Polish Solidarity in France
Reflects Rise of Worker Militancy
By Felix Lourson
What basically explains the massiveness and dynamism of the movement of solidarity with Solidarnosc in France is the sort of relationship of forces between the classes that emerged after the defeat of the bourgeois parties in the May and June 1981 elections.
France is also the only country in Western Europe where the workers are confident and where there is talk in public life about advancing toward socialism, where this seems a concrete thing for many people.
The right has not recovered from its defeats and has not been able to make any serious effort to take advantage of the bureaucracy's outrages in Poland to whip up an anti-Communist campaign, as was in fact done in 1956 over the Soviet military intervention in Hungary.
When one of the bourgeois parties, the RPR, tried to lead a cortege of about 500 persons into a united-front demonstration called by the workers organizations on December 14, and which drew many tens of thousands of participants, the rightists were forcibly expelled.
This is the first time that we have seen against repression in the East European
In 1968, when the French CP also "disapproved" of the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia, most of the French workers condemned it. But the tions, the fight waged by Solidarnosc embodied their hopes for a democratic socialism. Many of these people today make a point of wearing Solidarnosc badges on the job.
The CFDT for example sent representatives to Poland back at the time of the August 1980 strikes.
In France also there is a serious mass press, papers such as Le Monde and Liberation. Therefore, there has been a fairly broad understanding of the sort of movement Solidarnose was.
There are also certain contrary currents in the working class. In some backward there has been a feeling that the Solidarity activists were responsible for the crackdown because they wanted to
Also, in some more militant sectors, especially immigrant workers, you find the idea that there is "too much talk" about the repression in Poland and not enough about repression in third world countries. These sectors will oppose the union bureaucracy on methods of struggle but not Poland.
Obviously, if paradoxically, the CP is trying to build on both currents to stop the movement of solidarity with
There is now another problem. It is two months since the crackdown in Poland, and the interest among workers
The government's first response to the crackdown came from Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson: "We note that this is a Polish internal affair. For the moment we see no threat of foreign intervention and that reassures us....Of course, we will not do anything."
Cheysson's statement made quite a bad impression on the left and working-class public opinion that is important to the SP. Pierre Mauroy, the premier, tried to rec-
He went so far as to voice his "protest. " But immediately he added: "The present events remain internal to Poland. We want them to stay that way!"
The SP leaders who are not in the government did not hide so deeply in diplomatic language. At a united-front meeting called in support of Solidarnosc, the new party first secretary, Lionel Jospin, demanded the lifting of the state of siege and release of those imprisoned. He even denounced the offensive of U.S. imperialism in Central America.
Given the fact that the SP's main rival lined up this time with Jaruzelski and Moscow, the Social Democrats recognized that a few gestures that would not cost them very much would do the CP real
Despite the enormous means at its disposal, the SP made only a token effort for Poland. At no time did it seek to build a mass movement in support of the Polish workers.
What is more, the SP statements did protests came essentially from intellectuals. naturally is not as sharp as it was.
Today most French workers feel an active solidarity with Solidarnosc, despite the fact that the CP, the main workers party. and the union confederation it controls, the CGT, the country's strongest union, are deadset against support developing for the Polish workers.
One important factor in this working-class sympathy is the direct contacts that were established between Polish and French trade-unionists. Lech Walesa visited France and was popular among French workers. They particularly appreciated his tenacity and his confidence in dealing with the bureaucrats.
When Walesa came to this country in October 1981, he was received not only by the CFDT (the confederation close to the SP) and the Federation de l'Education Nationale (the teachers union in which the left is strong) and Force Ouvriere (the old Social Democrat union). He was also received by the CGT.
For many "class struggle" union activists who have been looking for a political alternative since the May 10, 198l, victory of the left in the presidential elec-
6 concerns are taking over again. The CP is also trying to take advantage of that by arguing that "you can't go on discussing Poland forever."
Nonetheless, here unlike in Italy and Spain, workers reacting against the betrayals of the "liberal" bureaucrat leaders have not fallen to the tough sounding mythology of Stalinism. Even the most Stalinist in the French CP talk in somewhat muted tones about Poland. time the tough talk is being left to tiny sects whose purpose in life is posturing,
The attitude of the SP here helped assure the development of a mass movement for Solidarosc. It did not throw its weight against mobilizations for Poland as did the SPs in Germany and Austria. fact, in view of the relationship of class forces in France, that would not have been possible. Nonetheless, the SP, like its sister parties, does not want and is unable to build a mass solidarity movement. sion of labor between the SP in governnot go beyond the framework of defending civil liberties. At no time did this party--which declares its support for workers self-management at all of its congresses--ever talk about the living movement for self-management that developed in Poland. Obviously that would not have fitted in very well with Francois Mitterrand's continuing his policy of collaborating with the bosses.
SP, the CFDT did mobilize in a significant way to defend Solidarnosc number of rallies, with the FEN teachers union, FO, the Catholic trade-union confederation, and the professionals union. It has published the statements of Solidarnosc representatives in its periodical Syndicalisme Hebdo.
The CFDT is under more direct pressure than the SP and has more to gain by identifying itself with Solidarity. If has to attract the layer of workers who have identified their hopes for a democratic socialism with Solidarnosc.
