The Polish Socialist Party: an attempt at rebuilding a workers' party THE IDEA of forming a socialist party has surfaced many times within the Polish opposition. Before 1980, some activists in the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR) who raised the question of rebuilding an independent workers' movement were interested in a party that would hark back to the tradition of Polish independent socialism at the beginning of the century, of the inter-war social democracy and to that of the resistance, in which the Freedom-Equality-Independence socialist party (PPS-WRN) played a key role. In fact, the first worker's bulletin published at the initiative of members of the KOR in 1977 took the title of the organ of the Polish Socialist
Party (PPS), Robotnik. CYRIL SMUGA
• HE LIGHTENING growth of the independent union Solidarnosc in 1980-81 as a united mass movement relegated the question of forming political parties to the background. The few hundred oppositionists active before August 1980 melted into the masses. The way of thinking about political questions was turned upside down. From that time on, political parties could develop only out of differentiation within Solidarnosc, based on the experiences of successes and failures for the union. Moreover, in view of the massive revulsion against the party form of organization, which most union activists identified with the PZPR [Polish United Workers Party, the official CP] and the ideological confusion prevailing in the mass movement, such differentiations would have to take new forms.
It is significant in this respect that in 1981, when the first differentiations appeared, they were expressed in movements such as the "Network" of the big factories or the National Self-Management Federation. There was no lack of attempts to launch parties (at least six "parties" were formed trying to claim the socialist or social-democratic tradition). But they quickly fizzled out.
General Jaruzelski's coup d'état in December 1981 reshuffled the cards again. The tasks of rebuilding the union structures underground and the pressure of the masses for unity pushed ideological differences into the background. It was only after a series of failures for Solidarosc, the most serious of which was the underground leadership's inability to seize the opportunity of the spontaneous strikes in early October 1982 after the official banning of the union, and then the fiasco of the general strike called without preparation for November of the same year, that activists began raising the question again of forming political parties linked to Solidarnosc or operating alongside it.
"A challenge of historic importance"
Within the left wing of the movement, this question reappeared in the underground weekly Robotnik in the form of a proposal to rebuild the old Polish Socialist Party (PPS). (Robotnik is published by activists in the Warsaw Inter-enterprise Workers' Committee and should not be confused with the bulletin of the same name that was published from 1977 to 1981 by activists of the KOR [Committee to Defend the Workers, an organization of oppositionists set up after the 1976 Ursus strike]).
Beginning in 1983-84, Robotnik regularly published articles devoted to discussing the contours and form that such a party should have. In January 1984, an article by a staff writer noted, "the question of whether, and when, to revive the Polish Socialist
POLAND Party is under discussion in many social milieus," and that "the formation of political parties will undoubtedly be the natural road for developing the democratic and libertarian ideals of August." It went to say that a new PPS "will need at least a few thousand members, leaders, as well as a widely known program, in order for it to have the necessary strength and political authority."
The article warned against a premature proclamation of the PPS, and concluded that "an open, public presentation of the socialist alternative by people enjoying social respect and known for their commitment to democratic socialism will in itself be a challenge of historic importance."!
Early proposals did not strike a chord
In an article published shortly afterward, another staff member presented the ideological outlines of the future party as follows:
"Our task, the task of Polish socialists in the 1980s, is political and economic struggle in the union and in political parties; it is to revive the slogans and ideals for which Ludwik Warynski and Janek Wisniewski died, as well as the workers of the Paris Commune and the Polish workers at the 'Paris Commune' naval yard.2 The first step rans Commune naval yard." he first step on this road was to take back our May 1 workers' holiday. The next step will be the formation of socialist groups that, through discussion and struggle, will determine the forms of the Polish socialist movement." 3
At the time, Robotnik's proposals did not strike much of a chord. Solidarnosc had gone into a latent crisis. And Robotnik's proposals failed to offer immediate political perspectives that could seem to provide an alternative to those formulated by the union leadership. Therefore, the project was not attractive, even for activists who might have been tempted by an organization that claimed clearly to stand on the left.
With these difficulties, in 1984-85, the group around Robotnik evolved to the right. Conceptions appeared that even denied the existence of the working class. The majority of the workers were characterized as an amorphous and passive "industrial class." The protagonist of revolutionary change, according to this conception, was supposed to be a "new class" made up of skilled young workers, technicians, engineers, 1. Article by Jan Morawski in Robotnik 44, January 2, 1984. An English translation of this article appeared in /V 66, December 4, 1984. 2. In 1882, Ludwik Warynski founded Proletaryat, the first Marxist workers' party in Poland. Janek Wisniewski was a worker assassinated in December 1970 in the Baltic port of Gdynia. His body was carried around the city by demonstrators. and he became the symbol of the workers' struggle against "actually existing socialism." 3. Article by Igor Lewy in Robotnik 45, January 30, 1984. An English translation of this article appeared in 11 IV 66, December 4, 1984.
