As referendum rebuffs regime, oppositionists In Hungary on the referendum.
IMRE UTAZO
• What is the situation in the factories?
There is a lot of discussion going on in factories. The appeals of the opposition groups are put up everywhere. The central point discussed is the possibility for increased consumption, partly also the workers' councils problem of the future of the factories. If the productivity principle is consistently implemented, this will put the continued existence of many factories and combines movement develops in question. Many factories and combines do not function efficiently, and suffer from severe weaknesses in innovation.
I talked to colleagues in the Leuna works who spoke in the following way:
"We do not have any desire to go on work-
THE COMMUNIST PARTY, re-christened the Socialist ing in this filth (the Leuna works is the
Party, was clearly rebuffed in the referendum held biggest polluter of our country, but we also do not want to be without work."
November 26, in which the principal disputed question
They call for experts, economists and was the date of the projected presidential elections. Four technocrats, who are now urgently needopposition parties — the League of Free Democrats, the ed, to take a position on these problems.
The technocrats are being called on to rep-
Federation of Young Democrats, the Social Democratic resent the interests of the workers.
Party and the Independent Smallholders Party - had collected the necessary 100,000 signatures to force a
• The founding meeting of a nationwide United Left will take place at referendum on the issue. They wanted the vote for the end of November. What are your president to come after the election of the new perspectives and what do you multi-party parliament, rather than before, on January 7, expect from the left in other counthe date set by the regime.
tries?
Our priority is to put forward the idea of
The vote was almost evenly divided, and the final results socialism as something that is relevant have not yet been announced as we go to press. But the today. Wide sections of the population
Socialist Party presidential candidate, Imre Pozsgay, have turned away from this idea as a result conceded in the evening of November 26 that the of the lies of the bureaucracy, who claimed that we already had a developed opposition had a clear edge. The regime seems, thus, to socialist society here. We need to work have accepted defeat.
out transitional demands for this.
The largest opposition party, the Democratic Forum, also
This is the context in which we approach the question of connections with suffered a rebuff. It had called for a boycott of the the international left. We can see that referendum, but the turnout was over 58%. The
Comoecon does not represent a workable
Democratic Forum has a presidential candidate of its alternative model to integration in the
EEC and that there is a danger that the rich own, but reportedly is inclined to give a certain tacit
West will buy the East. That means that support to Pozsgay as the guarantor of compromise we have to work out solid political conbetween the regime and the opposition.
cepts to combat the greed of the financial
The other opposition parties have expressed fears of a sharks with the left in the East and also in
West Germany. We also consider it plebiscitary maneuver to create a monarchical important to work out, together with the presidency as a bulwark of continuity. They argued that
West German left, a defensible point of before the parliamentary elections, which are supposed view against the demand for reunification that is being raised, above all by rightist to inaugurate a multi-party system, they would have circles. Another question is, what possidifficulty in mounting a campaign against Posgay.
bilities are open to the left in the West to
A Free Democrat representative, Ivan Peto, has said that influence the forms of economic help. The fact is that the GDR cannot overcome its his party is not against direct elections for president in technological backwardness from its own principle, if the president's role were purely ceremonial.
resources. Financial help and credits are
But he did not think that Pozsgay, an outspoken leader of needed and perhaps even debt cancellathe local variant of perestroika, was interested in being a tion. This needs to be done without conditions and not, as has already been hinted at figurehead.
many times, on the condition that finan-
The following article reflects views held by some left cial circles in the West are allowed to use the credits to interfere in the GDR. Here perhaps, there are some bases for common action. But common work with the left in the East is just as important as with the
West. *
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EAST GERMANY / HUNGARY 11
International Viewpoint #75 • December 11, 1989
HUNGARY
A NEW experience for the Hun-
will looking to parliament to find out what the future holds. Since the introduction of a multi-party system and the self-transformation of the ruling communist party, the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party (HSWP), into the Hungarian Socialist Party (HSP) [See IV 172] the seat of power has moved along the Danube from the party building, the "White House" to the Westminster-style
The new HSP leadership around Imre Poszgay has accelerated the transition towards "parliamentary democracy" economic liberalization, often cutting the ground from under the opposition's feet. Thus, at the congress of the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF), the main opposition organization, which has a Christian democrat and a social democrat wing, an alliance with the new HSP was seriously considered "in order to bring about a peaceful but determined transition to democracy." The congress also decided to put forward Lajos Für as its candidate for the presidential elections. A historian well-known to other historians, Für is unknown to the wider public and seems to be a "sacrificial" candidate to allow Poszgay to be elected and open the way to an agreement between the two parties. Some such formula as Poszgay president/MDF majority in the future assembly seems to be the option most discussed in Budapest today. But the electors, who have been deprived of electoral expression for decades, could spring
Pozsgay burdened by his past in Communist Party
While Poszgay is doing well in the polls, he has a weak point: his membership of the HSP and his past in the HSWP. The removal of every symbol, not only of Stalinism but of the whole Communist tradition (red stars on), as well as the demand for entry into the Socialist International have not until now been enough to convince the Hungarians, who have been giving the MDF majorities in by-elections. And far from gathering in the 300,000 militants hoped for during the congress.
