AROUND THE WORLD
International Viewpoint #249 October 1993
### POLAND
THE results of the elections of 19 September are a striking rejection of the political elites with roots in Solidarnosc and have deepened the political crisis that plagues the young Polish bourgeois democracy. Provisional results point to a clear victory for the parties (SLD and PSL) with origins in the former regime, a breakthrough for the left (SLD and UP), a defeat for the parties linked to the outgoing government and the collapse of the Catholic right.
The results for the Diet (the parliament) are the following (in percentage of votes cast and number of deputies): SLD (post-Stalinist left) 20.41% and 171; PSL (post-Stalinist peasant party) 15.4% and 132; UD (post-Solidarnosc liberals) 10.59% and 74; UP (post-Solidarnosc left) 7.28% and 41; KPN (nationalist and populist right) 5.77% and 22; BBWR (bloc built on President Walesa's initiative) 5.41% and 16; German minority 4 seats (not subjected to the 5% minımum).
The electoral alliance of Catholic traditionalists received 6.37%, and is thus shut out from the Diet from not having obtained the 8% minimum required for coalitions. Other parties, including the ultra-liberal former Prime Minister Bielecki's KLD and the Solidarity slate were shut out, having failed to obtain the 5% minimum for parties.
As such, voters have clearly rejected both the neo-liberal policy of capitalist restoration and attempts to impose the dictates of the Catholic Church. The election of parties that more or less defended social gains clearly denotes the hope for an alternative path of social and economic development that can guarantee both political democracy and social Justice.
These aspirations come into contradiction with the programmes of both the victors and the vanquished. Indeed, all parties swear by the "continuation of reforms" and respect for the dictates of the market. All are pinning their hopes on an agreement with the IMF. Finally, given the level of social discontent, the political apparatuses are hesitating to take up their governmental responsibilities.
The formation of a new government will be a laborious procedure — and this new government may soon find itself at loggerheads with the working classes, who are hoping for a quick improvement in their living conditions. - Jan Malewski * 36
FRANÇOIS MOREAU
1956-1993) OUR friend and comrade François Moreau (known to many as Hébert) passed away on September 3, at the age of 37, after a short struggle with Kaposi's sarcoma, one of the worst AIDSrelated illnesses.
François was active in the Quebec Trotskyist movement, in the Fourth International, from 1975 onwards. From 1977, he played a key role in the writing, editing and production of our various publications, Lutte ouvrière, Combat socialiste, Gauche socialiste and La Gauche.
From 1979 he was a member of the central leadership of the section of the Fourth International in the Canadian State, and participated in the leadership and decision-making bodies of the International. He was a member of the International Executive Committee of the Fourth International.
A trained economist and professor at the University of Ottawa, François was a rare being: a professional intellectual devoted body and soul to the building of a revolutionary Marxist workers organisation. Aside from his writings for the party, François was the author of three humankind of flowers but to make it see that it is in chains."
François played an invaluable role in the formulation of the line and political intervention of the section of the Fourth International in the Canadian State, Gauche socialiste/Socialist Challenge. Those that were active with him know just how untiring he was in the concrete struggle.
But he took greatest pleasure in his unflagging work of political and economic study with his comrades. François took all the time in the world to work with his union comrades on the concrete analysis of their local, of the employer's policies and of the approach of the union leadership.
For his youth comrades, François not only did presentations on the history and traditions of the revolutionary workers' movement, he also worked on a complete understanding of the exclusion of contemporary youth from both the labour market and the educational system.
He also calculated child care needs precisely and criticised government, employer and union policies in the area of equality — doing everything he could to make sure that women comrades could take their rightful place in the revolutionary Marxist organisation.
This past summer, François didn't want people talking about his illness, not because he was ashamed, far from it, but because he feared that it would demoralise his comrades. He was very aware of the fact that the working class and social movements are going through a very difficult period of defensive struggles and defeats.
But François was wrong to worry about his comrades. He has left us the wealth of his writings; but above all he has left us the example of his life — an inspiring alternative to the careerist individualism that has claimed so many of his generation. La Gauche *
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books on the Québec economy and many contributions to specialised jour- •nals and collective works. At the time of his death, he was working on an even more ambitious project: a concrete analysis, with figures, of unequal exchange in the era of imperialist decay. Even in his most theoretical wri- tings, François was in no way an impar- tial university intellectual floating above the fray. His goal was always, as Marx said, "to wither away the flowers that hide humankind's chains, not to deprive