March 21, 1988 • International Viewpoint
POLAND
SaLDARS teachers, creative workers, professionals and students." 4 At the same time, the journal portrayed the situation in Nicaragua as a "struggle between democracy and communism." It published an interview with Arturo Cruz, leader of the so-called Democratic Coordinating Committee, who was presented as a "Nicaraguan freedom fighter." S
A very relative liberalization of the regime convinced a wing of this group that, in the context of the second stage of the economic regime that was being prepared, the bureaucracy was vulnerable to democratic pressure. These activists saw a positive evolution in the government's economic projects, although one that was still hesitant and incomplete. They chose to support those aspects of the economic reform that seemed to them likely in the long run to break the bureaucratic monopoly over the economy.
A diametrically opposite option was followed by the "trade-unionist" current, influential in particular in Lower Silesia and western Pomerania. Recognizing that the second stage of the economic reform involved first of all a sharp rise in prices and a worsening of working conditions — in short, increased exploitation of labor - the "trade-unionists" put forward the need for reinforcing or rebuilding the union structures in the plants in order to mobilize the workers around material demands. The Robotnik editorial board reached similar conclusions, and the activists grouped around this journal tried to formulate a program for immediate action in the plants.
A convergence began between Robotnik's proposals aimed at giving the factory activists "something to do" and those that stressed building public Solidarnosc organizing committees in the factories in order to bring into trade-union activity a new generation of workers, who had not known the legal Solidarnose and were not finding their way to the underground union commissions in the factories. It was this convergence that laid the basis for refounding 12 the Polish Socialist Party in November • 1987, whose central organ became RobotInternational Viewpoint • March 21, 1988 nik. It also enabled socialist oriented oppositionists not involved in either of the two founding currents to join the PPS.
When the PPS was established, a general orientation document was adopted, "The Political Statement of the PPS, " was adopted.' (See box on page 13.)
In keeping with their conception of a public party led by personalities and which would link up with the tradition of the historic PPS, the founders of the PPS tried to involve the survivors of the historic PPS and the outstanding personalities of the Polish opposition. The leadership structure of the PPS reflected this effort. On the one hand, they set up a Presidium made up in large part of the historic personalities of the opposition and heirs of the socialist tradition, whose functions were to be both ideological and representative. On the other, they set up a Central Executive Committee (CKW), made up of activists on the ground, which was supposed to lead the party day to day; and a General Council, made up of the members of the first two bodies, plus regional party delegates elected by the ranks. Given the frequent interference by the political police, which prevented the holding of meetings by arresting a part of the activists, this ponderous structure could not really play its role.
Since its founding, the party faced continual pressure from the political police. Its congress was interrupted after a few hours by the police picking up a large number of its participants for questioning. As a result, some documents had to be adopted in committee with certain leaders absent. This was the case, notably, with the "Political Statement of the PPS," the party's main reference document, which was adopted when some of the members of the CKW who had proposed alternative drafts were in jail.
Following November 1987, the PPS experienced significant growth. In a February 4 telephone interview, Jan Jozef Lipski estimated the number of those applying for membership at about a thousand. It managed to set up clubs in some big factories, and its militants played an active role in building the factory press. For example, they organized a "factory press week" durtruted the underground ing which they distributed the underground journals at the factory gates. These activists also helped to set up Solidarosc organizing committees in the factories. After the February price rise, PPS activists played an important role by spreading information about protest mobilizations and by trying, to the extent of their strength, to help organize them.
In this situation, according to Piotr Ikonowicz, a member of PPS Presidium interviewed by telephone, "there was a strong pressure from our working-class base to publish a statement that would distance us more clearly from the regime and the PZPR than the one adopted at the congress." Differences appeared in the PPS leadership over this.
### PPS leaders arrested before General Council
The draft "Statement of Principles for Action" submitted to the party Presidium on February 3, 1988, and the proposal for transforming this meeting into a General Council (owing to the number of observers), ran into opposition from several members of the Presidium, who thought that this was a rather cavalier way of operating.
