Towards a new identity the programme of Balcerowicz and the aspirations of the workers, we are undergoing a profound identity crisis. On the for Solidarnosc one hand, Solidarnosc is associated with the economic policy of the goverment and its effects for the majority of workers.
On the other, these same workers expect
Introduction SOLIDARNOSC is going through a profound crisis. The congress which has just taken place in Lower Silesia, the second largest stronghold of the movement in terms of size, bears witness to the fact. The congress elected a replacement for Wladyslaw Frasyniuk, the historic leader of Solidarnosc in the region, who was obliged to resign after having taken over as head of the Civic Movement-Democratic Action (ROAD), the party founded in July 1990 by the partisans of Tadeusz Mazowiecki (see IV 191)Three tendencies put forward candidates to replace Frasvniuk. The first was that of Thomas Woicik, close to the line of Lech Walesa, leader of the minority of the regional leadership and unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the trade union at its February congress (when he obtained 20% of the votes, running against Frasyniuk). The second was that of Bogdan Karauda, outgoing vice-president, who portrayed himself as a supporter of Frasyniuk. Finally, there was a rank and file tendency, the Committee of Inter-Enterprise Coordination (MKK), bringing together the trade union commissions of 17 of the most important enterprises in Wroclaw, which presented Zbigniew Sliwinski, leader of Solidarnosc in the "Hydral" steel factory. He was supported by Josef Pinior, another historic leader of Solidarity in the region. On the first ballot, Woicik received 44% of the votes, Karauda 38% and Sliwinski 18%. On the second, Wo|cik won with 57% of the votes against Karauda. Several militants of the MKK were also elected to the posts left vacant in the regional leadership by friends of Frasyniuk who had resigned. These results indicate the loss of influence of the pro-government current in a region which was until now a fiefdom of ROAD, and the increasing power of the partisans of Lech Walesa. However the appearance inside the MKK of a current for class independence constitutes something new in Solidarnosc. It is too soon to judge whether this is a regional specificity, or the first sign of an overall trade union recomposition. The propositions formulated by the MKK nonetheless merit publicity, for they represent a potential alternative to the current orientation of Solidarnosc. For this reason we are reproducing large extracts from Zbigniew Sliwinski's presentation of his candidacy — Cyril Smuga. DOCUMENT
Solidarnosc to defend their interests. This situation produces a form of schizophrenia inside the trade union and disarray among its militants, torn between their loyalty to our government and that towards the people in the workplaces.
"The choice is clear; either Solidarnosc will take cognizance of its trade union function - which the workers (that is those who have to sell their labour power for a wage, whether it is workers or intellectuals, whether they are employed in a factory or a faculty) need — or Solidarnosc will become a museum piece and the workers will find a new tool, better adapted to the defence of their interests.
"The Committee for Inter-Enterprise Coordination (MKK), which comprises 17 Wroclaw enterprises, was formed in August 1990 to reflect on this subject. We share the conviction that Solidarnos must become an effective representative of the workers in the face of the new market mechanisms, the transformations in the sphere of property, of unemployment, of the privileged position of the former nomenklatura.
The impact of the Balcerowicz programme
"Our trade union must in particular turn its attention to the Balcerowicz programme. This envisages a fall in industrial production of the order of 10-15%, whereas the real fall between January and May of this year was 30%. Consumer prices were 150% higher in April of this year than in last December whereas salaries have fallen by around 43%. Unemployment at the end of September had already reached 926,400.
"If our trade union does not enter public negotiations with the government around our economic programme, the discussion will take place in the street and Poland will be transformed into a reservoir of cheap labour and a dumping ground for the rest of Europc.
"Inside the regional leadership such a discussion has been lacking. The orientation of the regional leadership has gone counter to the opinion in the workplaces. Wladyslaw Frasyniuk - for whom I feel some sympathy and whom I respect profoundly — has chosen to take on top level responsibilities inside ROAD, an organization which identifies itself with the government and with the programme of Balcerowicz. It does not add up to a personal conflict with Wladyslaw Frasyniuk. It is not a question of ROAD alone. We 9 would have the same situation if the presi-
International Viewpoint #195 • November 26, 1990
POLAND dent of the regional trade union became the leader of the Alliance of the Centre [Walesa's party]. I desire only that the problem of the identity of Solidarosc its place in the new economic and sociopolitical landscape — is settled on the basis of respect for the principles of internal democracy of the trade union, by a discussion around programme, a regional congress and the election of leaders.
