• It does not accept the dictatorship Interview with executive con member
Question. What is the Alliance of the Workers' Opposition [POR] and why was it set up?
Answer. The POR is an alliance of various groupings within the Polish opposition movement. These vary in both size and form - some are large; some are small; several represent the editorial boards of underground bulletins (it was four of these bulletins that originally launched the POR); while others are opposition groups organized at the level of plants, towns or regions.
The POR was set up with one simple aim in mind: to co-ordinate the activities of those in the opposition who believe we have to base ourselves firmly on the working class, both in our current struggles and in our strategy, in the political perspective we present. Generally speaking, this means a strategy of developing the self-organization of the working class.
I think the POR could be best described as that current in the opposition which sees the independent self-organization of the working class as the key to success in our coming struggles, and at the same time the key to solving Poland's political and economic crises.
Q. How does the POR relate to Solidarnosc?
A. We are all, as individuals, members of Solidarnosc, and all the component parts of the POR either developed out of old Solidarnosc structures or contacts, or were organized by Solidarnose activists. On the other hand, neither the POR itself, nor any of its constituent parts, are controlled by or responsible to the regional and national leadership bodies of Solidarnosc that still exist. Some of the groups in the POR formally of the proletariat in any form or the power exercised in the name of the working class.
•The ZRP PRO considers that the working class, as a component of society and of the nation, has the right, together with other components, on a basis of equality, to exercise the state power through its delegates elected to a free parliament.
POR mission function as Solidarnose structures, while others don't.
To understand the situation properly, you have to understand what Solidarnosc is today. I think the easiest way to explain that would be to say that Solidarnose is simply the sum of the whole Polish opposition. With a very few minor exceptions, all groups in the opposition regard themselves as being part of Solidarnose, that is they identify themselves with the legal mass move. ment that existed in 1980-81. But Solidarnosc is a very heterogenous movement. It includes the old leadership bodies, workplace groups in the factories and mines, new interfactory organizations that have sprung up since martial law, groups of people organized on a neighbourhood basis, and - perhaps most importantly -a whole host of underground bulletins. I've no idea how many of these there are at present - the last figure I heard quoted was around 600 coming out regularly.
It's these bulletins that are the lifeblood of the opposition. Yet they represent widely differing political positions, which reflects the growing politicization of the movement. Nevertheless, the essential unity of the movement, expressed in the general identification with Solidarnosc, indeed in the very name 'Solidarnosc', , has been maintained. And of course the POR, as a current within the opposition and Solidarnose represents no threat to that unity. On the contrary, one of our basic aims is to strengthen the unity of the independent workers' movement.
Q. What do you mean by the "politicization" of the movement?
A. The term "politicization" is generally used in the Polish under-
International Viewpoint 2 June 1986
ground press to refer to the emergence of groups and currents on the basis of distinct political programs or positions. In other words, it refers to a process of growing political differences within the movement. This process is of course only natural; it would be absurd to think of Solidarnose and the whole opposition as some sort of political monolith.
To a large extent, this process was already under way before martial law, but martial law speeded it up, because the independent press became the most important element in the opposition, and since the various bulletins basically had to fend for themselves in very difficult conditions, they inevitably began to develop their political positions independently. As a result, while some bulletins, particularly the factory ones, remained essentially informational in content, others began to represent distinct political lines. This whole process has again picked up speed recently with many people in the opposition calling for a more clearcut reflection of political differences within the- movement and for the establishment of political parties.
For our part, we think this process is generally positive, since a healthy political pluralism can only strengthen Solidarnosc and the opposition. Such a pluralism should have a clear programmatic basis, with different groups and currents clearly explaining the tactics and strategy they are proposing for the movement as a whole.
In addition, the fact that many factory activists are calling for the increased politicization of the move. ment reflects their rejection of any concept of forcing the authorities into a dialogue that would result in some sort of "historic compromise", most probably involving a return to the status quo prior to December 13, 1981. In other words, they recognize Solidarnosc can never be forced back into a purely tradeunionist role, and that its legalization cannot be won by simply putting pressure on the state power or negotiating with it.
