CZECHOSLOVAKIA / EASTERN EUROPE
The working class and the democratic should legally pursue and curtail at work only those against whom it can be concretely proved that they committed a crime - which does not mean merely for supporting the old regime. (The exdissidents could bring charges on the grounds of supporting the old regime against all those who voted in elections, were in the official trade union movement or who did not sign the [dissident] document "Some Sentences".)
At the same time many people are saying that it is not necessary to outlaw the KSC, merely to expose the Communists - both present and former. Even those
THE FOLLOWING discussion on the current state of working who left the KSC 20 years ago but were class consciousness in the GDR, Poland, Hungary and the members in the 50s. This is not a fantasy.
USSR was organized by In precor, the French language sister
These are the real accents of the present of wave global primitive publication of International Viewpoint. The participants in the anti- communism.....
discussion were Annett Seese, an East German student and a
This demagogy, calling people to a member of the United Left in Leipzig; Milka Tyszkiewicz, from
"just" war on Communism uses deceitful
Poland, a member of the Socialist Political Centre in Wroclaw;
terminology. Slogans such as "democracy from below",
"direct democracy",
"per-
Laszlo Andor, a Hungarian economist and a member of the manent revolution" are being bandied
Left Alternative; and Poul Larsson, a member of the SAP, the about. As someone who has used this ter-
Danish section of the Fourth International, who has recently minology for a long time, I must categorireturned from a visit to Moscow and Siberia. Questions are by fanaticism cally that
State and vengefulness have nothing to do with its real content. This does not of course mean that our revolution should not constantly refer back to these ideas or struggle to make our democracy a democracy for everybody, complementing its parliamentary basis with self-managing and direct democracy. Social conflicts, the struggle over the ownership of the means of production and the two-year period for preparing a constitution and the development of political life will give us plenty of opportunity.
Swelling wave of anti-Communism
Who benefits from the swelling wave of indiscriminate anti-Communism?
answer can be found in the opinion polls.
The OF is losing popularity those threatened are being driven together. Without this campaign the KSC would probably have lost even more people and would have had trouble getting over the
5% barrier. If the campaign gets stronger, we can expect that the KSC will get 20-
30% of the votes. The autumn local elections will be even worse. The people who will vote for it will not be voting for some kind of overall programme, but for institutions that will defend their basic rights
-to work according to their qualifications, of their children to education and so on. No wonder. We can wonder, however, who is responsible for the campaign.
And we can wonder that people do not see how the secretariat of the KSC's central committee are rubbing their hands with glee. In individual cases we can even ask whether the agreement of interests between the anti-Communist and Comapparatchiks is accidental munist or whether someone is behind it. *
W HAT has been the atti-
tude of the working recent events in Eastern Europe? ANNETT SEESE: The first problem in the GDR is that the movement did not start from the working class, but has been a movement of the entire people, and has been experienced as such. It is thus difficult to speak of a specific attitude of the working class. It must be stressed that the movement preceded and brought about the political changes, which in their turn allowed new political activities.
Already in May 1989, during the preceding elections, a series of activities had been carried out to criticize the way they were organized and show that they were being manipulated by the bureaucracy. It was a first step, taken not by the working class, but by people coming from the working class and the intelligentsia, acting together. Then, there was the huge mass movement.....of the rush towards the West! And, finally, the mass demonstrations of last October, in Leipzig. These demonstrations developed church, which had previously been the rallying point for those who wished to emigrate to West Germany. In October, the main slogan was here!". At that time, there was certainly an important working class participation, but the working class was not there as a specific social category. Strikes only began much later, in the form of "warning strikes". But these consisted of walk-
Inprecor. outs - the workers would leave their factories, express their demands, then return to work, even working extra hours to make up for those that had been "lost". POUL LARSSON: I am the honorary Russian for this evening...it is clear that the working class in the Soviet Union represents a social body of more than 100 million workers who are present at different levels and under different forms in the political struggles currently underway, notably during the elections and so on. Important differences also exist at the level of the republics — I want to give here two concrete examples of workers' activity in Russia.
