Draft platform of the
Executive Committee of the Workers Opposition Press Alliance
DOCUMENT
POLAND from an object into a subject. This will only be possible through a system of generalized self-management. Such a system would involve self-management councils in the enterprises, linked together by horizontal and vertical structures on the regional
Workers Opposition and national scale, as well as institutions of self-management organized on a territorial basis. Self-management, a form of direct political and economic the
IN THE PRECEDING article, we explained the significance of the emergence of the Workers Opposition current and placed this within the context of the differentiations taking place in Solidarnose and the democratic opposition in Poland today. The following two documents were adopted by the Press Alliance of the Workers Opposition.
1. The class struggle. The political struggle that has been going on in
Poland since 1980, which has been generally termed a fight between the society and the regime, is primarily a class struggle. It is essentially a struggle between the working class, which economic exploitation and deprived of all political or economic power, and the bureaucratic state power, based on the PZPR, as well as on the military and police machine and the economic and administrative apparatus Only the working class has the capacity to overthrow the bureaucracy, and it is only thanks to it that the social groups can liberate themselves from the yoke of the bureaucracy.
2. Self-management. The fundamental aim of our struggle is to get the working class to transform itself democracy, will thus become principal factor in organizing social and political life.
3. Political pluralism. Self-management can only funetion in conditions of unrestricted political pluralism. It cannot be foreseen today what will be the exact forms of the social organizations and representative bodies set up. We cannot say exactly what will be the role of the free elections to the Diet that we would like to see. But it is clear from the start that the principle of political pluralism has to govern all forms of participation in political life for the society.
4. The revolutionary struggle. The transformation of the working class from an object into a subject which is THE FOLLOWING is an appeal by the Press Alliance of the Workers Opposition for workers self organization and self-management around a political platform.
In view of the deterioration in living and working conditions and the need for effective defensive actions and for unifying them, it is urgent to create, around a political platform, an alliance of workers groups determined to fight for the interest of the working class, for workers self-management, and the liberation of
We will open up the columns of our publications to workers groups and activists ready to take part in drawing up the platform of the Workers Opposition, which is what we call our common bloc. The name points up our political choices and the class character of our struggle.
the "national-independence opposition," we put the fight for working-class causes first. This does not in any way mean that we underestimate the importance of democracy or national independence. To the contrary, we think that the liberation of labor is only possible in a politically sovereign country, and not one subjected to economic exploitation. We think that democracy can only be achieved fully in a system without oppressed and exploited classes, Neither "actually existing socialism," or "verbal socialism, " nor any version of capitalism - American, Swedish, or Polish - represents such a system.
We refuse to keep silent in the face of the clear facts that this country -which claims that it is "socialist" or that it is "building socialism" coming more and more dependent politically and economically on the West, that is, on monopoly capitalism; and on the Kremlin, that is the Soviet bureau-
We say no to a Poland reduced to the role of a colony, a source of raw materials and cheap labor, to a Poland where the only liberty would be to enrich onself at the expense of the workers.
We think that the workers today have to take up a flag under which they can march united in the fight to defend workers rights, without divisions because of ideological differences. Neither the PZPR nor the opposition, in its present political configuration, in our opinion can play such a role. Because of their attachment to conceptions of a unity of the entire society against the regime, the central structures of Solidarnose are not playing it either.
In a situation in which the wrong policy of its leadership has led Solidarnosc into passivity and in which the preponderance of procapitalist currents in the opposition outside Solidarnosc is becoming more and more clear, when the exploitation of the workers is increasing, we decided to take up the struggle, in the conviction that victory is ours sooner or later, and that it will be won by a workers movement that rejects both bureaucratic and capitalist exploitation. • International Viewpoint 23 December 1985 opposition" and the "democratic
Wolny Robotnik,' No. 30, June 1985 is only possible through revolutionary changes. The belief in the possibility of a compromise with the bureaucracy is a dangerous illusion that could prove fatal. In fact, there is no way to reconcile the introduction of a system of self-management, that is, the realization of the interests of the working class, with the domination of the bureaucracy. One course for the antibureaucratic uprising could be a revolutionary general strike turning into an active strike lie, a takeover of the factories by the workers], supported by actions outside the factories. It is only in such revolutionary conditions that we could expect a part of the army, primarily ordinary soldiers, to join in the uprising of the working class, when they see that the working-class forces have a chance of success.
5. Self-organization. A revolutionary goal for the struggle requires a revolutionary strategy, that is, a strategy based on consistently advancing the self-organization of the working class. Such self-organization is the common element in all the phases of the development of the workers' struggle, from the present fight for partial objectives to the future struggle for a system of self-management, in which the principle of self-management will find its fullest expression. Every battle, even on the most limited question, bears within it an embryo of the future revolution, inasmuch as it contributes to the self-organization of the workers. This is why the demands put forward by the workers movement in its programmatic docu-
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ments must always take into account three elements:
- They have to correspond to the needs of the working class.
They have to be in tune with the level of consciousness of the workers at the time.
They have to make it possible, in the struggle itself and on the basis of its success, to raise the level of selforganization of the working class and of the other social groups allied
The independence of workers movement. Today, the existence of an independent workers movement is the main form of self-organization and the main precondition for the struggle of the working class. The fight against the bureaucracy entered a qualitatively new phase in 1980, when the strikes opened up the way for the formation of Solidarnose, the first national independent structure representing the workers that we have seen in the history of the bureaucratic system in Poland. Today, building and strengthening workers organizations in the plants independent from any organization working class remains the principal task.
7. Pluralism within the workers movement. Pluralism is necessary within the workers movement in order for it to be able to develop politically. The right of the workers to organize freely in clubs, groups, currents, and political organizations has to be defended. Open politicalization of the workers movement, based on clear principles, can only strengthen it. Attempts workers solidarity. The differences between East and West cannot hide the fact that camps are linked by common interests, by a common struggle for a common end - the transformation of the working class from object into subject -against common enemies. The question of international solidarity is one of close cooperation of the various national contingents of the revolutionary workers movement; it is one of interaction between the development of the class struggle, for example, in Poland, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain.
10. Socialization. The indispensable precondition for the liberation of the working class is for it to lay the economic foundations of its liberty, that is, socialization, outside of the state and in the framework of a system of workers self-management, of the means of production that are today statized. It is in this way that the work. ing class will obtain the material guarantee of realizing its interests, as well as the legitimate interests of the other groups in society. of the revolutionary workers ment, flowing from the essence of the social relations against which it rebels, is not the reprivatization of state property or giving it autonomy but to genuinely socialize it. regard the taking of political power as assume economic power.
Joint work by radical worker activists with a view toward forming a workers opposition to the bureaucracy is essential to draw up a profor the Polish workers movement and to gain support for the revolutionary struggle aimed at establishing a system of self-management, a selfof the term. By establishing coordination among the organizations, or the future by building revolutionary parties, we are not opposing ourselves to the workers movement in the broad sense. To the contrary, we want the revolutionary current, which is a component of this movebe consolidated within its own structures so that it can better contribute to building an independent mass workers movement. From that flows the basic significance of this
That is, the victory of the Polish workers depends in the first instance on adopting a strategy for revolutionary bureaucracy. In practice, the advance social self-management has to be
La revolutionary identification by It the workers becoming conof their social and economic interests, as well as the independence political-organizational insticlass. This is why it is the responsibility of those who share the ideas expressed in this platform to unite their forces in the struggle for our common cause. 'Wolny Robotnik", No. 30, June 1985