The calls for politicization also reflect dissatisfaction with the tactics currently being pursued by the Solidarnose leadership, and its failure to put forward a coherent strategy. There is one danger here, however. Certain sections of the opposition -the nationalistic wing and large parts of the intelligentsia - see the idea of "politicizing the movement" as something counterposed to the idea of mass struggle. They have no perspective to offer the working class today. In fact, they are increasingly isolated from it, so they put forward the idea of politicization as an alterative.
International Viewpoint 2 June 1986
What they are actually saying is: opposition. But that doesn't mean there's nothing we can do now, so we are not involved in concrete we are let's start organizing political discus- practical struggle. sion clubs and our own little poli- As I've said, all the structures tical parties. Then at some point in in the POR developed out of the future, when the workers revolt Solidarnose structures or were organiagain, we can force the state power zed by Solidarnose activists, mostly into giving us political pluralism, in the factories. And it's in the facand then our parties can really start tories that the vast majority of our functioning. work takes place. In contrast to many
That concept is in our opinion other currents in Solidarnose -totally ridiculous, a recipe for disaster. and that includes a significant section It also reflects the instrumental way of the old leadership - we believe in which the nationalistic and intel- that struggle in the factories, mines lectual opposition groups view the and shipyards is not something for working class — as the "muscle" the future, even the very near future, that is needed to bring the state but something for today. power to its knees, after which the This is in fact borne out by what workers should go home and leave is happening in Poland. Despite the the politics to the intellectuals. The experience of martial law, despite POR sees politicization in a com- the repression and intimidation, pletely different way. What we have despite the fact that many leading to do is to combine day-to-day activists in the factories have been struggles with a developed political sacked, can't get new jobs, and are perspective. This means making the seeing their families face severe link between today's struggles and the hardship, scarcely a week goes by strategy we need for the working class without some form of struggle or to achieve direct democratic control of protest action in at least one major and power over the economy and the factory, often in several.
In our opinion, this is what we have to build up, and all our efforts
Q. That all sounds very good, are directed towards developing and but what does it mean in practice? supporting these struggles, and in Your founding document, the Draft particular developing the forms of Platform of the Workers Opposi workers' self-organization that they is very general. There's a lot immediately produce. about strategy in it and a number of praiseworthy political principles, but Q. Most of the struggles you've there's not much about the day-to- mentioned don't get reported in day struggles you're talking about. the West. The media is much more
A. That's true, but then interested in the latest statements of was precisely the purpose of the Lech Walesa or Cardinal Glemp. document you're referring to - Could you tell me some more about to serve as a declaration of principles. what is going on in the factories At that time, when the POR was and particularly what the POR is being launched, the point was to doing? present an overall outline of the A. The struggles in the factories strategy and positions that differen- are mostly economic ones. Pay and tiate us from other currents in the conditions are the basic questions, although protests over the victimization of people because of political activity are not uncommon. The form these struggles take, and their duration, vary greatly. The most frequent are probably short, spontaneous strikes, lasting from half an hour to three or four hours. Longer strikes also occur, but they aren't typical, since the management usually gives in at once, or calls in some local Party official, in which case he gives in. The biggest problems normally come afterwards, since the factory involved automatically receives special attention from the the security police, and anyone identified as playing a leading role in the strike is likely to be harassed. If there's no well-organized clan. destine organization in the factory, it's hard for the workers to defend A. K themselves, since spontaneous action now becomes much more difficult. 17
Nevertheless, the vast majority of protest actions end in success. Apart from anything else the management is often reluctant to provoke any new conflict as their superiors would conclude they aren't in control of the situation. The workers themselves come out of these struggles with greater confidence in their own strength.
Please don't think on the basis of what I've said that the workers are striking all over Poland today. The strikes I'm referring to have involved a relatively small percentage of Polish industry. Still, they have to be placed in the context of the defeat the workers movement suffered with the workers' movement suffered with the imposition of martial law. What we are now seeing is a revival of the combativity of the working class, although this process is only just beginning.
Another element in the situation that should be mentioned here is the activity of the workers' councils that enjoy the confidence of their workforce, that is the ones in the factories where the Party executive didn't manage to rig the elections. These councils have often become the forms for opposition within the factory, and many have taken a firm stand in defence of the workers' interests. Unfortunately, some sections of Solidarnosc still hesitate about taking advantage of the opportunities these councils present, although this attitude seems to be disappearing.