During the last few months, we have witnessed "uprisings" in several of the principal industrial towns of the USSR, in Tioumen, in Sverdlosk, in the Urals and in Western Siberia. The information we have is limited because, for example, all communications have been cut between Sverdlosk and the rest of the country. We know however that there have been important demonstrations and strikes and that, following this, the local leaderships - particularly conservative - of the Communist Party (CPSU) have resigned in these two towns. These events are also very important at the level of their repercussions inside the CPSU, for it should not be forgotten that nearly 40% of its members are workers.
The general feeling largely prevalent ticularly anti-bureaucratic Ruis in is udes 11 ticularly anti-bureaucratic - this includes April 9, 1990 • #182 International Viewpoint
----- pull-quotes on this page -----
revolution
EASTERN EUROPE a defense of glasnost and a genuine pluralism, as well as a break with the leadership of the CPSU. The miners have produced the most advanced political program up until now in the different areas where there were important strikes last summer. This movement developed and expressed itself at different levels during the elections to the soviets — some miners put themselves forward for election, even against party candidates, which is very significant. MILKA TYSZKIEWICZ: As know, for the majority of the Polish working class, the market has become a kind of universal alternative to self-management, to socialism. In the consciousness of the workers, the very word "socialism" has become synonymous with Stalinism.
In the spring of 1988 and the summer of 1989, during the strike waves that preceded the "round table" accords, the working class was not divided and constituted a bloc against the bureaucracy. After the "round table" accords, the working class divided into two — a group supporting Walesa and his political line, and another demonstrating in the street. During the last five months, after the application of the austerity measures of the new Mazowiecki government, this second group has also split in two. A first group, very radical, has decided to cooperate again with Walesa so as to maintain the unity of the working class. But, to the extent that the leadership of Solidarnos has put itself to work with the enemies of yesterday, the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) and Jaruzelski, the notion of the "common enemy to overthrow" has disappeared and certain members of this group have begun to speak of fascism as the only alternative which can resolve the political crisis. They have started to demand "guillotines" to "cut off the heads of all the leftists".... That said, these groups remain
There exists also among the working
12
International Viewpoint #182 • April 9, 1990 class a great interest in everything that happens in the neighboring countries, notably in the Baltic states (a part of these belonged to Poland before the second world war). The debate on German reunification, the uprising in Czechoslovakia and in Rumania have also had a very deep
An idea which is very present is that of the necessity of preserving national independence at all costs. Some of the government's measures have been rejected by the workers because they could imperil independence, through the sale of Polish factories to foreigners. For these same reasons, the idea of self-management has also begun to regain an audience amongst the workers. But the problem is how to combine this will for independence with links with the West, believed to be none the less necessary. LASZLO ANDOR: So far as the attitude of the Hungarian working class during the recent events is concerned, it is necessary first to make it clear that the situation is not at all the same as in the other coun tries, even if there appear to be some simi-
You have to take into account here the attitude of the workers in relation to what is called in Hungary the PI, the "peaceful transition"...towards the restoration of capitalism! Because the PT is very much on the order of the day in Hun-
This state of mind is the result of the history of the past decades - the dramatic level of the country's debt, the worsening of the exploitation of the workers, the fall in their standard of living and their salaries. The workers, then, react very violently to all that they consider as being the cause of this growing economic and social crisis.
1989 was a year of great hopes and illusions for the working class and the whole of the society. After 40 years of Stalinist dictatorship, very much was expected of problems. There was a tremendous optimism. That this happened without the effective participation of the workers. The new parties founded without any base in the workers' ment came when it was revealed that the new parties were not noticeably better than the old single their leaders were not particularly more intelligent! It is possible to distinguish three kinds of attitude in response to this. Firstly, among certain workers, a rejection of all this political show, of pluralism and so on, and a total demobilization. The second group could be tempted to vote for the right, under the influence of the mass media which repeats day in and day out that socialism represents a shameful parenthesis in our history, that the USSR has played an ignoble role in Hungary, and so on. And finally, a small minority of workers, amongst the most conscious, in the councils, the trade unions and the little parties of the left -and also the Hungarian Socialist Party (HSP) or the Socialist Workers Party (HSWP), the two wings coming out of the split in the old Communist Party in power — who are going to oppose this peaceful transition.