Nonetheless, CFDT General Secretary Edmond Maire has remained distinctly dis-
creet about the real activity of Solidar- The leadership admits that the party nosc, which in many respects was the di- has lost a thousand of its plant cells ametrical opposite of the confederation he (10% of the total). In the past three years, sales of 'Humanite have dropped
The CFDT press does not talk about from 150,000 to 75,000.
the firmness of the Solidarnosc leaders in Nonetheless, the CP leadership manpushing the workers demands, nor the sort of workers democracy that existed in this the real movement for self-management in Poland. This is all quite unlike the CFDT's practice of gentlemanly negotiations with the bosses and the scaling down of the workers demands.
While the CFDT clearly hopes to gain from the Polish issue at the expense of the CP-controlled CGT, it does not carry this to the point of enthusiasm about cooperating with the "CGT With Solidarnosc" committees built by oppositionists in that union confederation. Far leftists play an important role in many of these committees, and the CFDT does not like either the militant policies they favor for
France or the example they point to in
The SP's fellow-traveling union con-
The Polish events came at a time when Most importantly, in the CGT, the the CP was going through one of the party's main instrument for maintaining
In the May control of the working class, a mass opit lost a quarter position has appeared for the first time, of its vote. While it continues to claim grouped around the question of Poland.
officially that it has 710,000 members, On December 14, CGT leader Georges the real figure is probably between Seguy announced that Solidarnosc's last
200,000 and 300,000 (including 50,000 actions before the putsch "went beyond trade unionism" and posed the danger of
Marchais.
gates.
Solidarnosc's work.
federation hopes to encourage the moderates in Solidarnose to move closer to where it stands.
It has called on the
Polish union to
"seek negotiated solutions and compromises with the state." At the same time, it says that the question of power" must not be posed because of
"Poland's geopolitical position. " (Syndicalisme Hebdo, January 7, 1982.)
At the same time that the Italian and
At the same
Paradoxically, the Soviet CP chiefs compelled to take a
Spanish CPs felt compelled to take a helped to increase the credibility of the greater distance from the "Soviet model, "
Fiszbin opposition by proposing through the the French CP was distributing hundreds
Paris TASS bureau that Rencontres Commuof thousands of leaflets with General nistes publish their statement attacking
Jaruzelski's statement justifying the state the Italian CP for the stand it took in of siege on one side, and a communique connection with Poland. L'Humanite by party leader Georges Marchais on the other.
However, all the Fiszbin opposition
A few years ago, the French CP idendid was issue a few press releases and tified itself with Eurocommunism. At its hold one public meeting in Paris a month
Twenty-Second Congress in February 1976, it advanced a muted criticism of the East
Finally, tens of thousands of CP mem-
European countries.
bers with critical views on Poland voted
The position it has taken now on Po-
"with their feet." Left without perspecland, however, follows from the one that tives in a party where the air was beit took on Afghanistan and the declaration coming unbreathable, they stopped going it made at its Twenty-Third Congress in to their cell and branch meetings, and
May 1979 about a
"positive overall many left the party altogether.
balance sheet of the socialist countries."
It is significant that the average age
The party daily, l'Humanite, has shut of delegates at the recent CP congresses its eyes to the antiworking-class measures c.. uil levels was ten to fifteen years of the military regime, the suspension of the right to strike, and the arrests.
The Marchais leadership may think
Pierre Juquin, member of the CP Political Bureau even found the nerve to say:
of membership represents a serious hemor-
"The principles that General Jaruzelski
Moreover, never has the authority has proclaimed and the commitments he of the leadership been so weak, and this has assumed reflect what we consider to at a time when decisive tests are ahead be priceless human values.
gravest crises in its history.
and June 1981 elections, full timers).
mination.
Henri Fiszbin.
had not.
after the putsch.
older than in the past.
that it cut its losses.
rhage.
for France.
the CGT.
They
-"The CGT and Solidarity."
founders of trade unionists.
Finally a public address.
Twenty-four formed.
Six federations;
But the slow loss higher level.
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heads. struggle, nor about
the crisis of Stalinism. Obviously the SP after December 13 on the government's million unemployed, all of labor expected trade-union check (130 hours, or an av-
For the first time, important opposition voices have been raised in the industrial unions, such as the Iron and Salt Miners Federation of Lorraine, the Angers steelworkers, and the Saint Nazaire stevedores,
In the unions at a series of big factories owned by the Renault, Shell, Tomas, Pechiney-Ugine-Kuhlman, Elf-France, and SNECMA, resolutions of solidarity got majorities or large minority votes. In Longwy in Lorraine, the leaders of the unions in about twenty engineering factories jointly signed a public statement.
The opposition on Poland will inevitably carry over into other areas, into
The issue of Poland will have a considerable effect on the recomposition of the workers movement. It is accentuating is in the best situation today to benefit. It already has made big gains electorally.
In the CGT, the current aligned with the SP is gaining. The CFDT has just won successes in various representation elections at the CT's expense. A number of CGT activists, repelled by their national leadership's position, have gone into the CFDT. However, it would be wrong to see this process as a similar linear shift from the CP to the SP.
It is primarily on the basis of the problems that touch their daily lives that workers make their decisions. On this level, the CT leadership has room for maneuver. For example, it has adopted a a more militant position than the CFDT on the strikes that began only a few weeks ordonances on cutting the workweek. The confederation close to the SP accepted wage cuts in return for a small cut in worktime.
Most importantly, the game is not being played just between Stalinist and SP leaderships. Through their experience on Poland but also with the government's austerity policy and bureaucratic sell-outs, tens of thousands of union members are radicalizing and looking for a different way from that offered by the old leaderships. Class struggle oppositions are developing in both the CGT and CFDT. It is the task of the LCR, French section of the Fourth International, to offer them a political alternative both to Stalinism and Social Democracy.
Pierre Rème