A notable example of what can be done is the struggle waged by two workers' councils - one in Torun and one in Bydgoszcz — at the end of last year. Apart from taking up the questions of pay and conditions, these councils also put forward two more advanced demands.
The first was for workers' coun cils to have the right to organize themselves in regional federations, and the second was for the establishment of a second chamber in the Sejm [parliament], to be composed of workers' council representatives. The state power was forced to mount a big propaganda campaign against them, even publishing attacks on them in the press, although the usual policy is to maintain a wall of silence on this kind of thing.
As regards what we in the POR are doing, the easiest thing for me to do here is to refer you to a recent document of ours: the POR's Program of Current Struggle. We published this as a special edition of our national bulletin Przelom [Breakthrough], and we have been distributing it throughout Poland.
It reflects the experience of the POR, and what we are doing, or want to do, in the factories. It also represents the strategy we are propposing for the movement as a whole. 18
We are campaigning for a united front around the two main slogans of the program: the defence of living standards and the defence of the national economy. The defence of living standards is the basic axis of our work. On pay there are two major problems. The first is inflation, which has hit all working people very hard since martial law. In fact, they are still suffering the consequences of the unprecedented price rises at the beginning of 1982, when many basic necessities went up several hundred per cent. This has been compounded by inflation of 20 per cent to 30 per cent every year since. The concrete effect of all this has been a substantial increase in the number of working-class families living in absolute poverty and a situation where the vast majority of working people get by from month to month, but have no savings whatsoever and no chance of replacing worn-out consumer durables, improving their homes, taking vaca tions and so on. In other words, the working class is being condemned to a vegetable existence.
The second problem is that of income differentials. The strategy of the ruling bureaucracy since martial law has been to increase these radically, in line with their overall policy of "divide and rule"
•
Our reply to inflation is to demand automatic cost-of-living adjustments, otherwise known as a sliding scale of wages. In fact our demands are broader, since we are calling for a sliding security benefits and students, grants. social As to income differentials, we are calling for automatic additional increases for the lower paid in all wage settlements.
The next question is that of working time. Since martial law, the state power has mounted an intensive campaign to increase working hours, involving the introduction of compulsory overtime, a return to the six-day working week, the statutory lengthening of the working week in selected enterprises, the broader introduction of continuous shift systems and so on. The enormous paradox here is that few workers have enough to do within the standard working week, due to the disruption of production caused by bureaucratic mismanagement.
We are demanding a reduction in working hours, particularly for working women and those in the heaviest and most hazardous jobs, who normally also have to work the longest, since they are employed in "key" branches of industry. This reduction of working hours cannot, of course, involve any loss of pay. The state power's present policy amounts to shifting the burden of their own incompetence onto the working class, in a desperate attempt to increase the rate of exploitation.
Another issue we're paying a lot of attention to is housing, which is undoubtedly the number one social problem in Poland. Up to now the opposition has done very little on this, which we think is a big mistake. The POR is involved in organizing struggles around this question, and these have had a big response. We've also managed to draw other sections of Solidarnose into work on this. The first thing I should explain, however, is the importance of the problem.
Getting a flat is the biggest problem facing young people in Poland. Many young couples, including ones with two or three children, have to share a flat with parents, grand-parents, brothers and sisters or other relatives. And the brothers or sisters are often married, with children of their own. The prospects of getting a flat are very remote. It has been estimated that, in certain cities, if the pace of housing construction stays the same, those at the bottom of the housing list will get a flat in 30 or 35 years time!
On the other hand, the select elite have no problems. Those with money - owners of private businesses, for example - can afford to build their own luxury villas. Those with International Viewpoint 2 June 1986
contacts - people in the bureaucratic apparatus - are given flats by their place of work or admitted into subsidized small "co-operatives", building semi-detached houses for the privileged few.
A full solution to this problem is only possible through social control of the management of housing resources and of the construction industry and a workers' plan for housing construction. For the moment, we are demanding a general freeze on rents, the abolition of rents for those in sub-standard housing (in some cases, the payment of an additional hardship allowance to these people), and a property surtax on the villas and the penthouses of the private businessmen and party apparatchiks.