Has socialism a future? • Does it follow from all this, as some claim, that socialism no longer has a future and that the working class has no central role to play? MILKA TYSZKIEWICZ; It cannot however be said that the socialist project, understood as a positive utopia, has no future in the East, nor that the working class is totally atomized and won over to the ideals of capitalism. I was able to note, for example, at the last congress of Solidarnose in my region, that the aspiration towards democracy was very powerful. The problem is, of course, that people have very different practices in the name of this same democracy.
In Poland it is possible to find people who have been workers for ten or fifteen years but now possess their own factories...this plays very much upon their con-
ANNETT SEESE: The crisis of the societies in Eastern Europe is besides not uniquely economic and social but also moral - it is a crisis of orientation, of perspectives. In the factories in the GDR it is even possible to hear arguments like this; "If we organize ourselves, if we create workers' councils, that would frighten the capitalists and they would refuse to come and invest in us. Then when we have no money left, the factories will be closed and we will be on the streets. For this reason, we should do nothing...or else, we should create councils like the ones in West Germany, to boost the level of production and attract the capitalists".
Besides, the social situation and the standard of living in the GDR are very dif ferent to those in Rumania or in certain parts of the USSR. Absurd situations exist, like for example the fact that some
STALIN
WASSEDMAN workers earn more money than their bosses. But exploitation is not measured solely at the level of wages. Differences exist, for example, between men and women, not because there isn't equal pay for equal work, but because the traditional women's jobs are less well paid than the predominantly male jobs. The differences in standard of living between the middle bureaucrats and the working class are not really very big, the divide exists often at the level of petty privileges, for example the special shops which are better stocked. Another example of the distortions of the system which confuse consciousness is the myth of free health care. Yes, doctors and dentists are free in the East...but the people would prefer to pay a doctor who really exists in the West, rather than have a phantom doctor in the East!
POUL LARSSON; The role of the working class in the recent events is complex. The workers were largely present and active during the uprisings in the GDR and Czechoslovakia. The workers have played a crucial and significant role during the general strike in Czechoslovakia and the insurrection in Rumania.
In the Soviet Union, it is important to note that the miners have succeeded -after 60 years of institutionalized bureaudictatorship — in formulating political, social, economic or ecological demands at a very high level. That doesn't mean we should cry victory and deduce from this that the socialist paradise has already arrived. But, in the USSR above all, we have good reason to be optimistic. LASZLO ANDOR: In order to really understand the situation in Hungary, you have to return to the particular ideology of the bureaucracy under Kadar, the
043710* PROLETARIAT! nature of the system then. During those years, the workers heard this refrain; "What are we doing? We are building socialism. Why is this a good system? Because the standard of living has not ceased to grow". From the time when the standard of living began to fall, in the mid 1970s, the HSWP regime was put onto the defensive on the ideological plane. The party in power began to become demoralized, incapable of facing up to the economic crisis. The pretended reforms then began from 1987, under the weight of a very aggressive ideological offensive of liberal politics and neo-classical econom-
This "new way of thinking" now enjoys a total hegemony. This does not mean that Marxism and socialism have completely disappeared from the scene; as I have already said a certain vanguard exists amongst the workers and the intelligentsia, which has no illusions in capitalism. But it is totally marginalized in the media and lacks the means to have an impact
Working class organizations • What are the forms of organization of the working class today, and its attitude to the structures already ANNETT SEESE: Until October 1989, the German Federation of Free Trade Unions (FDGB) was the only existing trade union organization. All workers were de facto members of it. It was not then a trade union of militants. Official
EASTERN EUROPE propaganda pretended that property was collective and that the means of production belonged to everyone. But the people did not see things in that way. The FDGB profited very much from its privileged links with the West German trade unions which, in certain circumstances, lavished financial aid upon it.
