Poland: the Kremlin Onslaught

The Kremlin is terrified of the mobilisation of the Polish working class of automatic re-election.

ReF ~~ At the recent Polish Party Congress, the inroads of workers democracy began to be felt, in the first ever contested election to the post of party general se¢retary, and in the replacement of a large majority of the Politbureau by new delegates after years The fearful attitude of the Soviet Union towards these moves has been reflected in the cool welcome Pravda Kania as First Secretary of the Party, despite his commitment to holding the mass movement of workers under the Party’s control. Certainly the Soviet Union must be somewhat relieved that Mr Kania maintained his leadership and that some of the more revolutionary left wing militants did not get elected to the Politbureau, but they are by no means confident of Kania’s ability to hold the mass movement fur democracy in check.

Kania’s programme does not challenge the fundamental bases of bureaucratic rule in Poland. He does not call for a separation of the functions of the party and the state - at present the party nominates members to all the key posts in the state. Nor will Kania sanction real democratisation of the party - recallability of officials, the organisation of tendencies or rank and file ‘horizontal’ structures.

Kania supports the ‘renewal’ movement in the short term while working in the long term to restore the authority of the party over all aspects of social and has given to the re-election of Stanislaw Case ed and ‘misunderstood’. of the party. political life, particularly over Solidarity. A major part of this approach is 'G try to divide Solidarity by the daily attacks on its ‘irresponsible elements’.

In the last month attempts have been made to step up censorship of Solidarity’s national and local publications. In the first such case the editor of the Solidarity Bulletin in Pila has been summoned by the prosecutor for infringement of the 1946 censorship law. In Poznan a new hardline forum has emerged claiming 400 members. It has appealed for radical editors and others allegedly spreading ‘anti-communist ” ideas to be purged. The group has also complained that the Katowice forum, which received the explicit backing of the Soviet bureaucrats on its brief appearance last month, was harshly treatThe Soviet leaders are desperate to shore up support within the ranks of the Polish Communist Party, They are terrified of the destabilising effects of the turnover of cadre at every ‘level Some 50 per cent of local party cadre cussed.

THE PEOPLES DEMOCRACY bases itself on the following points:

We agree that the central political question for the Irish people is the political, economic and military domination of Ireland by imperialism and that the central task for the Irish revolution is the solution of the national question through the ending of partition and achievement of political and economic independence.

We are united in our rejection of the claim that any lasting solution to the oppression of the Irish people can be found within a 6 county framework, and in our rejection of any ‘right’ of the Loyalist minority to continue partition.

As Marxists we believe that the capitalist state must be smashed and replaced by a workers’ state and POBLACHT SHOISIAL ACH that only the organised working class can provide the motive force for doing this.

We believe that a crucial area of capitalist oppression is women, and this is especially so in Ireland, given the history of clerical power here. Women are oppressed as a sex and even a successful revolution will not automatically, guarantee the elimination of this oppression. For this reason, we unconditionally support the right of women to organise independently to fight for their emancipation.

As Marxists, we believe that the working class has the ability to successfully challenge and defeat imperialism. It produces the wealth of society without being able to control or distribute it. It is potentially stronger than any other class because of its ability to organise on SOCIALIST REPUBLIC Paper of PEOPLES’ DEMOCRALRY 4 mass base, combining its economic strength and its strength of numbers. We accept that workers have the right to defend themselves against imperialism. However, we do not accept the ideology of militarism — the belief that armed groups can substitute themselves for the masses and win freedom for them. We believe in the building of an organised and experienced leadership, in a Marxist party based on the Leninist theory of party organisation: the central feature of which is democratic centralism.

The organisation is internationalist. It commits itself to holding an organised discussion with representatives of the Fourth International on the question of affiliation to the FI. Members of the organisation may hold individual membership of the FI. of them. We intend to make SOCIALIST REPUBLIC the indispensible tool of anti-imperialists in this country. Whether you are a member of a H Block Armagh committee, another anti-imperialist political party, a worker struggling against the proimperialists policies of the trade union leadership or a woman or youth fighting for control of your own own life we want to aid your political work by patient explanation and agitation. If you don't come into any of the above catagories maybe reading SOCIALIST REPUBLIC will make you want to become one At a time of crisis of British rule in Ireland we must be in a position to take advantage of that crisis. If we are to bring the anti -imperialist movement from a position of defence of our democratic rights and the rights of our prisoners to one of being on the offensive against Britain and its Irish collaborators we need not only the will to succeed, but also a political strategy that will guarantee victory. Peoples Democracy, through its activities and through the pages of SOCIALIST REPUBLIC will aid this processby giving an explanation of the stage we are at today and our ideas for the way forward. As MICHAEL FARRELL explains in his article : “Belfast, August’69 "(p.7), PD has always seen the explanation of our ideas to the masses as an indispensable tool in the fight for democracy, socialism and National Liberation. From the days of Citizen Press in 1969 to Free Citizen and Unfree Citizen of PD and The Plough and the old Socialist Republic of the Movement For A Socialist Republic to the present SOCIALIST REPUBLIC of the new Peoples Democracy our essential aim has been the same: to win newer and broader forces to the struggle.

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