We are also involved in more immediate struggles against the latest rent increases, helping to organize rent strikes. This particular form of struggle can be launched easily, involves little risk of victimization and usually proves very effective. What we have also found is that many people who might hold back from other protest actions are willing to get involved in struggles on this question, which simply reflects the scale and depth of the problem.
I'd like to cite one more interesting fact here: a recently published official report on living conditions in 1984 stated that only 69 per cent of working class families had their own flat. The corresponding figure for civil servants was 97 per cent! I should also mention certain other questions we're campaigning around, such as the fight for equal opportunities for youth. This involves the question of child benefits and of guaranteed minimum grants for all those over school-leaving age in fulltime education. We also demand increased funding for the social services, at the expense of the bureaucratic apparatus, the army, police and security services. Both these questions involve the defence of living standards.
Q. In talking about the program the POR is putting forward at the moment, you also mentioned a second point: the defence of the national economy. I don't really understand what you mean by that. In fact, it seems a rather strange slogan, the kind the government might put forward. A. The state power talks of the national economy all the time. It talks of "accelerating the economy's development", "carrying out further improvements to the economy" "consolidating the intensification of the economy" and so on. What we are talking about is defending the
International Viewpoint 2 June 1986
Damian Dziubelski IN ITS ISSUE No. 35, 1986, Wolny Robotnik, the organ of the Workers' Opposition Alliance (POR) reports that in February the political police broke up the print shop in which the paper was put out and, during the operation, identified the main leader of the Union of Workers' Councils of the Polish Resistance Movement (ZRP PRO) of Upper Silesia, Damian Dziubelski ("Dawid").
Dziubelski had to go underground. Immediately after that, he was elected chair of the Executive Committee of the POR.
A 27-year-old worker, Dziubelski comes from a working-class family. Before the declaration of the state of war in December 1981, he was chairperson of Solidarnose in the waterworks in the city of Ruda Slaska, where he worked as a truck driver.
In 1982, as a result of his work in the Committee to Aid the Persecuted, he was interned. In the detention camp he gained the recognition of his comrades by his refusal to submit to the repressive apparatus. Because of his firm attitude, he was subjected to several severe penalties.
After being released from the camp, Dziubelski took part in founding and building the ZRP PRO. He was arrested several times, questioned and fired from his job - "the daily bread of the Polish political reality," he used to say.
On two occasions Dziubelski managed to escape by jumping out of a window when the police came to his home to arrest him.
Wolny Robotnik describes him as right to a decent life and socialism." national economy - defending it from the state bureaucratic power, defending it from the party bosses and the management in the factories.
Poland's economic resources - its plant and machinery, its mineral resources, its whole economic infrastructure, the skills of its working class — are being squandered and devastated before our very eyes.
We believe there are three basic reasons for this: first, appalling bureaucratic mismanagement from the Planning Commission and the ministries down to the individual mine or factory; second, the current economic strategy, which amounts to the deliberate application of a "robber economy" in a desperate attempt to increase production and service the foreign debt; and thirdly, the generalized managerial corruption, fraud, theft and criminal incompetence.
These are things every worker sees all around him or her every day. When you add it all up, it looks like a conscious policy of governmental, ministerial and managerial sabotage. A Polish worker puts in an eight- or even ten-hour shift in the mines, factories or shipyards, only to see the work obstructed by organizational chaos, the products of labour wasted, expensive machinery left forgotten and rusting in the yard. Workers also feel the effects of all this financially, since they lose productivity bonuses because obsolete equipment breaks down, supplies don't turn up or there's another power failure. Or simply because management can't allow production to be a conscious fighter "for the workers' higher that month, as it would set a bad precedent and might mean the factory was given increased norms for the future.
In this situation, our call for the defence of the national economy corresponds to the gut feeling of the working class. For 40 years, the workers have been told that the factories belong to them, that the whole economy, the whole state is theirs. So they are seeing their economy being ruined by waste and corruption. They are working longer than they have to, to produce less than they could, and what they produce is of worse quality than it should be. They are seeing Polish industry go into rapid decay, with much of it simply falling apart.