Beginning in October, a reform movement began at the base of the FDGB to make it a genuine trade union. Other worker militants were of the opinion that the FDGB was not reformable, that the apparatus could not be remodelled and that it was thus necessary to aim towards the creation of independent unions. But the independent unions have remained very much in a minority and exist only in certain cities, like for example Berlin. On the other hand, in Leipzig, in certain small enterprises, workers have begun to put into practice forms of self-management outside of any structure of the trade union or workers' council type.
Moreover, in addition to the traditional unions with elements of self-reform and the small independent unions, there exist three varieties of workers' councils. The first, very much in a minority, considers workers' councils as instruments for the implementation management. A second variant, of which I have already spoken, is based on the involvement of the workers in production, on the West German model. The third advocates representation of the workers amongst the management.
During its recent congress, the FDGB adopted a very radical language — quasirevolutionary! — in defence of the workers and their trade union rights. But it is hard to know if this will be followed through and if it still has enough of a genuine base to put its words into practice.
POUL LARSSON: In the Soviet Union also, there is an official trade union confederation, which has some millions of members, but whose nature as a trade union body is more than debatable, to the extent that it organizes no collective negotiations, no strikes and no wage demands! It functions rather as a structural framework, with some social and cultural activities. With glasnost and the mobilizations, these official trade unions are subject to a strong pressure and must find a new role. One of the possibilities open to them is to take a populist turn. The United Front of the Toilers (UFT) is an example of this (not to be confused with the Popular Fronts and the United Front of the Toilers in Kouzbass). The UFT is linked to the trade union bureaucracy, it employs a workerist rhetoric, attacks the coopcratives, the new millionaires — which is certainly correct - but bases itself also on Great Russian chauvinism. The UFT has without doubt a real mass base for the moment -it is an attempt of the trade union bureauiracy ass. Parallel to this, nce structures of 13 cracy to gain some influence in the workApril 9, 1990 • #182 International Viewpoint
EASTERN EUROPE structures at the national level. The first is a vertical structure, bureaucratic, led by Lech Walesa. It supports totally the BalcerOWiCZ plan (see TV 178, February 12, 1990) and the reforms of the Mazowiecki
Stalinism when their living conditions were not as bad...
I must also mention the Committees of Citizens of Solidarnosc, which are political structures set up before the parliamentary elections. They bring together both factory workers and sections of the intelligentsia and envisage transforming themselves into political parties. But the level of political consciousness of the working class, as opposed to its level of organization, is fairly low.
Under martial law, and a little before, a kind of "clandestine state" existed, composed of groups of intellectuals from the working class and of permanent workers, organized at different levels, in trade unions or in cultural clubs. One of these is the Informal Information Agency. These
- NIE, TYCH POŁEK NIE MOGĘ PANU SPRZEDAC "No, sir I can't sell you the shelves" the trade union type, very much more positive, have also developed. I want to give two examples of this. The first is that of the Socialist Trade Union Federation, Sotsprof. It is difficult to estimate its real strength at the moment. According to one of its leaders who recently toured Great Britain, Sotsprof now groups around 60,000 workers, whereas it had less than 10,000 last summer. Sotsprof organizes workers in transport, in some factories, in steel and also has contacts with the miners. The second example is still more important - it concerns once more the miners who have not dissolved their strike committees which continue to function. The committees have their own publications and have sometimes taken control of the official trade unions. A sort of dual sitsometimes exists between the trade unions and the strike committees. The miners have created the United Front of the Toilers of Kouzbass, whilst at the same time the official trade unions created another organization, having practically the same name, to keep control of the workers of the region. The struggle continues between these two groups. The miners will soon be organizing a national conference which will undoubtedly have repercussions throughout the country. MILKA TYSZKIEWICZ: A multitude of workers' organizations exist today in Poland and the situation can be summarized in the well known witticism - every time two Poles meet, three organizations are founded...and there are 35 million
Leaving aside the Stalinist organizations or those linked to the Church...I will content myself with speaking briefly about some of the organizations linked to Solidarnosc or to the clandestine activities of the working class in the 1980s. Solorganization with, roughly, one single type of membership. Today, a series of little organizations exist having very comnearly two million members, with tw licated structures. Solidarnosc now ha International Viewpoint #182 • April 9, 1990
La horizontal the different industrial sectors. Today, there are 25 structures of this type organized at the base by the workers. This problem is very intimately linked to the workers' consciousness, or in any case that of the members of Solidarnosc. At first, everybody was in favour of capitalist "laissczfaire" but when people saw that it had become difficult to find work, when they had tasted the popular soup of Mr. Kuron, and when they had seen the real nature of the paradise which they had expected, they began to organize themselves.