On February 7, several party leaders — including notably Jan Jozef Lipski, Wladyslaw Goldfinger-Kunicki, Jozef Pinior and Marek Nowicki — were picked up by the police and could not take part in the meeting of the General Council. Nonetheless, the other members of the Council adopted the disputed document, and this was interpreted as a maneuver by leaders who opposed some of the formulations contained in it.
Interviewed by telephone, Jozef Pinior (one of the party's two vice-presidents) explained why there had been this response: "I think that the police thought that our arrest would be enough to paralyze the meeting, and that there would be no need to try to pick up the other leaders. The comrades who remained free wanted to go ahead with the meeting, fearing a police attack on the party. Some of them had just got out of Wroclaw jail. They tried to give the party a political backbone."
That is also the impression of Piotr Ikonowicz, who was at the meeting. "When the congress's political statement was adopted, I was in prison myself with several of my comrades. It was adopted by those who were arrested on February 7. In a way, the roles were reversed. The only thing was that we did not realize was that when we adopted this new document the situation in the party was already very different."
This incident provoked a crisis in the PPS leadership. Four members of the party Pre4. Article by Igor Lewy in Naprzód 2, 1985. 5. Robotnik 69, August 19, 1984. 6. The debates in Solidarnosc were described in IV 125, September 14, 1987. 7. Concerning the political positions of the PPS, see the interview with Jozef Pinior in /V 133, January 25, 1988.
POLAND
Political statement of the PPS
HE POLISH Socialist Party (PPS) was founded 95 years ago. This party organized Poles for the struggle for independence and social justice. In the period of bondage, it took an active part in the armed struggle for an independent Poland. At the beginning of the interwar period, thanks to the leadership of this party, workers won progressive social laws. Moreover, this party, in concert with the peasant movement, opposed the authoritarian tendencies. In World War I, the PPS confronted both aggressors, fighting for Freedom-Equality-Independence.
Forty years ago, the Communists destroyed the democratic socialist movement. Many socialist leaders perished in Polish and Soviet jails. Others spent long years in them. But the PPS kept them from erasing it from history and social consciousness..... Today, on the anniversary of the Paris congress, we are rebuilding the Polish Socialist Party in full awareness of the tradition with which we are renewing our links. We are building a public and legal party with its place in the constitutional order. Its legal right to existence flows also from the international juridical norms ratified by the authorities of the People's Republic.
We are aware that the world "socialism," which has been appropriated by the Communists, is not a popular one in Polish society. It is identified with the regime. Through our work, our struggle and our creative thought, we will re-endow the word with its proper meaning and the values linked to it. On several occasions, Polish society has expressed its support for these values - making human beings subjects and not objects in society, the dignity of labor and the independence of the nation. Polish workers did the same in the August 1980 upsurge. These values were present in the activity of the independent forces between August 1980 and December 1981, and they found expression in the Self-Managed Republic Program adopted at Solidarnosc's first national congress. Polish socialists fought for freedom, democracy and social justice in the opposition structures of the 1970s and 1980s. We are founding the PPS at a time when the rulers are declaring their determination to restructure the economy and democratize society. However, while the economic program presented contains a series of proposals recommended earlier by the opposition and a series of independent intellectuals, it is a rickety construction and, above all, it threatens the rights and interests of the majority of workers. In this situation, the key question is the independent movements winning a real influence in the political life of the country. We think that it is possible right now to carry on real political activities in opposition to the regime.
Our program will be open-ended and formulated in such a way as to be receptive to new developments and the realities of life. We do not want to base it on a rigid doctrine. We do not want either to tie ourselves to any philosophy, although we do not hide the fact that today the social teachings of the Catholic Church, and above all the teaching of John Paul Il, are closer to us than Marxism. Philosophy must be the domain of interested individuals and specialized institutions and not of political parties. Religious convictions are a private affair, and the PPS places no restrictions on its members in this regard....
The PPS aspires to cooperation and friendship among all the nations of the world and above all to the overcoming of the conflicts and tensions with our neighbors through recognition of the right of all to self-determination. We want to act with a view to guaranteeing the free national, cultural and religious development of all the national minorities in Poland....
Without ignoring political reality, which can and must be changed, the PPS wants to exert an influence over the way in which the power is exercised in Poland. It will do so by initiating and developing democratic changes, by organizing social monitoring of the activities of the branches of government, by supporting the reviving trade-union movement and collaborating closely with it. We will fight for respect for human rights, and in particular the right to live in an independent and free country, freedom of organization and political pluralism....
