The Polish Rising

[page 9]

The Polish Rising

by ROGER

In December 970, the workers of the Baltic shipyards, supported by the rest of the Polish working class, made the greates step forward in the world struggle against Stalinist repression for

In Gdansk, Gaynia, Sopot, Slupsk, Keszaline and fourteen years.

Elblag in the North-West, in the mines of Krakow and Katowice in Upper Silesia, in Ledz and in Warsaw, the workers displayed magnifi cent solidarity against overwhelming and appalling odds. Dockers struck and occupied the shipyards, telephonists occuped their exchanges, miners held sit-in strikes, transport and power workers struck, and engineering workers held "go-slows" in sympathy. Worker housewives, students, and youths marched defiantly in the paths of

were set up, and in the space of a few days an embryonic workers' were militia had been formed. All the eyewitnesses testify independently that the conscript soldiers refused to fire on the crowds and

On the other hand, the special riot openly fraternised with them.

police, a band of demoralised lumpen-proletarian thugs, fired indiscriminately and callously. Even the official statements admit that 45 people were killed and 1,165 injured.

In Gdansk, they machine-gunned into the crowds from overhead helecopters and according to unofficial estimates up to 300 die in the bloodbath. In Gaynia, workers responding to the appeal of Deputy Prime Minister Kociolek for a return to work, and walking across the bridge from the town to the shipyards, were ambushed and

They later estimated that over , 200 had been killed machine-gunned.

on that day. Raising flags literally dyed red with the blood of their comrades, and singing socialist songs like "The Internationale" and a wartime resistance song including the words "For hunger, blood and tears, the hour of revenge has come," they marched in their thousands. From its frightened reflex of brutality and slanders, the bureaucracy was forced to make urgent concessions. Within a matter of days, the entire leadership of the Party, the Government and the trade unions was dismissed.

This historic experience, flaring up in intense concentration over a few days, has altered the whole mood of the East European workers. The evil spell cast by the capitulation of Czechoslovakia has been broken. In particular, the Polish workers have become awar of their tremendous power and feel an upsurge of morale. It is important for socialists all over the world to draw all the lessons

from these events.

SILVERMAN

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Stalinism from its inception has lurched from one crisis to Born of the isolation of the world's first workers' state crystallising in the conditions of social backwardness, it was strengthened by every blow of the world counter-revolution leading of culture did what every such group in history used and abused their power to protect their sectional privileges. The Soviet bureaucracy grew into a tyranny, steeped in the blood of but forced by history to wear the cloak of Marxism. sion in theory and in practice, and by its collaborationist policies, it became the greatest obstacle to the world revolution. Trotsky and the Left Opposition, swimming against the stream of reaction, reasserted the ideas of Bolshevism, kept its traditions alive in preparation for a new turn in the tide. They predicted that public ownership and planned production would ensure an unprecedented growth of industry and the working class, and the development of education, technology and science to unequalled peaks. ing complexity and sophistication of the economy would undermine the roots of bureacratism and turn the ruling caste into an absolute fetter on society. Every ruling elite fights tooth and nail to predicted the programme of political revolution that was to be inscribed twenty years later on the banners of the workers of Hungary in 1956 - demands going back to the Bolsheviks' measures against The extension of the revolution to Eastern Europe had not been anticipated, but this very source of authority to Stalinism The flight of the Nazi troops from the advancing Red Army completely changed the correlation of class forces in Eestern Europe. The capitalists had thrown in their lot with the Nazis, and stood countries was the partisan resistance movement, mostly Communist. Soviets were springing up and a spontaneous movement was developing imminent extension of the revolution and the rebirth of internationalist ideas, the Kremlin resorted to the same tactic it had used behind the workers' barricades in pre-war Spain. both cases had abandoned the tools of bourgeois democracy and puppets and formed bogus "coalition" governments with politically another.

up to the Second World War.

bureaucratism.

Eastern Europe or fell with them.

towards a revolution on the model in joined the camp of Fascism.

8.

a generation of revolutionaries, betraying protect historically obsolete privileges.

brought terrible new stresses into its realm.

The old officials, with their monopoly The only effective indigenous power in these of October.

The Stalinists picked up their abandoned has done:

they the workers of the world, But its perver- The grow- The Left Opposition Threatened with the The capitalists

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redundant "liberal", "radical", "socialist" and "smallholder'" parties. For their own nominees they reserved only the portfolios controlling the police and the army, the coercive apparatus of the

This left them free to stamp out the glowing sparks of state.

independent working-class activity. For the Red Army in Eastern Europe as for Mao's peasant armies when they reached the cities after years of guerrilla war and were greeted by general strikes, exemplary harshness was used to quell the workers. It was only then that they were forced by the relentless logic of events to mobilise a chastened working class to obliterate the residue of the

Using what the Hungarian dictator Rakesi old exploiting classes.

called the "salami tactic", effortlessly theysliced off one layer of the opposition after another. The revolution was completed in a devious artificial, distorted way, creating workers' states that were bureaucratically deformed from the beginning, in the image of

Stalin's Moscow.