15,000 and 20,000 members today, with the hope that the presidential campaign will increase the figure. The 85% vote in favour of the transformation into the HSP at the congress has not overcome the hesitations of the expected to join the new party and who lack confidence in its prospects.
All the more so in that there is a trend towards a revival of the old HSWP, one the ultra-conservatives led by Kádár's one-time secretary, Robert Ribanszki; the other around the conservative 12 Communists headed by Károly Grosz, ex-general secretary of the HSWP. The former by allying themselves with other small. Stalinist groupings such as the Marxist-Leninist Workers Party, United Workers Party and the Democratic People's Party for Unity, can hope for 10,000 members. Grosz is looking for 100,000 members. Even so, the HSWP's old membership of 720,000 is a thing of the past. The ex-members are hesitating — above all the full-timers and functionaries, who are waiting to see which way the wind will blow.
The test of November 26, when the referendum imposed by the neo-liberal Thatcher-style opposition, the Alliance of Free Democrats, (SzDSz) and the Federation of Young Democrats (FIDESz), will provide them with their first answer. The referendum will put four questions
1. Do they want to elect the head of state by universal suffrage before the legislative elections or to have the president elected by the new parliament?
2. Do they agree that the party should leave the workplaces?
3. Should it list its goods and proper-
4. Should the workers' militia (the party old guard) be disbanded?
Right whips up prevailing anti-communism
Only the first has a real importance, since the three others have already been decided. But whipping up the prevailing anti-communism is tactically profitable for the radical right, who want to speed up the changes in order to foil the PSH's plans and not wait for a response from the workers to the government's first
The economic situation in Hungary is just as confused as the political situation. The opening to foreign capital, encouraged at the highest levels of the government, and the agreements with the International Monetary Fund on the debt will have consequences that may upset all the plans. The first measures to be taken are aimed at the workers and the least privileged layers. The recent decision to limit the allocations of foreign currency to $50 per person per year, in the name of reducing the balance-ofpayments deficit, has been seen as profoundly unfair since it only affects those layers of the population that do not have access to the black market in hard curren-
The massive introduction of foreign capital into the Hungarian economy is speeding up. For example, the British press baron, Robert Maxwell, has taken a 40% stake in the Hungarian government daily Magyar Hirlap, which is no longer the government's organ. His adversary Rupert Murdoch has picked up the challenge and is showing an interest in the weekly Reform, which is close to the MDF.
This foreign penetration is most sharply felt in industry. Symposiums and meetings are multiplying. Foreign investors are being wooed and offered the choicest morsels of the Hungarian economy. The first concrete steps have set the workers' teeth on edge. The promised benefits for them in terms of wages have turned out to be crumbs at best. The workers have responded by creating workers' councils, which are raising the problem of the ownership of the enterprise.
Such workers' councils have come into being in a number of places in the past weeks. The first councils were set up on the initiative of the SzDSz, such as at the Herend porcelain factory, where its purpose was to sell the enterprise to foreign capital. Then, the MDF, at the same time as creating its own trade union, Hungarian Solidarity, set up councils in order to outflank the official trade union (SZOT). Now, faced with a deteriorating economic situation, it is the left of the PSH, organized around the "People's Democracy" platform, that is encouraging the setting up of councils that are truly representative and independent of the managers. They are linking up with local teams who are refusing to see their enterprise privatized, with the effect that this would have on those employed there.
Workers' councils congress in December
This movement has only begun and there is much confusion over what the real role of the councils should be -simple enterprise committees tied to management or real organs of workers' self-management. But a congress to coordinate the workers' councils has already been called for the start of December to which all the currents have been invited. The aim is to set up an ongoing liaison committee and a national federation of councils that can force the adoption of a law on ownership and "prevent the sale of the country". For the moment, contacts with the official union and regional and sectoral unions are difficult, although the metalworkers' union is supporting the setting up of councils in its sector.
This beginning of independent working class organization, linked to the emergence of independent unions in some enterprises may turn out to be the spanner in the works of the political projects underway. The HSP is in the firing line in this debate: the split between partisans of economic liberalization and of "self-government" is going to widen. The political realignments underway will also be affected by this process. More than ever, international solidarity with those who go into struggle - such as the Pécs miners this summer - will influence the way things develop. *