Polish Workers Fight Back

[email protected] and lend your copy for scanning SINCE THE military takeover in Poland and the mass arrests that followed, the independent trade union movement Solidarnosc (Solidarity) has begun the task of reforming itself underground. When local union leaders are arrested, new ones are quickly elected. Solidarnosc is now preparing for a major offensive against the regime in a few months’ time. The most common graffitti in Polish workplaces reads, ‘““The winter is yours, the spring is ours, Solidarnosc”’.

Anyone who imagines that the Polish working class is going to quietly submit to the regime is mistaken, It is imperative that an international movement of solidarity with Solidarnosc be built and maintained.' We in Ireland are particularly weak in this respect. Despite the support given by Lec Walesa and Solidarnosc to the hunger strikers, the anti-imperialist movement has been very reticent about reciprocating. A motion in support of Polish workers was ruled out of order by the standing orders committee at the National H Block/Armagh Committee conference, For the most part the running on Poland has been left to the Church and right wing elements who not surprisingly play down the proletarian character of Solidarnosc and completely ignore its programme which upholds state ownership of industry and demands the institution of democractic workers’ power. A committee to aid Solidarnosc established by left wing trade unionists has never really got off the ground. A tour of Ireland by exiled Solidarnosc activists should go some way to redress the balance.

LABOUR’S TROUBLES continue. Relationships have been considerably