Respond to the appeal of the
Polish workers
Three new events, not apparently directly linked, have pushed the failure of the November 10 strike in Poland into the background: the decision of Pope John Paul II to visit Poland next June, the death of Leonid Brezhnev and the release of Lech
General Jaruzelski's decision to end the detention of the Solidarnose leader, who has been isolated for months in Ariamowo prison, is certainly not unrelated to the low response to this strike and the sudden disappearance of Brezhnev. This gave a little respite to the head of the military junta who is faced with incessant attacks from the hardline wing of the Polish United Workers Party (PUWP). Over the last few months the 'orthodox' like Grabski have not found words hard enough
'spinelessness' and "liberalism' in general towards the 'counter-revolutionaries' of Solidarnosc.
Thus, General Jaruzelski's gesture aims to conciliate that faction in the apparatus convinced that it would be impossible to restart the economy without giving something to entice the workers, and give back a certain credibility to the idea of 'national understanding. The 'understanding', that the Catholic hierarchy have been shaking like a rattle since the crackdown on Sunday, December 13, 1981, even going so far as to make an appeal for social peace on the eve of November 10, enjoining the workers not to strike.
For those who have followed the development of events since the strikes of August 1980 this attitude is nothing new and confirms the position taken previously by leaders of the Polish church. They have consistently alternated their declarations of support for Solidarnose with appeals to the peaceful spirit and the 'reason' of the workers. The apparently up and down policy of the Catholic hierarchy towards the mobilisation of the working class only reflects the contradication in which it has found itself ever since the strikes of August 1980. It is caught between the pressure of the toiling masses, which constitute the base on which it rests to assert its authority vis-a-vis the regime, on the one side, and its desire to win the good favour of the bureaucracy, on the other. For decades the Church has been ready to make an agreement with the bureaucracy, every time that it seemed necessary to safeguard its own interests, claiming the role of arbiter on the Polish political scene.
However, this is one of the first times for two years that it has so clearly spoken out against the hopes of the mass of workers. Whatever the doubts many of them have had on the possibility of this strike being successful, they considered it impossible not to react to the decision of the bureaucracy to outlaw
The appeal of the Polish primate, Monsignor Glemp, against the November 10 strike, which went so far as to describe his interview with General Jaruzelski as 'very constructive' - under the pretext that the authorities had in principle accepted the visit of Pope John Paul next June - provoked much anger and bitterness among the ranks of the Solidarnose militants. It is impossible to know today if this step was made with the agreement of Lech Walesa, and if the release of Walesa fits in with an overall plan for ongoing dialogue with Jaruzelski.
WORKERS RESISTANCE ENTERS DIFFICULT STAGE
Nevertheless, it is clear that the working class which has received this avalanche of 'sensational' news is rather bewildered The joy of knowing that Lech Walesa is free conflicts, for many workers, with doubts about the significance of this sudden decision. At the same time as they are taking part in masses and gatherings to celebrate winning one of the principal demands of the resistance movement of the last eleven months, many of them have clearly expressed their fears that they are once again being manipulated by the minority in power.
Their disarray is of such a scope that one cannot attribute the failure of the November 10 strike simply to the demobilising appeal by Monsignor Glemp.
The workers, and in particular the workers in the big enter prises, did not follow the clandestine leadership of Solidarnosc, despite its reiterated appeals to prepare for an eight-hour strike throughout the country, and despite their own appeals for mobilisation addressed to all the population, as in the case of the Nowa Huta steelworks near Cracow. In many regions, after the appeal of the Temporary Co-ordinating Commission (TKK) on Saturday October 9, more than one worker expressed doubts about the possibility of successfully co-ordinating a strike on a national level, when links between various regions, and even between enterprises in the same town, prove to be very difficult. These doubts were reinforced by the relative paralysis of the Solidarnosc national leadership at the time of the recent strike in Gdansk, which ended up with the shipyard workers going • back to work just as scattered support stikes and demonstrations were starting throughout the country, although without any clear directive on the part of the TKK
Besides, the idea of four hours general strike as a warning, without any clear indication as to the following stage of the mobilisation, appeared to many as adventurist, especially after the thousands of sackings and the many arrests which marked the solidarity initiatives with the Gdansk shipyards. How could one hold out against security forces for four hours — or even more for eight hours — after the decision by the TKK to prolong the duration of the strike - without it resulting in terrible repression, given the lack of preparation for self-defence in the
Contrary to the superficial statements made by the Western press, the failure of the strike was not caused by fear and demobilisation but by the caution expressed by the most combative workers, who refused to take part in an action they judged adventurist, and whose purpose they did not fully perceive.