Thus, in my region, the enterprise-based trade unions used to pass on 25% of the dues of their members to the regional structures - recently, they have decided to reduce this proportion to 10% and keep the rest for their own expenses. The majority of this sum is henceforth to be devoted to these horizontal structures. There also exist regional territorial structures, the networks. These are essentially groups from different enterprises in the same city or region who together for local activities.
Some clandestine structures of Solidarnosc continue still to function at the regional level, with regional strike committees. The majority of their members belong also to the legal trade union, but maintain their clandestine structures, their equipment, and so on. I must also mention "Fighting Solidarosc", another clandestine organization, which is half way between a classical trade union and a political organization. Politically, "Fighting Solidarnosc" can be placed in the social democratic current — initially, under martial law, it had a radical enough program on self-management, then it veered to the right.
Another interesting fact is that, since nearly a year ago, a trade union of sectors of the army and, more recently, a police trade union have begun to organize themselves. There is also a structure of Solidarnosc of small peasant proprietors which also organizes the agricultural workers on state farms. They are very radical and are almost nostalgic for the good old days of kinds of agency existed even at the factory level with structures independent of Solidarnosc. Today, they are important, the leadership of Solidarosc tries to dominate the media, notably the television where the news emanating from the bureaucracy has simply been replaced by that emanating from Solidarnosc.
LASZLO ANDOR: The last decade of economic crisis has weighed very much on the evolution of the trade unions because the workers have been disorientated by these unions which did not defend their interests, despite the fall in the standard of living and of wages. But, paradoxically, the official trade unions decline. They have however been paralyzed, losing their capacity for mobiliza-
It was an ideal situation for the proponents of the peaceful transition. Under capitalism, the trade unions could only be a source of problems, of conflicts, and so it was best to weaken them to the maximum in this period of transition. There has pressure to fragment the trade unions, and create a multitude of groups so as to divide the workers — the League of Independent Trade Unions (LITU) and Solidarity are two examples of this. The LITU is under the thumb of the Free Democrats who are one of the right wing organizations in our multiparty system. Certainly, there are honest trade unionists in these two groups — more in Solidarity than in the LITU - but the effects of this division have been disastrous for the workers. The parties of the right and these new structures have demoralized the old trade unions and tried to destroy them. Of course, very many of the leaders of the old trade unions were corrupt, they did not do their work as trade unionists and contented themselves with observing developments. They complain incessantly not being consulted about the measures which are taken, sometimes attempting to organize strikes, but they have lost their capacity for initiative. As to the groups of the right, they are too preoccupied with their parliamentary tasks, by the privatiza-
----- photo credits and running heads -----
DUCKA
tions, and so on, to have the time to take any interest in trade union questions. Except when it comes to attacking the old leaders. For example, they launch attacks in the press on the corruption of the trade union leaders — which is correct. But the principal reproach which they address to them is not to do with their passivity in the face of government decisions (for these trade unions act as transmission belts for the regime) but rests on the fact that they menace the peaceful transition to capital-
But, after the elections, the attacks against the trade union movement will be still harder and, because of the disarray of the workers, it will be even harder for them to defend themselves. The real around the necessity of creating a new and geninterests of the workers. It is in this context that the movement of workers' councils must be analyzed. Historically, workers' councils have
WORKERS recourse for the working class, when it could no heard by other means — Hungary today. of the economy are preparing to sell the factories and enterprises of the country to foreign many workers have doubts about this economic robbery of the peaceful transition, about the privatizations and the selloffs of state property. There are of course some notable differences between the marvellous abstract capitalism and actually existing capitalism. Besides, in most cases, the new local capitalists or the new managers are none other than the former enriched bureaucrats or the former directors, the very people whose management has led the economy and the enterprises to bankruptcy! Which poses some problems in the minds of the people...