The puppet regimes that were imposed on the foundations of the planned economy were used to sanction an era of shameless plunde by the Russian bureaucracy. For a decade, it successfully moulded the economic plans of these states in the interest of the Soviet: economy, operated biased trade terms (even by comparison with the built-in bias of the world market against primary producers), and even exacted colossal direct tribute under the name of "war repara-

national income in "compensation" for the war crimes of their overthrown exploiters! Between 1945 and 1956, about 20,000,000,000 dollars were squeezed out of Eastern Europe. Nationalisation gave a tremendous impetus to industrial production, which in Poland, for instance, has grown thirteen times since 1938. But although the leaders in general enjoyed the guarded confidence of the masses, they had come to power by skullduggery and sleight-of-hand, and were afrai of the workers. Most of them had found refuge in Moscow during the Nazi occupation, and the underground resistance had no help or

The Polish Communist Party was actually recognition from them.

"dissolved" by the Comintern! Their power was based on the Red Army. Only Tito in Yugoslavia and Mao in China were based independently on their own peasant armies, and were able to lever themselves out in the end from under the Kremlin's stranglehold. After Tito's break the Kremlin resolved to crush tendencies among the satellite bureaucracies towards even limited autonomy. Leading lifelong Stalinists like Rajk in Hungary, Slansky in Czechoslovakia and Gomulk in Poland were branded as Titoists, huge show trials were stage, the entire economy was disrupted in crippling purges, and there were mas executions, imprisonments and deportations. In Poland alone, there were over 100,000 political prisoners.

6

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1956, Khrushchev made his famous "secret speech" to the day published officially in Russia, was intended as a symbolic gesture to the thousands of bureaucrats assembled at the Congress to cultivate a sense of initiative and responsibility among a caste that that learned bitterly the risks involved in such an attitude. This action heralded a new turn in the face of economic stagnation resultfactory production, the mass uprisings in the labour camps, the pressures of the intelligentsia, and the strains in tastern turope. I'hey came as a thunderboit to a whole generation. he had been slavishly built up as a paragon of wisdom in every sphere of human endeavour. Now all the responsibility for the blood and horror of a traumatic epoch was heaped on to his shoulders: the nightmare of the mass purges, the genocide of entire nationalities, the Nazi invasion, the "personality cult" - in all these were conseqstate as the top figureheads were pensioned off and replaced by their In Poland too, dutiful admonitions of the police for "violations of' socialist legality" were mouthed, and a limited amnesty was announced, releasing 30,000 of the 100,000 political This jolted the minds of tue people and shook them out of sullen bitterness into conscious political activity. heady optimism that engulfed Czechoslovakia after the shock of Novotny's downfall, the ferment in society was articulated at every level, including the official Press. Warsaw Radio, for instance, took its cue too eagerly: "For a long time we have Secretary, to strike a cautionary note not unlike those murmured at times by Dubcek: "Some comrades seem to be losing their sense of balance or proportion...... We must separate the chaff from the grain, the constructive ideas from the rare examples of irresponsibility or hysteria". Bulganin from afar spoke more acidly, in terms if "opportunist and subversive elements", "hostile elements", "coming out of corners" and "sowing venomous seeds". The workers felt that whole world, at the International Fair in Poznan in June, the workers of the Zispo engineering works struck, sent a delegation to Warsaw, and marched through the streets in their thousands.

along to disperse them refused to open fire, and instead joined them in an attack on the headquarters of the hated security police. the fighting between the two, the official figures state that 53 were of its own denunciations of the security police, the leaders slandered Iwentieth Party Congress.

in from catastrophic wasge OI modern society of slave labour in Incalculable reverberations vences öf Stalin's "mistakes"!

Ritual sacrifices were chief lieutenants.

prisoners.

an insipid, messy hash of slogans."

the denunciations of the police terror gave the right to stand up for themselves.

killed and over 300 injured.

10.

the stifling stranglehold of the resources, * one torre The repudiation of Stalin, never to this monolith, Party the obsolencence in the camps and militarised resulted from the exposure of Stalin.

For thirty years staged in every Eastern European Like the been spoonted on This promptea Oonas, the Party : them the opportunity and Under the scrutiny of the Ine troops sent In Another 481 were arrested. Regardless

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the workers in similar terms to their more recent outburst, as imperialist agents, provocateurs, and enemies of our country". However, in a sudden concession which once again will remind our readers of more recent events, it was suddenly discovered that the workers did after all have a "legitimate grievance". Apparently over 6½ million zlotys (£½ million) had been "unjustly collected" in taxes from the Zispo workers, and it was immediately refunded to the "enemies of the people". Feeling the groundswell of popular indign ation, Ochab changed his mind about the disturbances: "It would be an error to concentrate attention on the machinations of provocateurs

The social roots of these incidents and agents of imperialism.

should be sought for in the first place". Blaiming "bureaucracy and the soullessness of the authorities", he summed up the episode concis as a "grave warning to us".

