Junta's plan for fake unions

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Polish food queue: debts paid to Western banks while workers —200 at Oxford rally 4n audience of over 200, ineluding many workers and students. packed into Oxford Town Hall to attend a rally in support of Solidarnose called by Oxford Trades Speckers came from the london office of Salamosc. from the East European Solidra Campion and from the local labour THE POLISH military authorities have announced, in the army's daily paper, their new master plan for incorporating a totally disaffected working class into the running of the system.

The WRON (the Military Council, headed by Jaruzelski and certain figures, from the old PUWP Politbureau) puts forward the idea of some new trade union organisation to replace the outlawed for, as the WRON would have it, 'suspended') Solidarnosc.

These trade unions would be strictly limited to what the regime calls social problems' and will be confined 'to the premises of a given factory'.

The regime will under no circumstances relinquish its control of the factories. It dresses this up with pseudo-arguments to the effect that decisions on production, choice of technology, investment and exports, 'are reserved for expert authority and cannot be executed according to the principle of democracy .

In other words, the bureaucrats say: we will continue as we have always done in mismanaging the economy, because only 'we' are expert enough at this. And we will continue to put 'our boys' into the cushy, well-paid seats.

The regime does foresee 'the democratic voice of the employees (coming) into effect' in the way the Council. factory's income is distributed, and over social and housing funds. The future tame unions are promised information 'about the economic issues of the enterprise so as to have a realistic ground for (their) fight in, defence of the workers' social interests' But trade unions with any strength or independence, or moves by workers to challenge more than minor details of the bureaucrats' policies, are ruled out.

Torn Apart Industry is working below capacity already, and now the western banks are pushing for the resumption of interest payments due late last year. This means an extra shift of resources from buying necessary imports to the banks.

Result? Further grinding down of industrial activity as basic components run short and a deteriorating food supply. Animal feeds are already in short supply, and this is leading to large-scale slaughtering of livestock, which will produce a chronic meat shortage after the temporary bulge in supply is past.

It takes years to rebuild livestocks.

The shortages, the price increases, and the downward spiral of the zloty have resulted in a flourishing black market in food, which deals in foreign curt...

Joldod Saturdar January 30 encies only. Despite government assurances, the rations allocated, barely enough to keep above subsistence, are not being honoured.

The rural economy is being torn apart between the more well-to-do farmers, whose direct supply to urban areas has allowed them to amass a certain stock of black market currency, and the poorer farmers who have no such outlet.

There is talk of the government moving to seize food supplies by force, given the unwillingness of the farmers to sell their produce for useless zlotys.

Even basic barter between central authorities and the farmers has broken down, due to the State's inability to deliver essential fertilisers, fuels and pesticides.

But the WRON will : mnour its debts to the West, and above all it will tenaciously cling to power for the bureaucracy, even it it means starving the workers. BEL