The workers have realized that their factories are going to be sold at very low prices and that in the future they will have no right to participate in decisions in the enterprise. So they want to forestall this and create a counter power - this is one of the reasons for the creation of workers'
Another factor, especially in the small towns, is that the workers no longer want their factories to be mere subsidiaries of the big enterprises, and so they want to take in hand the management of these
Two conceptions and objectives underlie the formation of workers' councils. Initially, it was about substituting for the decaying trade unions and taking their place. These first councils were led by supporters of the Democratic Forum. That tied in with their strategy for the destruction of the trade union movement. A second conception then appeared, according to which the workers' councils must coexist with the trade unions and play a com-
Today this conception seems to predominate in the majority of
The movement for workers' councils is in full flow in Hungary, their number has not ceased to grow, above all in the last few months. The first national meeting of workers' councils was held in December 1989, with 20 trade union delegates, well as representatives of the political parties and other movements. The second meeting, which took place last February, brought together more than 50 delegates and established a national council and a trade union information bureau. This bureau works with the intellectuals who are sympathetic to the workers and who play a role not of "proselytism" in favour of the creation of new councils, but of help and assistance to the workers who want to create councils in their factories.
Workers and the market • What is the attitude of the working class to the privatizations, the market reforms, and the bureaucracy's attempts at self-reform? LASZLO ANDOR: In Hungary, it would be difficult for us to speak of "mar ket reforms"...This was still valid in the preceding period, when the Communist Party initiated these reforms. But, today, it would be more accurate to speak of the total restoration of capitalism and the
EASTERN EUROPE market!
The attitude of the workers remains fairly neutral. The policy was decided above their heads and only the party leaderships have had the opportunity to express their views on it. The workers have not then really had the chance to realize what has happened in the country other than through the fall in wages and the rise in prices and the rate of inflation! MILKA TYSZKIEWICZ: In general, the problem of the market reforms has always been linked to the attitude of the working class to the bureaucracy and to bureaucratic planning. Two kinds of altitude exist on the way to approach the problem of the bureaucracy. A first group in the opposition ports certain sectors of the bureaucracy, hoping 3Aт: thus to divide it and play
N253 another. This first tenthe market reforms and Polish industry, class". I'm not speaking but rather of the other hand, there is also a very strong rank and file movement agamst the bureaucracy. divided into two "social-democratic" parties which are led by the people who imposed martial law at the beginning of the 1980s! As a consequence, some people, like Kuron and Modzelewski, who used to refer to themselves as democrats, have become rather embarrassed because the very concept is discredited. Modzelewski has even had to write a fairly critical article to clarify his attitude towards this concept.
The new social democracy of the Republic of Poland refers to nationalist and anti-semitic ideas, plays on the fear of German reunification, denounces "certain Jews who played an infamous role in the Stalinist period", and supports Monsignor Glemp, the Polish primate, in the conflict around the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz. This is the first time in the history of the relationship between the Communist Party and the Church that a speech by a high-ranking Catholic dignitary has been published in full in the CP's newspaper!
As to the reforms, the spokespeople for the bureaucracy - and above all Rakowski - on the one hand boast of having initiated them, and, on the other, do not hesitate to say that the government today CP/Solidarnos government) and that, April 9, 1990 • #182 International Viewpoint
EASTERN EUROPE consequently, it is Solidarnosc that bears the entire responsibility for the (unpopular) measures... The bureaucracy uses the Stalinist official trade unions (OPZZ) to attack the Mazowiecki government.
A part of the bureaucracy continues to enrich itself, notably with speculation on the exchange rate of the dollar and the zloty, through contact with foreign entrepreneurs. It expands its business relations with foreign capitalists and serves as a political cover for them. In exchange, the capitalists provide 99% of the tal...but the profits are divided equally. They buy the enterprises - as in Hungary - of which they are directors or technical engineers, which they have directed in the past with such incompetence! In some cases, they sabotage production to lower the price at which the factories can be sold, and then, after their privatization, they pocket huge profits.