For years now, investment has primarily been channelled into showcase projects, with little basic modernization. As a result, factory buildings are crumbling, production lines are being held together by string, saliva, or the ingenuity of the workers concerned, and the average age of industrial machinery is increasing year by year.
Our strategic objective is for the workers to take control of the means of production. But the way things are going at present, once they do so there could be very little left to control.
What we are proposing is a comprehensive program of action to expose managerial waste and corruption, to fight against it and to lay the basis for the rational use of Poland's economic resources once these are under the democratic control
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Police harass commemorators of Warsaw ghetto uprising (DR)
of the workers themselves. This means campaigning in defence of social property - in defence of the plant, machinery and raw materials the party apparatchiks destroy and sell off "on the side" to the private sector, in defence of the enterprises they ruin and defraud.
It means campaigning for proper quality standards, ones that conform to the expectations of Polish society. At present, the system of generalized piecework and ludictrously high production norms leads to immense waste in the form of useless, substandard products, since the only way the workers can gain a decent wage is to ignore all quality standards, which supervisory staff usually encourage them to do.
It also means campaigning for a rational organization of production and a rational use of working time, which is integrally connected with our fight for a reduction of working hours. We have no illusions that these problems can be solved within the present bureaucratic system of planning and management. But the fight has to start now.
One aspect of all this that merits special attention is the question of health and safety, which is both a function of the lack of adequate safeguards in the shape of legal trade unions and of the organization of production itself.
Health and safety standards in Polish industry are disastrous, an absolute parody of the legislation on this question, which is ignored as a matter of course. The POR is 20 mounting a campaign on this, utilizing the successful experiences of workers who have gone into struggle on this question and popularizing the tactic of the "health and safety strike". This simply means rigorous observance of the existing regulations, which in virtually all Polish factories - and undoubtedly in all the mines - means bringing production to a standstill.
In addition, we are putting forward the more general yet critically important demand of the complete openness and accessibility of all economic and financial information, from the enterprise to the Goverment Planning Commission. This includes all foreign trade agreements and the detailed budgets of all Party and other political organizations, surreptitiously financed from the wealth produced by the working people.
Finally, we are promoting the preparation of alternative economic plans at plant level. Experience has shown that the workers are already capable of drawing up plans that both rationalize the production process and improve working conditions. This paves the way for the workers continuing production during factory occupations and lays a solid basis for the future preparation of workers' plans of production for entire regions, industries and the country as a whole.
Q. So far, you have been talking about economic questions. What about the strictly political questions the POR is taking up?
A. There are probably too many of these to go into all of them. The most obvious involve political and democratic freedom, defence against repression and so on. However, the central axis of the demands we raise and the strategy we are fighting for within the movement is undoubtedly self-organization.
This is the key to understanding all the demands I've already mentioned, which are by no means purely economic, but deeply political. All of them are linked to the establishment of selforganization in the workplace, in the neighbourhoods and at the interfactory level.
For example, the question of automatic cost-of-living increases and additional "equalizing" adjustments for the lower paid involves the establishment of "statistical commissions" to calculate the effects of inflation on working-class families and analyse wage differentials.
The problem of housing and the tactic of the rent strike poses the question of independent residents' committees. Preparing for future confrontations with the bureaucratic power involves both commissions to work out alternative economic plans and the establishment of workers' guards to defend the factories, and so on.
Q. Finally, how do you see the POR developing?
A. I don't want to make any rash predictions, since the basic factor here is the development of the mass struggle. What I can say, though, is that the reception our ideas have been getting indicates that our current should continue to grow within the Polish social movement.
Internally, I know many of the militants and structures participating in the POR will be developing specifically political work, including the creation of revolutionary political organizations and parties.
At this time, a new branch of our current is developing — the political groups of the Alliance of the Workers' Opposition. They are based on revolutionary democratic socialism and are accumulating political forces of the workers' revolutionary left. For example, one of our bulletins, Front Robotniczy [Workers' Front] is now the organ of such political groups of the POR in the Warsaw region. However, as I said before, this is seen as an extension of mass work, not a substitute for it.
In general, I think the POR is making steady progress in developing a revolutionary strategy for the whole social movement, and as the effects of the defeat suffered during martial law wear off, that strategy should gain wider acceptance.
International Viewpoint 2 June 1986