"Our region could become the nucleus around which a new identity for Solidarnosc is formed. The tradition of the years 1980-81 and the fact that during the state of emergency we were one of the strongest and best-organized zones, the fact that throughout this period the continuity of the enterprise structures of Solidarnosc was preserved in our region — all this could help us today to find new solutions.
"The regional leadership must bring together all the initiatives arising from inside the workplaces. We must renew the practice of 1980-81, that of weekly meetings of the regional leadership with the representatives of the biggest enterprises of the region and of regular meetings of the regional leaders with the trade union commissions and the workers inside the
Need for regular internal information
"The union must have a genuine system of internal information. It is scandalous that there has not been in our region a serious trade union bulletin to provide an efficient system of circulating information between all the enterprises of the region.
"With all the esteem that I have for the people employed by the executive of the trade union, I think that they cannot replace the leadership of the union. The transfer of decision-making from elected structures towards the executive structures is a sign of bureaucratization and evidence of the grave crisis of Soli-
"The organization of the work inside the region and of its leadership does not however constitute a goal in itself. It must serve the defence of the interests of the workers. To this end, the regional leadership must establish commissions charged with the analysis of the economic, social inside the enterprises, both public and pri-
"The regional leadership must be capable of helping each enterprise, from the point of view of its employees, in the face of the economic changes underway privatization, bankruptcy of enterprises and unemployment. We must immediately undertake the calculation of the cost of living so as to dispose of our own data on the pauperisation of the society. We must scck to establish contacts with trade unions in the foreign enterprises which install themselves in Poland, so as to know the differences in the costs of the behaviour of these firms towards the workers and the trade unions in other countries and particularly in the third world, so as to judge whether what is taking place is the transfer to our country damaging production
"If the workers are to be able to respond in the face of the market transformations, they must have access to information. The the regional employ the best specialists and dispose of modern data processing means, like banks of computerized data on the changes in the structure of the regional economy, of its ownership, allowing them to monitor job vacancies, unemployment, professional illness, the situation of youth and the old, the ecological situation, and so on. We can count on the help of the western trade unions who sympathize with our activity for the implementation of such a Rebuild unity of workers and intellectuals
"This activity will not be possible without the help of specialists or more generally intellectuals. I do not believe that inside Solidarosc a division between workers and intellectuals is possible. We were together in the strikes and in the prisons, in the struggle for a freer and more just world. It is unacceptable that our roads should separate today.
"The regional leadership will certainly obtain the help of the scientific milieux and of intellectuals to organize a Centre of Socio-Professional Research of our
"The branches are, together with the workplaces, the principal terrain of trade union activity. It is necessary then to do evcrything so that inside Solidarnosc the diverse representations of the branches can organize themselves and present the tactic they have agreed on throughout the union. But to abandon our current structure in exchange for a vertical branch structure would be contrary to our tenyear old tradition and would put in jeopardy the principal characteristic of Solidarthe defence branches by the stronger. The maintewill depend on the strength of the union and the role which it will be capable of playing in the future.
"The Womens' Commissions of Solidarnosc must play an important role in the activity of the regional leadership. Women are, aside from youth and old people, the most threatened social group today. The Womens' Commissions can dynamise the work of our union and offer it new
"We must address ourselves to the new generation of workers, apprentices and students, and find a common language with the youth who are absent from our ranks although they were the most active in the struggle for the legalization of Solidarnosc during these last years. We must, as often as possible, support the initiatives of the youth, for example in obtaining a cultural centre for the alternative youth movements, or a meeting place for the associations of conscientious objectors.
Confront chauvinism and anti-semitism
"We must inspire ourselves ethos of Solidarnosc and the traditional values of our movement to confront chauvinism, anti-semitism and racism. We do not have the right to close our eyes to should seek unity of action with all those who, like us, defend tolerance, including the strictly political organizations.
"We have to develop cooperation with foreign trade union organizations, including direct enterprise links. We must bring our support to the independent trade union movement which is forming in central and castern Europe and, in particular, establish privileged links with the trade unions of the regions of Germany and Czechoslovakia bordering us, so as to undertake in the future common ecological and economic projects. We must show our trade unionist fraternity towards those who, throughout the whole world, struggle for trade union and political rights. The same which the world towards our struggle after December 13,
"It adds up only to a minimum programme, to a presentation of the problems that confront Solidarnosc. I hope that our trade union will find enough strength to renew itself in the new economic and socio-political landscape of our country, that it will forge an identity that will allow it to represent with dignity the interests off the workers. It is with this hope that I take part in the congress of Solidarnosc in
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