ediforial The Polish: Workers Say NO For the third time in twenty years, the Polish proletarTat has moved into direct action in defense of its interests against the bureaucracy. This continuity of combativity is in itself an important factor that explains, at least partially, the different political situation that exists in Poland compared with the situation in the other "people's democracies, " with the exception of Yugoslavia, of course. Even though on each occasion the Polish working class has been robbed of a more or less important share of the gains obtained through is direct struggles, it does not have the feeling of having struggled in vain, nor of having been crushed or even defeated in struggle. The sentiment of strength and self-confidence among the workers limits the bureaucracy's freedom of maneuver. It also determines a higher level of class consciousness among the Polish proletariat than among the working class of most of the other "people's democracies" and the Soviet Union. As during the strikes in the Baltic ports in December 1970, again this year foreign observers, even proOctober 24, 1956, 500,000 Polish workers throng Delilee Square to hear Wiodyslow Gomulka, new First Secretary of the Polish Workers party. 32
Gierek Imperialists, have been compelled to note the absence of slogans or themes of an anticommunist nature among the strikers and demonstrators. Even the sacking of the Communist party headquarters in Radom had a particular character, marked by the pronounced class nature of the action of the Polish workers. As during the Poznan strikes in 1956 and the strikes in the Baltic ports in 1970, this time once again the iniflative was taken in an individual factory, the Ursus tractor factory in Warsaw. As in 1956 and 1970, the use of forms of struggle to defeat the bureaucracy's attempt to isolate the strikers and even to hide the strike from the whole of the proletariat achieved immediate success. Workers solidarity began to come into play almost instantaneously. The movement spread. The factor that detonated the strike in June 1976 was the same as had triggered the December 1970 struggles: an increase in the price of consumer goods, equivalent to a sharp decline in the standard of living of the masses. In December 1970 the workers forced the bureaucracy to back down on the price increases. At the same time, the bureaucrats were forced to substitute Gierek for Gomulka, who no longer conserved an iota of the great popularity he had acquired in 1956 when he partially identified with the revolt of the masses, and even with the legitimacy of strikes. It is not likely that we will see a pure and simple repetition of the 1970 scenario, for two basic reasons: First, on the purely economic level, the Polish economy no longer commands sufficient reserves for increasing the rate of growth, which is what permitted partial reabsorbtion of the concessions the Gierek regime made to the workers after the December 1970 strikes. reabsorbtion was in any event only partially successful, less and less so as time went by and Gierek's initial economic project ran up against obstacles that were increasingly difficult to surmount, In order to freeze cont'd. on pg. 31 Editeur responsable: René Groslambert, 34 rue Nothomb, 1040 Bruxelles