Taking due heed of the "warning", the ruling clique made a desperate decision in October - to make Gomulka Party Secretary. He was thus as meteorically raised to exalted office as he had earlier been hurled into the depths of disgrace. He had only been release from prison in April, and only been re-admitted into the ranks of the Party in August!

The Nationalist Trap

Gomulka's subsequent history is worth studying, becaus is almost a "laboratory specimen" of a type that recurs again

The historical background meant that, again in such cases.

although the masses in Eastern Europe might be the first to rise against the arbitrary excesses of Stalinism, they would have to penetrate the smokescreen of nationalism. Bourgeois nationalism and restoration were quite out of the question, but the "Titoist" wing of the bureaucracy, under the pressure of the masses for pendence from the Kremlin, would inevitably seize the opportunity to divert the movement from its political tasks and use it in its own interests. the history of Fastern burope must be seen against this background. In Poland in 1956, like in Czechoslovakia in 196 but unlike in Hungary in 1956, the bureaucracy deflected the worker from their real target into a

Because in Czechoslovakia there had been no major upheavals in 1950, all the frustrations of bureaucratic centralism had accumul ated in the course of the 1960s. The warning signs were clear: production was stagnating: the Writers' Congress had broken up in uproar; the students had marched through the streets and successfully obtained an apology for their brutal treatment; and Slovak nationalist strains were felt. To forestall the impending explosion the Central Committee deposed Novotny and replaced him with a pro-

What the Western press so lyrically mising technocrat - Dubcek.

e he and

11.

[page 14]

acclaimed as "socialism with a human face" was in reality - Stalinism of Gomulka on the one hand and Dubcek on the other are to be explained, not by political differences, but by the new correlation of forces Gomulka in fact was superficially a far more plausible candidate for the role of champion of democratic rights. ary of the underground CP when it was unrecognised by Moscow. He appointment to office in 1956. He made ringing promises and forthright assertions, declaring that "the Poznan uprising was not due to imperialist agents, but was a result of many years of deep discontent among the working classes". He condemned the old regime with phrases about "serious mistakes, juggling of statistics, perversions of the past, shame, poison of medacity, output per day in coalmining had dropped by 35% since 1938. He Dubcek without finding any such eloquence. Unlike Gomulka, unlike Nagy, unlike even Kadar or Husak, Dubcek had never suffered personally suffered had only been made more pliable tools of the bureaucracy as Gomulka played off all the desperate elements in the sitvation against one another - the peasants against the workers, the catholic Church against the Communist Party, the Red Army against the for large sections of the youth he showed his treachery against the presence of Soviet troops on Polish soil, he called them "provocateurs, reactionaries and hooligans", regardless of his words The crucial test faced Gomulka immediately. The Hungarian movement refused to be diverted by Nagy, his Hungarian counterpart, but moved implacably onwards against every shade of Stalinism. revolution began with a demonstration called by the Petofi Circle of intellectuals on 23rd October "in solidarity with our Polish brothers". As the leader Gero attacked the demonstration on the radio, more and more workers and students joined it until 100,000 had assembled. They moved to the radio station to reply to his slanders, but were shot down by the AVO (security police). Munitions workers and soldiers handed out arms to the workers, and the Hungarian C.C. like the Polish C.C. brought Hagy out of disgrace and into power. Soviet "aid" in putting down the "counter-revolution", which had with a liberal mask.

in the whole Stalinist world.

had languished for four years in prison.

acclaimed his black pages of the personality cult", etc.

made clear commitments.

at the hands of the police.

Betrayal opposition.

very early on.

of a few days earlier.

the permanent stationing of Soviet troops.

12.

One could scan the entire speeches of a result of their humiliation and degradation.

When in October of 1956 thousands demonstrated The different prospects that unfolded in front He was Secret- Massive demonstrations He revealed that man- In reality, of course, those who had In November an agreement was signed allowing I'he He then requested

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already organised itself into Soviets, democratic councils of workers housewives, stuients peasants and soldiers. They fought ior the Bolshevik programme - for political and trade union libertie for withdrawal of foreign troops, for workers' management through Soviets, for the abolition of the AVO and recognition of the workers' militia, for a maximum wage differential of 3 to 1. The insurection

The Russian soldiers fraternised with the workers and the Kremlin had to withdraw them and replace them with ignorant peasant troops from Siberia and Mongolia, sealed off in tanks and told that they were in

the Anglo-French imperialists, or in Berlin fighting Egypt the Nazis. Unly by this desperate trick coula the Kremlin massacre the Hungarian workers and drown the political revolution in blood. Gomulka mumbled mealy-mouthed support of the Kremlin murderers and finally expressed his confidence in the "revolutionary workers' and peasants' government" - that it, the Kadar puppet government imposed by the Russian tanks.

The

Fall

en Ido

At home, Gomulka made concessions to the peasantry, dissolv ing most of the collective farms which had been formed with unatic haste, but replacing them not with model collectives and the force o example, but with an opportunist redivision of land. To this day, more than 85% of agriculture is in private hands, as result.

