Understanding Marxism and Solidarnosc

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Solidarnose: 'The most sustained challenge to Stalinist rule since the Second World War To understand Solidarnosc - the new Polish labour movement that has arisen from the strike wave in 1980 - is to probe into a bundle of profound contradictions.

Among its supporters and active members are to be found Polish nationalists, devout Catholics, and sections of workers with illusions that the IMF and Western banks can help bail out the bankrupt Polish economy.

Solidarnosc has. been praised by Reagan, by Frank Chappie, by Thatcher and by Pope John Paul II; it has secured financial backing from the anti-communist leaders of the American AFL-CIO trade unions.

Condemned And of course it has been roundly and predictably condemned as 'pro-capitalist' and 'anti-socialist' by Stalinist leaders in Poland, the rest of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and some Communist Parties in the West.

The Stalinist criticism can be dismissed .. as cynical attempt at self-defence by totalitarian regimes which stand in fear that their parasitic power and privilege might be stripped from them by a mobilised working class.

And the fact that Solidarnose is supported in Poland by some confused and even reactionary forces shows us only one side of a complex social movement, which comprises ten million Polish workers and represents the most substantial and sustained challenge to Stalinist rule since the second world war.

No evidence Despite the propaganda claims of the Stalinists, for example, there is no evidence of any substantial current within Solidarnosc favouring the overturn of Poland's nationalised property relations and the restoration of capitalism.

Nor is there evidence that Reagan, Thatcher or anti-communists within the labour movement seriously expect such a current to emerge.

Solidarnosc has rather been hypocritically used for propaganda purposes by the imperialism to attack the lack of 'democracy' and poor living standards in the deformed workers' states - while Thatcher and Reagan themselves move to slash workers' living standards, destroy social services and attack the trade union movement through legislation and confrontation.

But at the same time as slapping the Polish workers on the back and warning the Soviet Union against an invasion, the imperialist leaders have taken important steps to prop up the flagging Polish regime. Reagan has lifted the US embargo on the sale of grain to the USSR; the EEC has provided increased shipments of scarce foodstuffs; and Western bankers have rallied round with new and extended loans to reduce the pressure of Poland's $27 billion international debts and give the Stalinist leaders the leeway to contain the struggles of the workers.

Far from believing that Solidarnosc offered the prospect of toppling Stalinism in favour of capitalist restoration in Poland, the imperialist leaders have recognised that the revolutionary struggle in Eastern Europe could, if successful, spill over into revolutionary struggle in the capitalist countries too.

In the same way the role of the Church as supporter of Solidarnosc must be understood. While the Catholic leaders are prepared to use the popular movement in order to improve their position within the Polish society, they have no interest in sponsoring any direct challenge to the power of the bureaucracy.

The development of relations between the Church and the Stalinist regime has been an uneven one.

Established

In the 1940s the Church . strongly opposed some of the progressive reforms war regime-the legalisation of abortion, divorce and civil marriage.

But in 1950 a deal was struck in which the Church leaders carved themselves out an established place in society in exchange for support for the regime. The bishops called upon Catholics to "respect the laws and institutions of the state", and lent their support to the Stalinist show trials taking place throughout Eastern Europe.

In exchange they were granted a Catholic university - the only one in Eastern Europe.

Support

The struggles of 1956 which brought the emergence of workers' councils in Poland, saw the bureaucracy, led by Gomulka, turn to the Church and peasantry for further support against the proletariat.

In a complete capitulation to the peasantry and in an abandonment of any socialist plan for agriculture, virtually the whole of the land was decollectivised, with only 10% left in the hands of the state.

And the Church was granted the right to its representatives in Parliament and to publish newspapers.

In exchange the Church threw its weight behind a vote for Gomulka in the By the end of the 1960s such collaboration had borne impressive fruit for the Catholic hierarchy:

there were, for instance, three times more nuns and twice as many monks as there had been in the 1930s, and bishops were paid more than Central Committee members of the Polish Stalinist party!

In 1970 Gomulka's successor Edward Gierek turned again to the Church leaders to support the bureaucracy against the uprising of the working class - securing a call from Cardinal Wyszynski for an end to the strike.

The Church does not therefore see its role as directly counterposed to the bureaucracy: indeed much of its power has flowed precisely from its alliance with the bureaucracy. And it is by no means certain that the ousting of the Stalinist regime by a mass, militant, popular movement of workers would increase the power and influence of the Church.

While Wyszynski was quite willing therefore to allow the Gdansk strikers to make demands for the broadcasting of mass and other concessions to the Church, he was quick to call for a return to "calm and honest work" on the outbreak of the struggle.

