Poland-six months after the
Jacqueline ALLIO
Six months after the military crack down of General Jaruzelski the breadth of resistance to the military junta has been demonstrated once more; in the mobilisations of June 13 which took place at of Mass in different towns throughout the country.
determination of the Polish workers has been proved once again in the strikes and demonstrations of the beginning of June following the mobilisations of May, which had expressed the desire of the working class to do battle with the 'occupiers'
Until then most of the well-known leaders of Solidarnose were more than hesitant towards the attempts-which they judged premature to co-ordinate the movement on a regional and national scale. More than one cast doubt on the possibility of undertaking the preparations for a general strike (1).
All the same, on the day after May 13, the regional executive committee of Solidarnose in Warsaw (RKW), noting the worsening of the material situation, the rise in unemployment, and the fact that one could detect 'no sign of good will on the part of the authorities, stated that, 'all this will lead inevitably to a radicalisation of the workers and a general strike. Some tens of big enterprises of the Warsaw region have already asked us to fix the date of this strike' (2).
This was a way of responding to the numerous articles which have appeared in the clandestine bulletins, which reproach the leaderships for not having given a clear enough lead to the militants to permit really effective action. The responsibility rests on you, members of the leadership of Solidarnosc, unanimously recognised, to indicate to us the forms and the methods of action worthy of Solidarnosc. Our problem is that, in our opinion, you have not sufficiently taken on these responsibilities during the last few months. The proof of this is the numerous contradictory initiatives around May 1' (3).
Some militants insist especially on the 'need to construct a self-defense/ trade-union stewarding force which will both warn of the actions of the political police (SB), and assure the protection of those who carry out different tasks' (4).
These demands have been heard, if one reads the declarations of Zbigniew Romaszewski, one of the leaders in Warsaw, in a recent interview, prepare a general strike. We have little
The strike must begin in the aucrackdown tumn of this year, before the BrezhnevReagan talks. The perspective of these talks should be to prevent the USSR taking the decisive step. The strike will put the question of Poland at the centre of world affairs. It must be a general strike of the whole country, with active defence of the enterprises. In Warsaw the active strike will involve twenty to thirty tactories, and the others will support them by a stay-at-home strike. The demonstrations and processions will further occupy a part of the forces. If the situation is really serious, not only can the authorities not count on the army-in my opinion-but not even on the police. When one single battalion refuses to fire....That was the case in February 1917 when one little unit of Cossacks passed over to the side of the demonstrators, and at the end of a month there was no longer a Tsar' (5).
The successful escape of the well-known militant J. Narozhiak, from the hospital where he found himself imprisoned, thanks to the initiative of the 'operational groups of the inter-factor workers shows that significant progress has already been accomplished on the road to self-defence. ception of active self-defence is beginning to prevail in practice over the conception of passive self-defence which the Solidarnose leadership has defended for a long time, of which the workers had been convinced, and which left them disarmed and with bare hands to face the tanks in December 1981.
Asking himself if December 1981 had managed to shatter the 'myth of the factory-fortress' on which the leaders and militants of Solidarnosc based their confidence, 'within the precinct of the fac tories they were untouchable, no one would dare to burst into the sanctuary' the author of a contribution to the clandestine press stated, *The spring of 1982 takes place in the streets, in the sun and the wind, accompanied by the explosions of firecrackers and in the stink of tear gas. It is very improbable that the demonstrations can have a decisive influence. They are undoubtedly a comfort to all the open-or more often secret-opponents of WRON (the Military Council for National Salvation). They show new groups of activists in the fight against the regime, they mobilise those who are passive....The central fight will nevertheless start where the previous struggle started: within the enterprises, there, where flow sources of the independent workers unions.
In the background, behind these spectacular demonstrations, the process of re-establishing the confidence which will bring a solid strike has begun and will continue. Confidence in the strength which comes from the walls of the factories and the people which they enclose' (6).
Which enclose them....But which give them the means to co-ordinate between themselves, to construct a real front against the enemy, as Romaszewski said in the interview already cited: is necessary to create cells to organise the strike in all the enterprises. prepare for the defense of the enterprise and inform the RKW when they are ready for the strike. There are enormous technical problems to solve: radio-phone
We will have to construct ultrashort-wave transmitters and receivers, so that the factories can communicate between themselves, and short-wave trans mitters-receivers for inter-regional links. We have to count on the fact that communication will be totally cut and build a transmitter which can ensure information on the progress of the strike. In principle that should not pose a great problem. If the Gdansk shipyard workers barricade themselves in we can make the antennae we want. In basing ourselves on the experience of RadioSolidarnose, we are in the process of working towards a complex programme of connections with a view to a general strike."
And to the editor who asked him if he was not fearful of taking the responsibility for such a decision Romaszewski replied, My responsibilities-I took them on when I accepted election to the national and regional leadership. I am not only responsible for this or that decision, but also for the absence of decisions. For the fact that Solidarnose risks being condemned to paralysis and our country to 'normalisation' in the Czech model. I am responsible for disorganised actions which can end bloodily and which are of no use.'
More than ever the role of the working class will appear decisive in the struggles in the months to come.
International Viewpoint, No 9, June 21, 1982. 2. Tygodnik Mazowsze, No 16, June 2, 1982, reproduced in Bulletin d'Information No 23, June 7, 1982, edited in Paris by the Committee for Co-ordination of the trade union Solidarnose in France, 3. Tygodnik Mazowsze No 14, reproduced in Bulletin d'Information, ibid 4. Pretrwanie, No 17, Warsaw, May 18, 1982. 5. Tygodnik Mazowsze, No 16, ibid
Reproduced in Bulletin 'Information, ibid.
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