Two years after: demonstrations and perspectives in Poland Jacqueline ALLIO
Some tens-or more likely hundreds-of thousands of people took to the streets throughout Poland on August 31 in response to the call from Solidarnosc. In many towns there were fierce confrontations and the forces of law and order did not hesitate to shoot when the tear and truncheon blows were insuf. ficient to disperse the demonstrators.
The junta kills, the junta assassi nates-this is the only conclusion which the Polish masses can reach after the second anniversary of the Gdansk agreement. It is a clear impasse for the regime who, even on the day before, were claim-
*The people are with us, and they do not support those who disturb the peace and break the law.'
Five deaths, hundreds of wounded, more than four thousand arrested, this was the outcome of this day of confrontation between an exasperated working class and a repressive apparatus at the service of a clique of bureaucrats and generals. The false promises of the national entente, reiterated in Jaruzelski's speech some days previously, appeared for what they were: words, a smokescreen, empty,
8
The Zionists have succeeded only in imposing the draft on the Arab Druzes, a community of about 40,000. They got the Druze leaders, the sheiks a paltry ruse to lull the enemy to sleep.
determination shown by the crowds of young demonstrators is even more impressive given that the attempts to dissuade them did not leave any doubt as to the intentions of the regime. can like or dislike the state of siege laws, and Jaruzelski, waving the stick after dangling the carrot, 'but they must be respected. No breach will be tolerated.'
Neither the armoured columns, nor the manoeuvres of the troops at the very gates of Warsaw, nor the appeals for calm by the Catholic hierarchy, asking the workers not to take to the streets, could prevent the demonstra-
Certainly the leaders of the Provisional National Commission for the Coordination of Solidarnose (TKK) were conscious of the risk they were taking in for mobilisation on August 31 •We have taken account of the fact that the decision of the TKK could lead to vic-
But the demonstrations will take place anyway, and they will be repressed,' said Zbigniew Bujak, in the appeal made on August 18. He stressed this point, 'It is impossible to hush up a de.
step up their Judaization of the West Bank and the Gaza strip and the destruction of the infrastructure of Palestinian society. monstration, the regime would be frightened to do so' , while it has turned out that the different forms of limited strikes are not very effective, because they are easy to hide'
There were certainly victims. Some people will see in that a confirmation of their fears about the bloody consequences of such demonstrations and the discouraging effect that this will have on the population. But will not the picture of the stubborn and massive resistance of the demonstrators to the armoured columns stick in the consciousness and the memory of all the Polish people, giving them confidence that it is possible to say "no' to the junta, 'no' to bureaucratie rule, 'no' to repression?
The brazenness of Polish television, trying to present the mobilisation as an 'artificial demonstration organised by bands of hoodlums and wild thugs' would only give rise to laughter or grinding of teeth. For anyone who still doubted it, it was proof that Solidarnose lives and continues the struggle.
What perspectives for mobilisation after this demonstration of strength by the resistance movement? This question is even more sharply posed to the under-
ground leadership of Solidarnosc than
The view expressed by Zbigniew Bujak on the partial strikes is shared by numerous workers who have put this view forward in the underground press, mainly because of the very high number of sackings that have resulted, without the workers being able to respond.
As for the street demonstrations, while they show the relationship of forces at a given moment-as long as they are massive and very well-prepared-they also have obvious limits: apart from the vicious repression they can give rise to, they have very little meaning if they do not link up with the struggle in the strongholds of the working class.
Some people, like the Militant Solidarnosc Group from Wroclaw, justify counterposing street demonstrations to strikes under the pretext that 'in the street you are incognito', while 'in the enterprises it's always the same ones who
They clearly declare themselves in favour of the struggle in the streets: 'We will not leave ourselves confined to the restrictive framework of the enter-
Wladyslaw Frasyniuk, the leader of underground Solidarnosc in the same town, replied to them: 'A struggle led by a strong, effective, consolidated social movement is the only way of "changing the course of events" There is only one such organisation which could force the regime to sign a compromise with society. Our tactic is an apparently difficult and unspectacular reconstruction of the organisation of workers in the workplaces. It is to rebuild an organisation which will the general strike as a last recourse. situation in the country is such that this last recourse could very soon turn out to
All our actions are and must be subsumed to the preparation of such a strike.
A year ago the First Congress of Solidarnosc fixed the objective of the establishment of a self-managed and democratic republic. Such a perspective can only mean the overthrow of the present regime. The Polish bureaucracy, supported in this by the Kremlin, will hesitate at nothing to defend its position and its pri-
How could one think that those plunged the country into chaos to the point of bringing about a drop in spending power by 50 per cent at the end of the year-could be able to use anything other than force to keep their control over the mass of the workers?
Faced with the inevitability of this confrontation certain steps forward have been made by Solidarnosc concerning work directed towards the army. 'Not to act against the army, but to do work
Not to rely on a reflex of national consciousness at the moment of the test, when orders put Polish soldiers face to face with Polish workers. prepare for such moments by stimulating the atmosphere of weariness and bitterness that is beginning to arise among the officers because of their role as occupiers,' recommended a Solidarnosc activist in Tygodnik Mazowsze, the underground weekly in Warsaw.
Two days before the August 31 demonstrations the Committee Formation of an Independent Trade Union for the Militias made an appeal
Radio Solidarnosc, on August 31. Refuse to arrest demonstrators, and refuse to use force. It ad vised them, in cases where they really would have to proceed to arrests and interrogations 'to do them with a minimum of enthusiasm'. Of course this is only one aspect of preparing the masses for a confrontation with the regime.
The perspective of preparation for a general strike, which has occupied a major place within the underground press for several months, seems to have lost a little of its immediacy. The leadership of Solidarnose in effect declared a truce in July, and the TKK has adopted theses which put the emphasis mainly on the gradual character of the conquest of positions which should allow a broadening of the social and political rights of society, and on the necessity of building a decentralised movement.
Whatever the rhythm and stages of the struggle which is underway, it is the problem of the strategic orientation of Soliarnose which is posed after August 31. The necessity to define the content 'changing the course of events'.
In a forthcoming issue of International Viewpoint we will publish an article translated from the Polish Inprekor No 5, June-July 1982. This article, which is the position taken by the editors of Inprekor on the debate within Solidarnosc in Poland, allows us to both present the debate and the positions defended by the militants of the Fourth International. Other contributions to this debate have been published in International Viewbe able to defend the social interest, using along these lines to the militia through point No 9, June 21, 1982.