We call upon all Poles who identify with the ideals of the democratic left to join the ranks of the PPS. * sidium —Jan Jozef Lipski (chair), Wladyslaw Goldfinger-Kunicki (the other vice-president), Andrzej Malanowski (secretary) and Marek Nowicki - then issued the following public statement:
"After December 1987, the activity of some members of the General Council of the PPS was marked by manipulations of a police type. They had the objective of introducing unjustified, artificial divisions among the members of the leadership. At the same time, there was an attempt to paralyze the party's programmatic work. Recently, this activity was raised to a new level. On February 3, 1988, an attempt was made, in disregard of the statutory rules and without informing the members, to transform a meeting of the Presidium of the General Council into a session of the Council itself with the aim of forcing the adoption of an ultra-left Trotskyist programmatic resolution.
"Just before the meeting of the General Council called for February 7, the Security Service selectively arrested those members of the General Council who were opposed to the adoption of such a resolution. The character and the course of the arrests indicated that they were intended only to isolate the persons concerned for a few hours. A group of General Council members took advantage of the arrests of these comrades to sign a statement that characterized the party as revolutionary, and, what is more, did not reject violence.
Accusations made of police infiltration
"There was an attempt to disseminate this statement as a resolution of the General Council of the PPS. This provocation was designed to compromise the PPS in the eyes of its sympathizers in the country and abroad and in the eyes of the parties grouped in the Socialist International. This was to serve indirectly to compromise the reviving socialist movements and currents in Poland.
"Being unable to determine how extensive the infiltration is, and unwilling to take the responsibility for the future effects of such a situation, we have decided to leave the leadership of the PPS. We reserve the decision about our membership in the party until we see whether or not the remaining leadership of the party, which for the moment is going along passively with this manipulation, will be able to purge itself. If it cannot, we see no possibility of continuing our activity within the party. On the contrary, we would see that as a danger to society. We remain faithful to the tradition of the PPS and to the ideals of socialism." 9
The twelve other members of the General Council of the PPS present at its February 14 session adopted a draft statement of principles to be submitted to discussion within the PPS. According to Piotr Ikonowicz, whom I questioned about this on the telephone, this document was a corrected version of the disputed document of February 7. (Notably, any reference to the revolutionary character of the PPS was eliminated.)
Speaking about this document, Piotr Ikonowicz pointed out: "With this document 8. SB, the political police.
13 9. Statement taken over the telephone from Jan Jozef Lipski.
March 21, 1988 • International Viewpoint
POLAND we wanted to come out of a sort of reserve in which the regime wants to confine the opposition. We are breaking with a sort of tacit compromise, by which the government will not repress too harshly oppositionists who hold back from questioning it too clearly. We reject such an attitude, which is inspired by the tactic of the Indians who limited themselves to protesting about the misdeeds of the colonists in petitions sent to the viceroy. At the same time, we show that those who maintain this reserve do so not because it is impossible to do otherwise, but because that is their choice."
Commenting on the resignation of four of its members, the General Council said: "In the statement justifying this action, there appears a grave claim about infiltration by the political police. This is a very serious accusation. We are astonished that the statutory possibility for a hearing before the Fraternal Tribunal (articles 11, 12 and 13 of the Provisional Statutory Principles of the PPS) was not used.
"This is all the more morally reprehensible since, in Polish conditions, the charge of collaborating with the Minister of Internal Affairs involves total ostracization. The tribunal's task would also be to decide where discussion of political differences ends and gratuitous charges begin.
"The raising of such grave charges withPrinciples of ac THE GENERAL COUNCIL of the PPS invites all the structures of the party to begin the discussion on program. To this end, the General Council is submitting the following draft principles for the activity of the party in the period extending until the statutory congress for discussion by the members and sympathizers of the PPS. It calls on the members and sympathizers to make comments, amendments and alternative proposals. It asks the party structures to complete the discussion by March 31, 1988. 1 The Polish Socialist Party was found-
Led with the aim of taking up the defence of the socially oppressed groups in order to arrive at the economic and political liberation of the workers and an end to the exploitation of labor. This goal can be achieved only by taking the fruits of the workers' labor, the tools and means of material production of goods away from the nomenklatura in order to return them to the workers.
In the view of the PPS, such reappropriation by the workers, combined with the establishment of institutional and political guarantees for this change, are the way to put the Polish economy back on its feet. In order to achieve this goal we are forming a public and legal party in accordance with the norms of international law, there being no appropriate legal norms in this regard in the People's Republic of Poland (PRP). 1A ution and judicial order in PRP, and in par- This party will seek to change the constitution and judicial order in PRP, and in parInternational Viewpoint • March 21, 1988 out utilizing the statutory procedure, and when the PPS has only been in existence for three months, can only raise the question of maneuvering. In the light of the difficult conditions in which the PPS is operating and the discredit attached to the word 'socialism' in Polish society, the accusation made in the statements of the four General Council members puts in question their commitment to the PPS. Until the programmatic congress, the positions vacant in the Presidium of the General Council will remain so." 10
In a press statement they issued on the resignation of four of their comrades, it was said that "the General Council considers this as an attempt to divert the discussion about program into the sphere of personal conflicts.""