But all the promises of mass participation have turned to ashes. By the early sixties, the momentum had ended. Production began to stagnate The regime's social basis became so slender and precarious that it

Along with the disillusion of the workers was politically impotent.

and intellectuals, came a deep Cleavage within the Party elite itself into two mutually antagonistic factions. Gomulka lurched desperately between the two of them in the hope of maintaining an uneasy balance. On the one side stood the "Technocrats", led by Kierek,

These stood for Liebermanist economic reforms Kociolek and Tejchma.

on the model of Brezhnev and Ulbricht, giving a greater predominance to the managerial wing as against the State and Party officialdom, without any dangerous relaxation of political control.

On the other side were the "Partisans", the "Union of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy", a movement 250,000-strong of Communist and non-Communist underground resistance veterans. their head stood General Moczar, formerly a particularly vicious police chief and Minister of the Interior, responsible for clubbing down workers at demonstrations going right back to Poznan in 1956. This faction combines a demagogic crusade against bureaucracy and corruption and a rejection of all economic reforms, with a vile appeal to all the basest chauvinistic prejudices accumulated over centuries of poisonous propaganda by the Polish aristocracy. It is based on

13.

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resentment against the "Muscovites" who ignored the heroic acts of the resistance and took control of the Party after the liberation. It crudely broadens this into a reactionary campaign against Jews and Anti-Semitism was a favourite weapon of the old farcical. Since Hitler built Auschwitz and Treblinka and other death camps on Polish soil, the Jewish population has dropped from seized upon the fact that 20% of the Party membership before the war were vewish, and certain Jewish individuals were prominent among the They also call for improved relations with the Church All the underlying tensions flared up in a brief spurt of sweeping through Czechoslovakia, the youth of Poland bravely voiced their aspirations in strikes, sit-ins and marches. whole Party leadership, including even "liberals" like Gomulka and "technocrats" like Gierek, was highly instructive. Un March th and 9th, hundreds of police tought 4,000 voked by the arrest of students at a protest against the banning of a 19th-century play in which anti-Russian lines had been chauvinistically applauded, the students' demands went beyond nationalism to actual implementation of all the nominal constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression and assembly, etc. Trotsky predicted that such demands would be the first shots in the struggle and similar elementary constitutional demands are being boldly voiced in The students' slogans were: "Relax the censorship" "A free press", "No study without freedom", "Iong live the writers" Against the official slanders, they shouted: "Down with the lying press", and against the truncheons, tear gas and water of students and young workers sacked a building of the Ministry of Culture, fighting police and smashing furniture. As a protest meeting of 2,000 students met at the University to condemn the police and Press ten thousand young workers assembled in their support and there was more street fighting. A total of 1,208 young people were detained by the police. On the 2Ist and 22nd of March, 4,000 students sat in at applauded and sent in food, drink and cigarettes. Further demonstrations took place in Krakow, Lublin, Poznan, Gdansk, Bialystok and The 'Partisans" applauded Moczar's brutal treament of the demonstrators and also became pacemaker for a hysterical pogrom, in sinister imitation of the old order. The desperate attempt to play on peasant prejudices was dressed up in suitable political trappings: it was of course the "Zionists" who were responsible for the disorders. "cosmopolitans".

ruling class, used with tragic effect:

million to little more than 200,000.

"Muscovites"

rebellion in March 1968.

the students in Warsaw University.

demands for the Russia today.

"Democracy".

cannon of the police they cried:

the Warsaw Polytechnic.

Szczecin.

14.

and Moczar personally is its publishing agent.

Crowds gathered outside the building, its use today is almost The "Partisans" have avidly Inspired by the flood of change then The response of Although the demonstration was pro- "Gestapo!" On March Ilth, thousands

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Spurred on by the "Partisans", the Warsaw Party Secretary Kepa "The most notorious organisers of the disturbances were "forces hostile to Socialism" for "sowing seeds of anarchy and lawlessness" with the aim of "provoking bloodshed". He accused some "revisionist professors of "deliberately and with premeditation infusing hostile political views into the minds of the young people are of Jewish origin or nationality, the parents of whom occupy more or less responsible and also high poats in our state!! say, the latter did not occupy their positions much longer. Scores of leading intellectneis were dismissed, including the Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, two Central Committee members, two nuclear physicists, and other eminent ministry officials, professors, writers were imprisoned, hundreds expelled from colleges and at Iwo C.C. members, Schaff and Zolkiewski. (both later rended the you ate ran a condemned the ruling circles had reached critical proportions, and this is always At a Warsaw Party meeting, the "Particans" greeted every reference by Gomulka to jews with such spirited and prolonged cheering that he had to beg to be allowed to continue his speech. parade became in effect a "Partisan" demonstration, in which the prodominant slogans and banners attacked "Zionism" and "revisionism." After the hysteria of 1968, the "Partisans" receded to some extent before a "Technocratic" counter-offensive. especially unpopular among the ruling clique when Gomulka discovered that the "Jewish section" of the Ministry of the Interior contained files on his own wife, who is Jewish, and when Gierek discovered hidden microphones in his office, placed there under Moczar's orders. In any case, the bureaucracy could put the semi-racialist demagogues into cold storage for a time after the political ferment died down. Moczar and two of his supporters were compelled to resign from the Central Committee. It was not until the new crisis of 1970/71 that Moczar was readmitted to the Central Committee, and for the first time! the Politburo too, to play the role of "hard man" in the double tactic new Party Ieadership graphically symbolises the dilemma of the bureaucracy and the hopeless deadlock paralysing its freedom of action. announced:

Polish citizens of Jewish extraction".

placed in their care".

events that have taken place editors of the Polish Encyclopedia, ete.

least 8,000 people were police's "brutal actiors"

an omen of deeper social upheavals.