However, the combativity of the Polish working class continues to express itself, notably by the broad scope of the boycott of the new unions. Even the official press is compelled to acknowledge this in a covert way. In that sense it really is a popular referendum that we are seeing, a referendum that is repudiating the minority in power.
The outlawed Polish workers and Solidarnose more than ever need our help to surmount the organisational and political obstacles that the resistance movement confronts.
Since last August 31 the repressive policy of the Military Council of National Salvation (WRON) has become more and more brutal. Certainly, there are 'only' 600 or 700 internees. But, just before the demonstrations called by Solidarnosc, known militants — particularly ex-internees - were systematically arrested and put 'out of circulation' for forty-eight hours. Many were not released.
There are 3,000 prisoners already sentenced at least, and more likely double that number, if we take the estimates of the enquiry groups composed of militants and lawyers of Solidarnose who have had to traverse the whole country to find the sparse information on the state of repression. As for the people waiting for trial, there were already 3,000 at the beginning of October. How many must there be now, after the arrests made during the mid-October and the November 10 demonstrations?
The conditions of imprisonment are worsening, according to the reports in the underground press. Many prisoners are
seriously ill — and precise information on their situation cannot the military crackdown. It has often been thanks to their initiatives that the trade unions have decided to do something.
Given this stark reality the solidarity demonstrations of the international workers movement with the women and men who SOLIDARITY OF THE INTERNATIONAL defended their most elementary democratic and trade union rights are more decisive than ever. Over the last year many After the November 10 strike, we have to increase the steps initiatives have been taken, by trade unions as well as solidarity to broaden the workers movement campaign and to prove that committees. These have given political, moral, and material only the workers are really capable of giving support to the support to the Polish workers in struggle, and to all those impri- Polish sisters and brothers in struggle.
While we are seeing a systematic attempt in all the capitalist
The mobilisations of the international workers movement, countries by the right wing parties to again use Solidarnose for inadequate though they may have been, have shown that it was their anti-Communist aims, and to try and broaden their popupossible to move the trade-union leaderships and to organise lar audience, the Polish working class must realise that the concrete solidarity actions. Very often it has been the work- demagogic declarations of Ronald Reagan, or Michel Pinton, place union committees and the local branches which have deputy of French Democratic Union - recently on television taken up this solidarity work, such as the meetings organised shedding crocodile tears over the fate of Walesa — have nothing soon after the military crackdown of the Polish generals by the to do with the solidarity of the working class. The working
Workers Commissions of the General Workers Union (UGT) in population in Poland must be able to see in practice that only the Basque country, as well as in other regions of the Spanish the working class have an interest in the victory of an organised working class, which is going to fight against a minority to give
Young workers have played an important role in this fight meaning to its rights, and to take its affairs into its own hands.
to make the trade-union leaderships take a positon. In Austria, •We are convinced that in supporting Solidarnose you will for example, the organisation of young trade unionists (OEGJ also find an effective way for defending the fundamental intedemanded that the powerful Austrian Confederation of Trade rests and rights of workers, stated the open letter from the
Unions (OEGB) took responsibility for giving aid to the families Solidarnosc Warsaw Inter-Workplace Workers Committee to the of internees and exiles from Solidarnosc, and that it improved trade unions and workers parties of the West.(1) 'For today and the information of the Polish trade union movement in the offi- the days that lie ahead we are depending on you for help and solidarity. That is what we look for most of all from you.' We
When the trade union leaderships have taken the initiative in cannot allow them to hope in vain.
mobilising, as in France or Italy, after December 13, the breadth Monday, December 13, anniversary of the installation of the of the demonstrations has shown the response to their call state of war, must be the occasion for us to show the Polish among the workers, whose hopes have turned towards Poland workers that we are with them and that the international for the last sixteen months. The unity in action of different con- workers movement is ready to engage itself with all its might to federations has each time been the strongest lever in convincing make the bureaucratic clique in uniform pay the bill.
the workers to concretely demonstrate their solidarity. Wherever they are active it is the duty of revolutionary
Having said that, we cannot insist too strongly on the essen- Marxists to build the movement of solidarity with Solidarnosc, tial role of the solidarity with Solidarnosc committees - many to give a positive response to the appeal which the Polish of which date from before December 13 - with the public workers have made to us.
meetings and rallies they have organised, and the more or less Solidarnose lives and will live!
regular bulletins that they have distributed. Their work has been vital in giving real information on the aims and objectives of 'Open