats made by the U.S. against Poland and noted that this country is neither Texas nor
"The legitimate authorities in Poland, it adds, have taken measures to restore order inthe country, which does not violate any international treaties or constitute a threat to anyone.
"The daily comments that the only rights affected in Poland are those of the agents of Solidarnoso to prepare a coup and set up gallows for Communists.
Under this compilation of dispatches there are a series of messages of congratulations for the twenty-second anniversary of the Cuban revolution. The first is from the Jaruzelski government. NICARAGUA
The Ministry of Propaganda and Information sent a circular to journalists advising them how to cover the events in Poland. It recommended, among other
"Stressing that the exceptional measures adopted by the Polish party and the government are designed to get the country out of the crisis caused by the violation of the principles of socialism by certain leaders of the Polish CP (today in prison) and by the way these errors were exploited by counter-revolutionaries in the service of imperialism... In Poland it is not the working class that is being repressed but counter-revolutionary elements who wanted to deliver Poland to imperialism
••• It should not be stressed that strikes are banned. What should be said is that the regime demands that the economic crisis
"The positive elements of the situation should be stressed -- the calm, stability
In its December 30 issue, the official organ of the Sandinista National Liberation Front carries a summary article on the events in Poland, which begins as follows: "1981 began with a continuation of the economic, social, political and ideologi-
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cal crisis in Poland. It ended with the government taking drastic steps to overcome the crisis....
"The tension reached its height when the Solidarity congress was held... where a line won that called for using strikes to take political power....
"The new government headed by General Woiciech Jaruzelski.... exposed these conspiratorial plans....He decided to form a Military Council of National Salvation...
"At the beginning of the new year, the situation was slowly improving, with increased productivity in industry and the services..
"General Jaruzelski outlined a new pol¡cy to preserve socialism. " SPAIN
Combate
In its editorial January 15th, the weekly paper of the Revolutionary Communist League, section of the Fourth International in the Spanish state, says:
"The unions must take united and decisive initiatives, they must take the lead of the movement of solidarity with Solidarnosc... It is necessary to send trade -union investigating committees to Poland to find out what conditions the 'interned' Polish trade unionists are being held... It is necessary to understand in terms of practical solidarity that the defense of the trade union rights of the Polish work-
La duty for workers in Spain, as well as for the Brazilian, French or Rumanian workers. It is necessary to understand that any socialism worth fighting for has to be based on the power of the workers themselves, in Poland as well as
The French-language weekly of the Belgian section of the Fourth International, the Revolutionary Workers League, writes in its January 8, 1982 issue:
"The reason for the passivity of our trade-union federations with respect to Poland is simply the fear inspired in all bureaucrats throughout the world by the example of fighting democratic trade -unionism given by Solidarnosc.
"The militant trade unionists in the FGTB and CSC/the Social Democrat and Catholic union federations respectively/ must assume their responsibilities -demand a balance sheet on the demonstrations of solidarity with Solidarnosc. They must explain that a union movement that is incapable of mounting a serious defence of a trade union with ten million members (out of a total population of 35 million) ... cannot put up a serious fight either against cutbacks in social welfare." 28
NETHERLANDS
Klassenstrijd January 14th issue of the weekly paper of the Dutch section of the Fourth International says in a lead article:
"Now it is possible for all Dutch workers to support our Polish brothers and sisters. The Dutch trade union movement is organising a mass solidarity action. It is unfortunate that the FNV and the CNV (the Social Democrat and Christian union federations, respectively) have not joined together to build a united protest. It is the trade union movement that must take the lead in supporting Solidarity, as Z. Kowalewski, the Solidarity leader from Lodz has said...
"While it is unfortunate that the union federations have not been able to unite this time, we hope that they will continue to move forward. The actions of the FNV and the CNV can now form the keystone of the entire solidarity movement in the Netherlands. " GERMANY
Was Tun
The weekly of the Gruppe Internationaler Marxisten, German section of the Fourth International, has a lead article on solidarity with the Polish workers in its January 14th issue.It
"Heinrich Boll has accused the left of ignoring the Soviet prison camps in the past and now remaining silent about Poland. Generally he is right, but he overgeneralizes. Thus, he himself ignores the support for Solidarity by sections of the left. There have been and continue to be many actions and protests by the left against the Jaruzelski putsch. But these leftists run up against a stone wall, in particular against the idea tacitly pushed that 'the Poles -- Solidarity--went too far'".
For January 30th, representatives of Solidarity in exile and the BFG called demonstrations. A national demonstration is planned for the end of February.
"What is decisive is getting the DGB, the West German union confederation, to offer concrete solidarity. Hopeful signs here are the initiatives of a ctive trade unionists in Wolfsburg... Russel -sheim, and Frankfurt... Here preparations are being made for concrete solidarity with Polish fellow unionists. For example, the Wolfsburg and Russelsheim workers are discussing twinning their plants with similar ones in Poland. The most pressing task at the moment is to get the DGB to send a delegation to Poland to find out where the arrested trade unionists are being held and to demand their immediate release.
DENMARK
Klassenkampen In its editorial January 7, the weekly paper of the Socialist Workers Party (SAP), Danish section of the Fourth International, said:
"The workers of Poland have only one ally in both the West and the East--the working class. We very much hope for your solidarity as trade unionists and we appeal to you to declare this openly. That is no interference in the internal affairs of Poland, it is workers helping other workers. ' This is the appeal made by a delegation from the Lenin shipyards in Gdansk to the German steelworkers union (I. G. Metall) immediately after Jaruzelski's coup.
"Solidarity of workers with workers is what is needed. There must be public protests, broad workers demonstrations for the ending of the state of siege and the release of the imprisoned members of Solidarity." AUSTRIA
Die Linke In its January 20 issue, the fortnightly magazine of the Revolutionary Marxist Group (GRM), Austrian section of the Fourth International, publishes an open letter to the Austrian peace movement. It begins as follows:
"Political forces in the West are seizing on the Polish events as an excuse for increased armament of NATO. The U.S. is building up a military presence in El Salvador and more and more openly threatening direct intervention against Nicaragua and progressive ferces throughout Central America. Begin decreed the annexation of the Golan Heights of Syria, thereby taking a dangerous step towards a new Mid-East war similar to the one launched in 1956 after the crushing of the Hunga-
The letter continues further on:
"Solidarnosa was not only a union but also the biggest peace movement in the Eastern Bloc.
"Solidarity with Solidarrosc must not be left to those who want to use it as a pretext for their own great power politics and war preparations. Only if the peace movement itself actively organizes support for Solidarity, can these forces be prevented from making political capital out of the Polish events.
"Those who today want to promote detente by remaining silent about the Polish resistance are not strengthening peace but the unbridled power politics of the rulers in both blocs...
"Anyone who fails to protest the military suppression of an independent union of nearly ten million members and massive arrests of workers and intellectuals, will lose all credibility --and rightly so--in the eyes of the workers in the West who would defend their organizations against state of siege decrees, military putsches, and war preparations.