The New Crisis of combined reform and repression.

Finally he stated: "An active part in the thrown out of the Party.

• Discontent in the families of the Gomulka started by blaming was played by a section of students that Needless to Several students and The May Day Moczar became The equivocal composition of the 15

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In the course of time the fearless "liberal" of 1956 became the most hidebound and conservative of bureaucrats, despised, vacillating, indecisive, so lacking in authority and so much the prisoner of his past promises that he dared not upset the equilibrium even to the extent of carrying through economic reforms implemented in every other East European country.

The leadership became an inert vacuum, held together by the equal pull of opposing tendencies within the ruling clique. Not until July 1970 was a "pilot scheme" started, involving a mere ten enterprises in a complex bonus system based on four separate indicators.

This is the sum total of effort made to correct a chronic and fundamental imbalance in the economy. Industry is held back by a shortage of key capital equipment, a shortage circumvented by foreign trade.

The importation of capital goods depends on boosting the export of foodstuffs, which is by far the biggest source of foreign exchange. But agriculture is overshadowed by the fragmentation of the land enacted by Gomulka in 1956.

For all the industrial achiev ments, the economy is based on an unsound and primitive footing. Agriculture productivity is chronically backward. Agriculture is exposed to the merciless caprices of Nature, and vulnerable to the kind of ravages that plagued it recently, with the drought of summe of 1969, followed by an exceptionally severe winter, leading to dis astrous spring flooding.

In 1970, grain output was 4 million tons short of the plan target.

There were 250,000 fewer cattle than the year before, and 1 million fewer pigs. Imports rose, but for the first time exports dropped.

After a surplus in the balance of trade of 110 million dollars in 1969, Poland had a deficit of 90 million dollars in the first half of 1970. The output of wheat flour reache its peak in 1965 and that of meat in 1967. The record figure of these years has never been surpassed.

The acute food shortage caused riots in Katowice, Gierek's home base in August 1970 when the miners held a sit-in strike and the housewives smashed up the supermarkets.

The disorders were only soothed by the emergency arrival of special consignments of extra mea from Warsaw and Moscow. Over subsequent weeks, there were countless factories in the Warsaw Area - the Rosa Luxemburg lamp works and the Polski Fiat car plant.

Strengthened by the industrial expansion that had taken place since 1956, the workers once again were beginning to stir. The students and intellectuals, as in neighbouring states were in revolt. The bureaucracy was split down the middle and torn by inner conflicts. Any spark would have been enough to set Poland ablaze. Suddenly in Mid-December it was announced that the prices of food, fuel and rent - life's basic necessities - were to be raised by between 10% and 30%. Since as much as 52% of the avera

16.

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workers' family budget is spent on food alone, the new system spelt The "corresponding reductions in the price of durable goods - 20% on nails, 21% on tape recorders, 39.5% on elastic long slacks, ete. - were no consolation to any but the richest sections of the population. In effect, the bureaucracy was trying to hang the burden of its own short-sighted policies around the neck of the working class: to implement a vicious piece of rationing, in the effort to meet is expori quotas, in the harshest and most unjust form, ›y near-prohibitive prices. At the same time, the opportunity was xoloited to dump unsaleable second-rate durable consumer goods. It is not surprising that the brusque and insersitive announcement There has been speculation in the Western press to the effect that the whole episode was "engineered" by a "conspiracy" within sections of the bureaucracy antagonistic to Gomulka. Capitalist observers dare not admit even to themselves the possibility of genuine spontaneous movements of workers. cynically the bureaucrats may stick their knives into one another's backs, they will never deliberately incur the risk of political revolution that would menance their whole caste, without pressing In any case, "Trybuna Rabotnicza", the Katowice Party paper admitted that the price increases were "only the proverbial drop which made the cup of bitterness flow over". Gierek has stated that over recent years, the average annual rise in real earnings was less than 2%, and for some groups of workers earnings have even dropped. Four million workers, a quarter oi the labour Iorce, earn less than <,00C zlotys a month (about £34). Ihe new Prime Minister, Jaroszewicz, revealed what other medicine the Party leaders were planning to administer: a wage freeze for 1971; the dismissal of 30,000 a none-year delay in bonus payments; and a freeze on pensions The last card of the bureaucracy was played in 1956. It is left politically naked and defenceless against a renewed upsurge. First it responded with the wellworn calumnies and the police assassins. But, as Gierek put it, force did not end the crisis but "led to its aggra- It sent the "Qrmo" (paramilitary police) into the Warsaw about £17 a month and increased family allowances - but then told the striking dockers that they would lose pay for lost production. at first refused to change the officials responsible for the massacres, • a full-scale purge of every Party, state and tradeunion committee. It put Gierek at the top, but balanced the leadership by promoting Moczar to the liling bodies.

acute hardship.

provoked an explosion.