The market has become a universal alternative to bureaucratic When you go into the factories to ask the workers if they support the introduction of the market, they will respond almost unanimously in the affirmative. But if you ask them what the market means to them concretely, they reply that it means the absence of inflation, low prices, high salaries, enrichment and happiness for everybody! It is, to say the least, a very idyllic vision of capitalism...
But what is essential is the process of becoming conscious of the reality of capitalism. To the extent that information on this subject comes from the West and people realize that Poland has no chance in the event of a complete opening to the competition of the world market, the working class will begin to seek other solutions. But, for the moment, no credible mass alternative exists to the Balce-
There is a real absence of initiatives coming from the working class. The workers sense that they can launch strike movements - which is easy, they know how to do it — but they have no alternative project. This leads to a certain paraly-
It is interesting to see how the discussion on self-management has evolved in this context. There is a real tradition of self-management in Poland, with structures on a national scale, such as the Self-Management Forum, which has existed for nearly ten years. It consists of mixed structures, based essentially on the original workers of Solidarnosc. Solidarnosc the structures of self-management had already tried to kick the bureaucrats out of the factories, notably by replacing them with its own supporters. But they then met with serious difficulties - it was impossible for them to resolve the crisis at the scale of single factories. Thus, Solidarnosc's project (dating from 198081) of a self-managed republic has been • progressively abandoned, and many people have turned towards other models, International Viewpoint #182 • April 9, 1990 notably the American or West German models of co-management or workers' shareholdings in the factories. But all this is not yet very concrete.
POUL LARSSON: In the USSR, it is necessary to take into account the egalitarian sentiment and certain socialist values which are very much more anchored in the consciousness of the workers than in the other countries of Eastern Europe. Despite all the criticisms of the regime, the working class is determined to defend its full employment and the stability of the prices of certain consumption goods and rents. But, the radical partisans of the market play a very important role at the ideological level, notably in the media. The introduction of private cooperatives, nearly three years ago, represented the first important test of the reaction to the market reforms. In the context of general anarchy that characterizes the Soviet economy, these cooperatives have had the opportunity to make huge profits, buying products very cheap and selling them very dear, thanks to the generalized scarcity of a series of basic necessities. This has led to a violent reaction from the workers. One of the demands of the miners, for example, was the pure and simple abolition of the cooperatives, or at least the application of measures of restriction against them. These restrictions already exist, through the means of regulations and commissions, including at a national
This economic anarchy has created new contradictions within society, which certain groups of workers have been able to profit from. Thanks to the liberal reforms, some factories have been able to reconvert themselves towards the production of more expensive goods and to realize important financial which the workers have also benefitted.
The scarcity of consumer goods has
SOUP!
REFORM engendered a real pressure in favour of the market, with its usual quota of illusions. But the danger is that the use of these kind of mechanisms could diffuse the idea that the introduction of the market could permit a more equitable redistribution thanks to the law of supply and demand. Tensions develop between regions which accuse each other of exploitation or hoarding of products. ANNETT SEESE: Is it necessary to speak again of what the East German workers think of the market? This said, the fashionable slogan today is "All freedom to the market...but a social and ecological market!" Everybody believes it, and it is absurd. In fact, these problems have never been really discussed - what is the market, how could we have an ecological market, and so on. The market is vulgarly identified with liberty and the plan to a prison. If you say to people that capitalism is in fact still more planned, and still more "disorganized" than bureaucratic planning, you are immediately treated as a Stalinist, SED supporter, and so on. People even think that the market will suppress all administrative bureaucracy, every formal and bureaucratic procedure linked to the functioning of the state.
Worse still, the demand for the market is perceived by the workers as essentially progressive. Very many amongst them say that some price rises and a certain level of unemployment are inevitable with the market, indeed necessary...but nobody is ready to lose his or her own job! Thus, in absolute terms, people want the market, whilst being ready to combat its concrete manifestations, like price rises or unem-
We are headed then towards a Polish situation. In the GDR also, a part of the bureaucracy, the directors, itself to profit from the new freedoms to rush to the West and do business with the capitalists. *