Debate in Solidarnosc

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The coming week will see demonstrations against martial law in Poland, anniversary of Solidarnosc. Exiled Solidarnosc activist MAREK GARZT ist Organiser about the debates in the Polish workers' movement. Before martial law there was a debate in Solidarity between those who were saying that you've got to go very carefully to avoid provoking an invasion and aim to change things bit by bit, and those who were saying that you had to overthrow the bureaucracy. Do you think that the debate has continued with more people coming to the second point of view?

First of all you must understand that this debate durino the neriod that SolidLIIN arity was legal, was very much influenced by the geopolitical situation in It isn't the case that there is a wing of Solid arity that wants to preserve the regime with COST netic changes and another wing that would like to throw it.

If Poles were given a free choice 99% would say get rid of it altogether. The debate was over the best tactic and some people were saying, 'Look, we cannot provoke the government because they have the army, and we are surrounded on all sides. It is not like Great Britain with only the sea as its border.

We are surrounded. In fact it isn't even necessary for the Russian army to march into Poland. Since the last War we have had a quarter of a million Russian troops inside Poland and they • could do the job quite well in five hours.

So it was a question of going into compromise for as long as possible so that we could "contaminate" other countries.

If you think that the revolution in Poland possible without revolution in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, or the Soviet Union, you are mistaken.

It is impossible. It is like trying to make a revolution in one town in a country.

Can you declare a revolutionary republic of - Birmingham inside Great Britain?

So the question was whether we should wait and try to get the government to prolong the life of Solidarity by a day, by a month, and I think now that the debate has slightly changed in this way. Firstly most people have lost any illusions that you can talk honestly to this government or that you can have any democratic changes within this system.

But we also recognise that while the government has its police, and army, it is completely the country.

So they may again give us some concessions, they may again make Solidarity legal, and do the whole thing again.

I think most of the Solidarity people are prepared for negotiations, for bargaining with the government, for making the whole damn circus again.

Not because they believe they can reform Jaruzelski into believing in Solidarity, but only because we believe that with every passing month, there are things happening in other East European countries.

We need a few more years, maybe two years, to really "contaminate" these countries and start this avalanche process in which all the dominoes will fall.

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Socialist Organiser no.97 August 26 1982 Page 12