A 'Plot'?

sense • need.

workers; Gomulka.

and then started vation and threatened outright catastrophe".

factories to intimidate the workers.

This is non- However, So it then deposed It raised the minimum wage to It It bravely declared 17.

[page 20]

that the vicious price system was "essential to the economy", and then in the teeth of renewed strikes revoked the whole scheme. reform nor repression can break the workers' new-found spirit. Again and again in January and February there were stoppages of shipyard and transport workers in Elblag, in Gdansk, in Gdynia and in Szezecin for better pay and conditions but also for real trade unions, for the dismissal of top politicians like Cyrankiewicz, Moczar, Kociolek and the new trade union boss Kruszek and for a degree of control over the No sooner had these died down when an inspiring revolt began far away from the Baltic coast: thousands of textile workers in Iedz, mostly women, staged a prolonged strike and sit-in. the Bureaucracy has far less room for manoeuvre than it had in 1956. Sooner or later, the workers will carry through a political revolution It was inevitable that a new movement in Poland would begin at a higher level than that of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Poland in 1956, the leaders were helplessly carried along on the crest In Poland they could sit tight until the ebb-tide, and then harness the movement according to their own designs. time that Novotny was belatedly removed, even the most limited break with tradition spelt peril to Stalinism. The Kremlin could not allow the opposition in Poland; the Ukrainian C.P. leader Shelest insisted on intervention because of the impact in his republic of events over in East Germany popular sympathy was sowarm that 4,000 Eisenach workers marched in protest at the intervention; and the workers and students of Jugoslavia were aroused by the new mood. the abject capitulation of Dubcek, Cernik, Svoboda and ever mrkovsky, the trade unions's hero, taugnt a valuable lesson. The Kremlin knew that while they retained public confidence, it could swagger, bully, invade, insult, dictate to them and finally utterly degrade them, without running the slightest risk of political or rage, the leaders appealed for calm. They proclaimed their "realism" tears roling down their cheeks, and even endorsed the despotic ence between Dubcek, Husak and arch-quislings like Strougal, Indra and The sight of unarmed workers crowdingaround the tanks had welcomed as liberators, they were being branded as Gestapo troops. Dozens of suicides were reported and whole divisions were withdrawn because of their utter demoralisation. But to translate a feeling of state apparatus.

to overthrow it for ever.

Political Revolution of the wave.

the movement to run its natural course.

the border; physical resistance.

with new laws with their personal signatures.

Bilak, is the degree of public tearfulness.

a devasting effect on the intervening troops.

18.

While the people shook their fists in impotent Neither Inere, as in But by the It was already stimulating The only practical differ- Instead of being

[page 21]

helpless sympathy into mass mutiny, a revolutionary alternative must be held up to the prospect of the firing-squad. If instead of appeals to "leave us alone" they had heard internationalist demands, with a programme to rid themselves of their own Novotnys and establish a fraternal alliance of workers' democracies, the way forward would have been pointed for all East European workers. That is why the political level of the Polish workers is so When the revolution does break out, the Kremlin will the political dangers, in a frenzied allusion to one of its express- Both were expelled from the Party in 1964 and have twice Gomulka in horror, "prepared tracts and brochures whose content was a jumble of revisionist viewpoints taken from subversive broadcasts. These rags proclaimed that the Party's economic and social policy was heading for disaster; propounded anarcho-Trotskyist ideas on the alienation of the proletariat by the bureaucracy; general strike and revolution; and demanded the liquidation of the Army and the organs of public order, and finally the breaking of the only one sign of the fact that some of the lessons of 1956 had penetrated into the consciousness of the most advanced elements in society. In addition to the numerous student groups and of much greater significance, is the opposition movement among the miners in Silesia. Once the routine fabric of society is scratched, as it was in December, the instinctive gravitation of the workers towards forms of workers' democracy is brought to light. why the Workers' Councils and the militia sprang up and what Gierek called "outright catastrophe" loomed large. The port of Szczecin was isolated by the authorities as rigidly as if bubonic plague had broken They considered the disease even more virulent. The general strike was solid, the workers were masters of the town. Their slogans slogan dreamed up by the "Tribune" reporter, "We want a Dubcek!" (sic), whereas a Dubcek was precisely what they had, they shouted: "NO DUBCEK Against the Government's smears, they reasserted their Their understanding of Stalinism and their optimism were expressed in the slogans: "STALIN FOR BUREAUCRATS, LENIN FOR WORKERS!" and "LENIN IS IN MOSCOW, BUT NOT IN THE KREMLIN!" significant of all in its boundless internationalism and its selfconfidence is the slogan seen painted on a wall in the Szesecin docks:important.

certainly try to intervene.

ions at the 196& Party Congress.

and Modzelewski.