And on August 26th, while supporting the strikers' demands, he warned again that long strikes were a threat to the nation. So embarassing was this speech that Catholic spokesmen were obliged to claim it had been falsified by the Polish press.

By December 1980 a Council of Bishops statement declared unambiguously that:

"It is forbidden to undertake actions that could raise the danger of a threat to the freedom and statehood of the fatherland.

•The efforts of all Poles must be aimed at strengthening the initial process of renewal and at creating conditions to fulfil the social contract between the authorities and the community."

More recently still Wyszynski's successor Glemp has been formally drawn by the Jaruszelski regime into tripartite talks designed to stabilise the situation in advance of this winter's coming shortages.

Far from riding on the backs of Solidarnose to inflict their own defeat on the bureaucracy, the church leaders have themselves been frightened of the mass movement.

And while the close working relationship between Walesa and the Church leaders has been clear for all to see, the recent Solidarnose conference throws some doubt over the influence of the Church on the union as a whole.

A proposal to make morning mass compulsory was defeated: only a small minority of delegates attended an optional morning service. Opposition to Walesa from radical forces not so closely associated with the Church gathered strength - and it must be said that everyone of the Church exhortations for an end to strikes has been disregarded.

Solidarnosc is not therefore a stalking horse for Reagan or for John Paul II. But neither is it a readyformed revolutionary leadership of the Polish workers' movement. Nobody but a daydreamers could expect orac be o. Thretoluto any More Locor • anc socialism has been repressed throughout Polish history - not least in the last 35 years.

Neither wing of Solidarnosc's leadership -whether 'radical' OI 'moderate' - has a Marxist understanding of imperialism or the nature of the Soviet bureaucracy.

The 'moderates' (who include reformist layers of Warsaw intellectuals as well as more conservative layers of workers and sections influenced by the Church) consistently fight to limit the demands of the membership in order to seek a peaceful relationship with the bureaucracy. Their position coincides with a genuine fear amongst many workers that excessive demands may provoke an intervention.

This does not of course prevent Walesa on occasion making extremely radical speeches in order to win the support of sections of strikers and facilitate negotiations with the regime.

Threat

The 'radicals' on the other hand refuse to be restricted by the threat of Soviet intervention, and seek to give full rein to the most militant struggles.

But just like the moderates their response to the bureaucrats' pleas of bankruptcy is to look towards the IMF and new loans from Western banks as a possible solution to the economic crisis.

Such a view is not that different from the bureaucrats' themselves, who have now applied to join the IMF.

The lack of any developed Marxist alternative means that such leaders continue to command the allegiance of the most determined and advanced workers, accurately reflectTHE LEON TROTSKY Socialist Organiser, Lane, London Nº John Liste concludes his series on Poland ing both the strengths and weaknesses of the movement.

And it is the lack of any recent Marxist or internationalist tradition in Poland, together with Poland's particular historical development as an oppressed nation, which has fuelled the strong element of nationalism within Soliarnosc.

This nationalism has a progressive side. It is not the chauvinism of a great power seeking to dominate a subject nation. Nor does it reflect the aspirations of a Polish capitalist class. Rather it spearheads and focusses the struggle of the Polish masses against Kremlin domination.

But it also offers a basis for intellectual forces to foster a cult of support for the reactionary nationalist regime of General Pilsudski in the 1920s and for out. right anti-communist posit. ions. As such, nationalism offers workers only confu sion and misdirection. And it has also been repeatedly exploited by the bureau. cracy itself — particularly in the form of anti-Semitic propaganda.

The fight for the over throw of the Polish bureau cracy and the establish ment of a revolutionar workers' government in Poland is of course boun up with the fight to pre vent a Russian invasion and thus with the struggh for self-determination il But in demanding ant fighting for the removal o Soviet and Warsaw Pac troops from Poland it i important to guard agains anti-communist politions They could wall Polis workers off from the ner essary lessons of the Russ ian Revolution and Trol sky's struggle against it degeneration at the hand of Stalin and the Kremli bureaucracy.

The potential for the der elopment of a Marxist lear ership within the ranks!

Solidarnosc, capable of of ering consistent w8 forward to the Polish worl ers is enormous: the ider logical ferment within th movement is opening u discussion on every politi al issue.

Only by understandin the contradictions of th movement and recognisin its significance can Mar ists play their necessa role and construct a va guard party for the Polis revolution.

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Socialist Organiser, Thursday November 26, 1981 .05 :0

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the Polish revolution

TRANSITIONAL PROGRAM FOR REVOLUTION