A programme for Poland?

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WORKERS in the West live in a world dominated by the owners of capital operating through a more or less free market. Production is for profit, and economic regulation and 'control' is by market forces which It is a capitalist world. Its classic ideology is free-market liberalism, Morkers in Eastern Europe, the USSk, China, etc., Live, on the contrary, in a world ruled by bureaucrats who control an anti-democratic state which 'plans' the economy and controls more or less everyAgainst the early free-market capitalism and its present-day stiffjointed descendant, monopoly capitalism, the working class long ago elaborated a socialist programme: socialisation of the means of producdion: production not for profit but regulated for need in a consciously planned economy, political and economic democracy.

But how does the world appear to workers in the Stalinist states? What programme does someone like Lech Walesa opt for against the oppressive Stalinist system? He was a small child when the present system was imposed on Poland by the USSR's army in the 1940s, and never knew anything else. He inhabits part of the world where the old socialist traditions either have disappeared or have been gutted and appropriated in a corrupted form by the ruling bureaucrats.

The economy is already socialised - and in the hands of the state bureaucracy which mercilessly drives the workers, imposing speed-up For the working class the Stalinist world is a world of oppression. But its features are often the mirror image of the world of capitalist oppression. Economic oppression is at the hands of a tyrannical state, controlling a collectivised economy dominated by a privileged bureauEven when it is recognised and understood that the Stalinist bureaucratic system is not - as it claims to be - the realisation of socialism or communism, it is not always self evident that the anti-capitalist socialist pre still vast areas of pritical probeems to be exals ard, most ol, them concerning the lessons that socialists must draw from the experience of "socialist' collectivism under the bureaucracy in a totalitarian or semiThe following document by Andrzej Gwiazda, Solidarnosc leader and political prisoner (see last week's Socialist Organiser) presents us with a vivid picture of the range of uncertainties that are felt and being discussed in the Polish underground today, as the heroic Polish labour movement fights for survival against the Stalinist state and for the work through ebbs and flows of profit.

to which Thatcher is a twisted throwback.

thing in society.

and additional working hours.

iotalitarian state.

political clarity necessary to overthrow it.

Text of a programme by Andrzej Gwiazda, one of the 7 Solidarnose leaders imprisoned in Rakowiecka Prison, Warsaw.

Gwiazda has been held without.

trial since 13 December 1981, when martial law was imposed.

A NEW stage in the history of the Polish struggle against the imposed system of government began on 13 December 1981. The only offer made to society by the government of occupation has been the proposal for unconditional cessation of resistance and conspiratorial activities.

The statement that "a return to the situation before December is impossible, but so is a return to the pre-August 1980 situation" indicates that the Polish United Workers Party (Communist Party) will not tolerate the existence of either independent institutions legal before December, or of independent activity of the pre-August 1980 type.

A decisive victory for society, achieving both a return of the freedoms won in August and the possibility for their development - something that is essential for the appeasement of society - is currently unlikely.

Any sort of rotten compromise on the other hand would appease very few people, and the rest would continue their underground struggle. There are no conflicts therefore between the struggle for the return of legal Solidamosc activ*ties and the building of an underground society, or as opted for by others, an underFround state.

I is a mistake to casuace all directions and sacerts ibe trade union strucbare aad deforms union activity. The pereir nerbal exercise of cataro Salicersco a social = It do sore the For == From 'Voice Solidarnosc' thing, and will only lead us into confusion. A free underground society must have its trade unions and political parties, which will create their own visions of the future Poland. The initial phase of the beginning of any society's political life is often characterised by the rise of several hundred groupings and parties, all conducting debates about frequently unimportant issues.

Uniting and merging occurs as a result of the crystallisation of opinions. Under conspiratorial conditions, this procedure could take too long and, because of the impossibility of exchanging ideas and the impediments to public discussion, trivial divisions would be consolidated.

To avert this danger, a plane of agreement should be created, methods of activity. This agree- defining very general aims and ment - called the democratic front or movement - would embrace all organisations and initiatives whose aims and methods did not conflict with fundamentals, and which had at least one joint aim. The front's participants would undertake to cooperate and help one another in the realisation of superior aims, irrespective of their differences on specific issues. With participation in the front rigorous discussions on these issues would be permitted, through objective argument and with a respect for differences in outlook, but mutual slander and affronts would not.

The goal of the Democratic Front is the struggle for the full realisation of employees, cixizens and national rights. At all stages of our struggle the willingness to come to an agreement rih the existing government should be preserved, prorided sact e agreemens does IDESO A DE MACONE Fame inpat esca the letter and spirit of these articles in the Constitution.

(...) Any organisation and grouping evincing the characteristics of racism and national or religious intolerance, working towards a totalitarian system (...) are excluded from participating in the Democratic Front.

The Democratic Front cannot determine participating organisations, and it does not have a leadership, although in the future, the creation of a coordinating or negotiating body is possible, along with an acceptance of the principles of its appointment activity.

Participants of the Democratic Front may be political parties, clubs, self-education and cultural organisations, trade unions and independent press editorships.

The Democratic Front does not have a membership. A grouping becomes a participant of the Front through the public acceptance of its principles.

It might be useful to outline some areas in which differences of opinion are likely to appear.

1. Extent of union power in restricting the freedom of management or of an owner of a workplace.

2. Structure of the state, electoral law, method of appointing the government, number of ministries, scope of local authorities.

3. Right of possession. State or social possession - method of administration, power of selfmanagement. The admissibility of limiting private property and its maximum level - for instance, the size of agricultural holdings, workshops, small private factories and factories.

4. Size and scope of state welfare. Compulsory or voluntary social services and their scope. Tax amounts - whether to pay high taxes and gain from better services, or to let everybody choose for themselves what the money they earn should be spent on.

5. Size and equipping of the army; Obligatory, voluntary or professional military service. Expenditure on the police, its control and range of powers.

6. Method of appointing judges and judicial structure. Appropriate punishments for different crimes and prison conditions.

7. Method of financing culture and, in connection with subsidising, where state interference is unavoidable.

8. Should army personnel, judges and the police be allowed to join political parties? Does this result in partiality?

9. Scope of restrictions -censorship, military secrets, criticism of the government.

This cursory enumeration indicates just how many differences there may be. The quicker we begin our discussions, therefore, the more rapidly underground society will pass from the negative stage of unification against, to the positive stage of struggling for specified aims. Until that time, all exhortations for people to overcome their hatred will be futile. Hatred will remain while things are bad, but there is currently a lack of definition on how to bring about a good situation. The need to move from the stage of struggling "with" to the stage of struggling "for" is urgent.

When this happens, communism will no longer be the aim to be fought against, and will constitute only an obstacle in the achievement of our aim. Aad i will only be one obstacle, is i is bkelt that we will DETE Tany ocber difficulAN PHOBLACHT/REPUBLICAN NEWS

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