Minister.

been imprisoned for "subversive" activites.

alliance with the Soviet Union."

spontaneous out.

revealed brilliant clarity.

FOR POLAND!"

socialist loyalties:

WORKERS' STATE!"

The latter is a stepson of a former Foreign "WE ARE WORKERS, NOT HOOLIGANS - LONG LIFE THE "RUSSIA 1905 - HUNGARY AND POLAND 1956 RUSSIA 1917 - POLAND AND THE WORLD 1971?"

But Gomulka himself drew attention to This was the Group around Kuren "This group," exclaimed called for a The emergence of this group was That is In direct contradiction to the fatuous Most 19.

[page 22]

Against such slogans, and intervention in today's conditions would be fraught with danger for the whole Stalinist world. In Yugoslavia, which like Poland has had ample experience of the "national" bureaucracy, there have been heroic strikes by miners and students. At the other end of the spectrum, a movement initially along Czechoslovak points to a gigantic explosion with a few years which will restore Soviet power and transform the face of the whole world. The British journal "The Economist" talks openly about "the re-entry of the workers on to the fast European political stage". "The workers must now be régarded as a political factor in eastern Europe", it wrote in relation to the Polish events. It has also predicted "Russia's second revolution this century". For capitalism, the replacement of Stalinism by a workers' democracy pursuing socialist and internationalist policies would be the last death-blow. "The Times" (9.3.71) quoted a Gdansk party official as saying: "The workers have felt their strength. They have seen what they can A worker is also quoted "We can wait now and give them time but have the placards ready for the next time if there are no changes". It is obvious that the Polish uprising is only the prelude to a mightly movement of the workers of Eastern Europe. Far from intervening at this stage, the Kremlin gave massive aid to the Polish government to enable it to abandon the new price system. significant is the fact that it has suddenly introduced price cuts in a number of consumer goods in the USSh, and is planning ambitious projects to expand domestic consumption during the next five years. It Every day brings fresh blows to the punch-drunk members of the "Communist" Parties in the West. In the wake of the traumatic revelations of 1956 and the worldwide split of the Stalinist monolith, hard on the heels of the Czechoslovak crisis and for the second time in Poland's history, they have to account for the official revelations that the "United Workers' Party", the "vanguard of the proletariat" of Poland, had "lost a common language with the working people" (Gierek). The daily "Zycie Warszawy" said "We must admit it plainly: iness and autocracy were quite frequent ..... Unilateral decisions were Once again the "Morning Star" has explained that "errors were made". It is unfortunate that it has never pointed out the "mistakes" of Stalin, Beria, Rakosi, Novotny, Gomulka or any other only in their failure to keep the workers passive and quiescent. The "Morning Star" has talked of "paternalistic methods of leadership", and added that "the process of extending socialist democracy has still not been carried forward with sufficient energy or vigour". It asserted lines is long overdue in East Germany.

do."

can see the writing on the wall.

often taken in a very narrow circle."

leader until after their overthrow.

20.

In Russia itself, everything Even more arbitrar- Obviously their "mistakes" lay

[page 23]

that "socialism and democracy are inseparable" and promised that "a Socialist Britain must ensure freedom of speech, the right to demonstrate and strike, a powerful and independent trade union movemer. industrial democracy and free creative artistic activity". Its readers must wonder why it refers to these states as "socialist states" rather than workers' states that are distorted in the interests of the "paternalistic" "narrow circles" at the top, and why it does not actively campaign for these rights "inseparable from socialism", in Russia and Eastern Europe. Its letter pages again and agair raise the most pertinent and frank questions along these lines.

Ihe problem is that for the first time the readers have an

The talk of uncanny sense that they have seen all this before. "errors", "narrow circles" and the need to "extend socialist democrac in Poland echoes rather closely the cliches of 1956. MeGahey, of the Political Committee of the CP, candidly confesses, his bewilderment:- "It is difficult to understand why, after fifteen years, the same mistakes have to be exposed all over again and that the arbitrary methods of the former leadership denounced by Gomulka in 1956 became

The reason why Gomulka once more the practice of the Party".

like an autocrat", in MoGahey's phrase, is because these tendencies are not to be ascribed to the "mistakes" of individuals, but to the problems of the ruling stratum who quite manifestly have no interest in "socialist democracy" except as a verbal camouflage for their inflated privileges. Anyone who calls himself a Communist must 1ook again and ask himself: who continues the traditions of October The hacks who yesterday defended Stalin's crimes and today mouth platitudes about "mistakes" or the dockers of Szczecin, the textile workers of ledz, the miners of Katowice, fighting against terrible odds under slogans like those quoted above, singing the "Internation and organised into workers' councils: History itself will provide the answer soon, when the transitoryphenomenon of Stalinism, the fre created by peculiar historical circumstances has passed into obscurity.

