First congress of the Polish
Socialist Party
THE DOCUMENTS adopted by the first publish and distribute their own press. At the national conference of the Polish Socialist same time, it has continued to work on a
Party (PPS), held last October 22 in Warsaw, union journal called Praca, Placa, BHP are reproduced below. Eight regional ("Work, Wages, Health and Safety"), which organizations were represented by 35 has six issues out already, and to publish some pamphlets on union training. It also
The conference marked an important date in publishes about a dozen papers in different the history of this party, which was founded in regions. The party, moreover, allows
November 1987 and which during its first few ideological currents to express themselves months of existence already underwent a split freely within it, as is shown by the existence of involving many of its leading members a minority tendency — the Revolutionary Left including Jan Jozef Lipski (see /V 137, March Current of the PPS (NLR-PPS).
21, 1988). Today the political choices made In his article Jozef Pinior, one of the main by both sides are clear. While Jan Jozef leaders of the PPS, demonstrates that the
Lipski took part in Margaret Thatcher's existence of a party that does not idealize reception, the PPS majority denounced her capitalism - so frequent among anti-union policies. While Lipski tried to oppositionists in the East merits attention, become part of the round-table negotiating particularly at a time when the new Minister of process between the representatives of the the Interior (a member of the Polish opposition and the bureaucracy, the PPS Communist Party, PUWP, and a private majority rejected such a framework, seeing it entrepreneur who was head of a foreign as one more attempt to legitimize the trading firm until his appointment) is trying to post-Stalinist political regime. close down the "unprofitable" Lenin shipyards
This attitude coincides with the political in Gdansk. Many opposition leaders are now decisions taken by the PPS' majority last torn between their desire to defend the spring. These included getting involved in workers, who are the victims of this economic building workers' struggles and setting up and market reform championed by the strengthening factory-based independent bureaucracy, and their support for an union structures. To this end, the PPS has economic project that justifies such choices.
offered its human and material resources to factory union activists, helping them to CYRIL SMUGA
The democratic revolution THE PRESENT CRISIS of ideology reflects the impotence of the traditional political options in the face of an inhuman and irrational model of development. In surmounting a series of barriers to expansion, modern capitalism made economic development an end in itself.
In the course of successive technological changes, human beings have become a dead weight for the process rather than the masters of it. Growing numbers of young people are paying for this in unemployment delegates. and poverty. Along with the control of information and culture imposed on the society, these phenomenon are the source of alienation, chauvinism and racism.
In the so-called third world countries, the dependent capitalist countries, the social costs of the development model described above are incommensurably greater. Economic dependence leads to political dependence, where the alternative seems to be either authoritarian dictatorship or Stalinization.
The balance sheet of the Stalinist regimes is crimes against humanity, mass apathy and economic collapse. Post-Stalinist totalitarianism is seeking new forms in order to survive. Free-market processes going
POLAND along with the maintenance of the power of the nomenklatura serve to consolidate and deepen the mechanisms of exploitation and domination. Conflict is growing between the ruling elite and layers that are enriching themselves under its protection on the one hand, and the toiling majority on the other. The omnipresent state, which plays the role of intermediary in all social relations, is trying to keep the initiative in the process of change. Despite the hopes harbored in some opinion-making circles, reforms from above will not alter the social consequences of totalitarianism. The society aspires to carry out reforms independently, not to be reformed.
Socialists throughout the world are fight-
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POLAND ing for labor to become the liberator from poverty, domination and alienation. The experiences of the workers' movement indicate that taking control of the factories and electing political representatives of the society will lead us toward a multi-sectoral economic system combined with systems of social security based on a redistribution of the national income.
Given the domination of the state sector in Poland, which is run by the Communist nomenklatura, it is necessary to depoliticize this sector by getting the PZPR [Polish United Workers" Party, the CP) out of economic and personnel policy. The factories should be run by the workers and professionals responsible to them. The alternative system arising from such a process will open up a new horizon for civilization, establish a new form of self-management and democracy. It will enable a society in the process of emancipating itself to become the master of culture and the information system. It will give it an opportunity to free itself from the control of the military-industrial complex and reestablish the equilibrium between human beings and nature.
The crisis in the socialist movement today can be surmounted by outlining a perspective of a common socio-political system for societies living under different systems of domination and dependence. This requires imagination and political
The Polish workers have broken the state monopoly on information and organization. A turning point has arrived. In occupation strikes, a consciousness develops that the workers are becoming the real masters of their workplaces. Alongside trade-union consciousness, a need for political action arises. The dynamic of this movement runs up against the resistance of postStalinist totalitarianism. Because of the unreformability of this system, the only possibility for the workers is to pose a governmental alternative. The purpose of this alternative is socialization of the state, seizure of economic power in the factories by the workforces and the setting up of democratic representation of the society, the community of producers and citizens.
August 1980 [the rise of Solidarosc], Brasov [the miners' rebellion in Romania], Karabakh and Jastrzebie are all elements of the same phenomenon — a democratic revolution that is unfolding before our eyes, an exit from the totalitarian system leading toward political democracy, socialization of the economy and independence. Totalitarianism can only be abolished from below, by the will of the workers, by an independent movement of workers organized in their workplaces for conscious action.
The Polish Socialist Party is taking an active part in building such a governmental alternative, with the aspiration of emancipating the society. To this end, we believe that it is essential to undertake the following actions:
• To reinforce and build the independent union Solidarnose at the enterprise, regional and national level.
• For the workers' councils to take the initiative in management and the fight for a new form of self-management.
• To create horizontal and vertical self-management accords.
• To set up national representation of workers' self-management in the form of a Self-Management Chamber of parliament.
• To undertake a campaign for a democratic form of electing the parliament and regional councils.
• To fight to demilitarize the country.
All this is part of the process by which the society will become the master of its history and which will lead to a free and independent Poland. * Rebuilding the structures of Solidarnosc THE PPS considers that in the present crisis situation, when the workers' standard of living is dropping, rebuilding the factory structures of independent trade-unionism must be the principal
For this reason, we call on all the members and sympathizers of the PPS to support and join the factory structures of Solidarnosc that are being rebuilt, and in particular to set up Solidarnosc organizing committees in those enterprises in which they have not yet been established.
The PPS considers freezing of the activities of Solidarosc's trade-union structures awaiting the results of the round-table discussions to be a grave error. We will only get what we win!