A conciliation procedure, involving a commission made up of activists not implicated in the conflict and known for their "impartiality," is to be set in motion.
Regardless of the outcome, this crisis testifies to the immense difficulties of building a workers' party in a country where Stalinism has succeeded in breaking the continuity of the workers' movement. * 10. Statement taken over the telephone from Jozef Pinior. 11. Op cit. tion of the PPS ticular to abolish the domination of the United Polish Workers' Party (PZPR), as well as the leading role of any party, which stands in contradiction to the tradition of democratic socialism. We are aware that achieving these goals can involve an open conflict with the power apparatus and judicial system of the PRP, which have been designed for the best protection of the regime's interests. The Communists govern Poland not by the will of the society but by virtue of a diktat imposed by a foreign power. This is why the aspiration that the society should be able to freely chose the system of opinions that suits it fully justifies resorting to methods of civil disobedience. 2 With respect to the deepening of the economic crisis and of the attitude of the authorities who are conducting a more and more anti-working class and anti-socialist policy, the right of self-defence is a natural right of the workers. The force and violence of the forms of protest remain in proportion to the blows dealt to the workers' interests and rights. The PPS will not limit itself to giving moral support to social demands. The party's task is to take part in actions around concrete demands, to inspire them and organize them. In the present dramatic social situation, the place of PPS members is among the striking workers, in Solidarnosc organizing committees, in workers' self-management bodies, at the side of the oppressed and exploited.
3 The PPS considers it a particularly important task to support Solidarnose's factory organizations. Solidarnosc is the main weapon in the struggle for the workers' rights. It can be said without exaggeration that the union's strength depends on the prosperity and well-being of the great majority of Poles whose livelihood is not based on profit or on involvement in the power apparatus, but on their labor. This is why we think that it would be disastrous to water down the trade-union character of Solidarnosc and transform it into a social movement or a political party.
Abolishing the Communist regime in Poland is possible only with the cooperation of the democratic movements in all the Eastern Bloc countries. The domination of the party nomenklatura in the states of Central and Eastern Europe is buttressed by cooperation within the Warsaw Pact and COMECON. An effective struggle for freedom, independence, democracy and justice, therefore, involves coordinating the struggles of the oppressed societies. The societies and their independent organizations can be partners in discussions with the PPS and allies. The Communist power elites in Poland, Rumania and Hungary, but also in other Communist countries, are trying to save themselves by utilizing brutal methods of exploitation inspired by the primitive stage of capitalism. They are selling off natural resources cheap and trying, at any cost, to attract foreign capital by offering cheap labor. 5 After long years of existence in emigration, the PPS has been rebuilt in the country. The PPS in exile was part of the Union of Socialist Parties of Central and Eastern Europe. We hope that, like the PPS, socialist parties will be rebuilt in the other countries. The PPS will support activities toward that end with all the means at its disposal.
The capitalist world and the Communist countries are separated by an immense technological gap. This is reflected in the state of development of the economy and in the social structure. Therefore, a series of problems facing the socialist and social-democratic parties in Western Europe are questions of the future for the PPS. Our present political and economic problems are more readily comprehensible for third-world parties. But the PPS always played a significant role in the labors of the international socialist movement. We think that today we can find a place once again in the world family of the socialist parties. The PPS thinks that it will be able to take part in the programmatic discussions among the European socialist parties, continuing the contribution made by such Polish socialists as Niedzialkowski, Ciolkosz, Gross [the author of a work on the second technological revolution] and others to the work of the Socialist International. * The General Council of the PPS: Zbigniew Chedoszko (Szczecin); Zuzanna Dabrowska (Wroclaw); Piotr Ikonowicz (Warsaw); Gregorz Ilka (Warsaw); Artur Koszykowski (Cracow); Andrzej Kowalski (Wroclaw); Agata Michalek (Cracow); Cezary Mizejewski (Warsaw); Jacek Pawlowicz (Plock); Jozef Pinior (Wroclaw); Malgorzata Poszulak (Wroclaw); Tadeusz Rachowski (Warsaw)
Warsaw, February 14, 1988.
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