Polish CP Congress: the old guard cling on to power

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executed Hunger marches and protests have forced the bureaucrats into a 'concession': meat rations will be cut 20% 'only' until September, THINK OF an East European 'Communist Party' congress, and the picture which springs to mind is one of stiff-necked, rigid delegates, with crew cuts, dark suits, and unmoving, expressionless faceds, thunderously applauding the marathon speeches of 'the leaders' The elite, ritually going through the motions of 'discussion' and democratic debate' , matches an entire society locked in an ice-age of conformity and murderous authoritarianism.

The Ninth Extraordinary Congress of the United Polish Workers' Party was different.

Caught up in the tumult of the last year - the junking by a massive and well-organised workers' movement of sacred Stalinist practices, and the rebirth of working class action, posing a mortal threat to their political stranglehold and economic privilege - even the apparatchiks and careerists of the Stalinist party have had to move with the times, in a desperate attempt to understand and control a society slipping out of their grasp.

Different The Congress of 1,962 delegates was a rowdy and at times bitter and acrimonious affair, as different wings of the Party machine fought it out for power and influence.

Expulsions of seven leading PUWP members, among them Gierek, ex-prime minister Babiuch, and old trade union boss Szydlak, followed hard on the heels of embarrassing documents circulated around the congress Hall firmly implicating the General Secretary of the Party, Stanislaw Kania, in the brutal repression and murder of workers in the Baltic ports in December 1970, when he was head of the secret police. while food prices rise by up while fond nrices rice hu un to 400% ing in his contribution on how Moscow would 'fraternally aid the country to offer a decisive rebuff to all manifestations of anarchy and instability' , was at least brief. He seemed to spend much of his time in walkabouts, explaining to workers in a Warsaw radio factory that workers in the Soviet Union (the land of 'developed socialism') 'actively participated' and identified with their work.

The reactions of the Warsaw workers were not recorded in Prayda.

Of the outgoing Central Committee only 18 members (one in eight) were re-elected in the secret ballot. The newly-elected Politbureau of 11 includes only four from the outgoing one.

It is more or less equally balanced between the conservative and "liberal' wings of the party. Those knocked off the Politbureau include not only 'ultras' like Grabski, but also the 'liberal' Fizbach.

Thus despite the sweeping changes in personalities and in style, political control has to 400% not changed significantly. A balance has once again been fairly evenly struck between the hardliners and liberals' in the bureaucracy.

Same Clique The supposed great victory was the election to the Politbureau of Zofia Grzyb, a woman member of Solidarnose and a worker at a Radom shoe factory. Yet Zofia Gryzb has been a member of the PUWP since 1949. She was a member of the outgoing Central Committee and Control Commission of the PUWP, and has a record stretching back into the Young Communists and even the Scouts.

Real power in the Politbureau will still remain in the hands of the same clique - even • though they have been warned that they cannot exercise that power in the same way as before.

In the new Central Committee the balance of tendencies is roughly similar, although 20 per cent of its members are involved in one way or another with Solidarnosc.

The Congress has been unique in the annals of Stalinist Parties holding state power.

The rigid uniformity was washed away, in the midst of undoubtedly real and bitter debates. Powerful challenges were directed against Kania, not only by exposing his past, but also by changes in voting procedure which might have seriously diminised his chances of reselection. Open canvassing and corridor wheeling and dealing replaced the ritual acclamation of infallible leaders and infallible lines.

ferment, which is no doubt only a pale reflection of an even deeper ferment and dissidence at the base of the Party, the impact of Solidarnosc was remarkably slight. For a movement of 12 million workers and three million farmers, one representative and the Politbureau and a fifth of the CC is hardly a breakthrough - especially when the representatives' are in fact longstanding Party hacks.

There are terrible dangers if Solidarnosc allows itself to be satisfied by the changes in style and methods and personalities, while real power remains in the same hands.

A Stalinist party totally enmeshed with the state apparatus cannot be gradually reformed. It can break apart or it can reconsolidate itself. In either case, a counter-offensive by the top bureaucrats is inevitable.

They will ensnare Solidarnosc, draw it into being 'moderate' and responsible , and then choose their time to smash it up.

If Solidarnosc's impact on the PUWP is to be more than a 'left cover' for the Stalinist reformers in their attempt to reach a compromise with the rest of society and push through economic reforms which will mean unemployment and worse conditions for Polish workers, then a more democratic structure and a clearer policy in Solidarnosc itself are needed.

Mansur Hallaj THIRTEEN members of the Mojahedeen [PMOI] were executed as polling took place in Iran last weekena for a new president to replace the ousted Bani Sadr.

We have also learned that a Kurdish comrade, Gharani Karimi, who wrote for the socialist paper Workers' Action under the name 'Simko', has been executed by the Islamic Republic after being held in prison in Tabriz for almost two months.

The election of Mr Mohammed Ali Rajai, the favourite candidate of the Islamic Republican Party, was no surprise. Everything had been done to boost the power of the Islamic fundamentalists.

As proof that they had voted, people were ordered to produce their identity cards for stamping. Those with unstamped cards can now expect to be the victims of the Islamic Republic's relentless drive against opposition.

Divine wrath

Ayatollah Khomeini, considered to be the sole representative of God and the prophet Mohammed, denounces any opposition to himself and the Islamic regime as opposition to God and the Koran. The radical currents have taken the brunt of the 'divine wrath' and the PMOI have been the main target, along with the Fedayeen Minority, Peykar, and other smaller revolutionary organisations.

A new turn in the strengthening , of opposition to the regime was marked by a communique issued by the PMOI in Tehran on July 2nd. They hold Khomeini personally responsible for the brutal repression, the war, and the economic chaos now reigning in Iran, and they call upon the people of Iran to give 'spiritual and material support' for their struggle against the regime.

They have also declared themselves 'the soldiers of Bani Sadr' . Bani Sadr can now also claim the suppor of the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Fedayeer Minority.

It is a strange opposition front, in which the PNOI have given uncritica support to Bani Sadi. It :: left up to those smal-" revolutionary organis: tions which have not cap: ulated to Khomeini it :to organise the workre class as an independe":

PICKET THE IRAN. IAN EMBASSY: from 12 noon, Sunday 2nd August, at Princes Gate, London SW7.

Organised by Feday• een Minority, Peykar, Communist Unity, and Unity of Communist Militants.

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Party hacks Yet despite this

ranian eftists