21

[page 24]

During the protracted struggle of the Pilkington glass workers at St. Helens, several articles appeared in "Militant" on the question by an GMWU member and by Ted Mooney, an AUEW shop steward at the Liverpool GEC factory, which was recently the scene of a proposed "occupation" in protest at the combine's massive redundancies. articles provoked a letter from Comrade John Chappell of Cambridge, which is printed below together with a reply by Ied Mooney. The issue raised in this discussion are so important and so fundamental, that we have decided to use the pages of M.I.R. to develop I was sickened to read in your paper, I. Mooney's article on Apparently his view is that workers should stay inside their original unions however reactionary in order to "fight inside them". But how had no right of entry to "their" branch meetings, which were only open to the "shop stewards". The latter were elected by their shop subject to veto by the branch committee which itself was elected by the "stewards". Thus, given an itial conservative majority on the committee it is impossible for for the workers in any shop to choose even the mildest progressive as steward and, since they have no other access to the branch, the latter becomes a self-perpetuating clique. level up, the GMWU is like the army; branches can be "re-organised" (including the secretary, who is a full-timer) deposed by the Regional Officer, who in turn is appointed by Lord Presumably the GMWU still has occasional Rules Revision Conferences and presumably Cooper has no power to appoint his successor member us his democratic rights if he is excluded from branch meetings, And until R.R.C. comes round or Cooper dies, with the set-up described above, fighting inside the GMWU is about as realistic a proposal as "fighting inside" the Manpower Staff Agency, which at least levies no charge for its "services" from the workers on Mooney's attitude to the GMNU conflicts oddly with his gibes at other "left" tendencies as "alien to the Labour Movement"; of Marxism and the Pilkington Strike the arguments fully. - EDITOR.

LETTER FROM COMRADE CHAPPELL Pilkingtons with its do you fight inside the GMWU?

and their officers Cooper.

as general secretary lor when he dies.

as at Pilkingtons?

its books.

22.

by TED MOONEY These smug, gloating attitude of "I told you so".

Rank-and-file members at Pilkingtons From this But even them, how can the lay

[page 25]

the latter, "Tribune", like "Militant"

a tendency working in the Labour Party, while the Communist Party till has a greater proletar ian following than "Militant" ever had. As for his vague allusions to the dockers "Blue" Union, what "lessons" are to be learnt? He does not say. In fact, the success of the breakaway dockers in gai ing entry into a small union enabled them to dig in as an entrenched

Whilst admittedly still a minority, it militant body on the docks.

is since the advent of the N.A.S.D. that the IGWU has no longer been able to play its former notorious policing role on the docks, indenti cal to that of the GMWU at Pilkingtons or that which the IGWU stil1 plays on the buses.

Of course, the breakway glassworkers never intended to go it alone; their new union, originally called the Provisional Pilkingtons Trade Union, was conceived, as the name implied, as a temporary exped- Workers Union, or Ceramic and Allied Trades Union) as happened on the

docks. Of course, this would be a breach of the Bridlington agreemen: which on the pretext of preventing poaching, actually serves to deprive workers in undemocractic unions even of the basic right to vote with their feet; the severest penalty for this would be expulsion from the IUC of the receiving union, leading to free transfer of members betwee: it and others and to competition for membership throughout industry. Whilst the Chemical and Ceramic Unions could not face the ensuing war, the giant IGWU certainly could, and would probably stand to gain more than they lost from free competition, in terms of' a mass influx of members from reactionary unions. In particular the GMWU officer cast would be forced to change their policies or wake up to find themselves without any members at all; likewise in the ETU. All that the T&G leaders would stand to lose would be their place in the TUC establish ment, giving access to the Whitehall "corridors of power" and the possible knighthoods and peerages later on. However the big "Left" I&G chiefs apparently reckoned this too high a price to pay for shaking up the clique of ossified oligarchs which run the IUC, so they cynically stood back, brandishing Bridlington, whilst their lordships Cooper and Pilkington crushed the fighting glassworkers of St. Helens between them.

The lessons to be drawn from the GGWU failure was not that one should never form breakway unions, but that such unions cannot hope to be absorbed by an established body; body; even the powertul ISG bosses with all their "left" demagogy apparently prefer to rub should ers with people like Cooper and Cannon in the TUC rather than accept genuine militants like the glassworkers into membership. The new union must therefore have solid support where it is formed, and good prospects of spreading elsewhere rapidly if it is to survive.

workers happene

if the original Pilkington strike had ended in victory for the

ver Pilkington and the GMWU this would almost certainly have d. But the tragedy of the GGWU was that it was BORN OUT OF

23.

[page 26]

DEFEAT, and therefore did not have a real chance. Only half of the St. Helens glassmen felt ready to provoke more trouble by joining it, and when it came to the crunch most of those were too exhausted from the previous unsuccessful struggle to be ready to fight for their new union. In fact, the GGWU did not even spread to the outlying Pilk- (eg Pontypool) let alone to other glass companies (mostly IGWU-organised, but little better off for it). In summary, 1. Expect no help or support from the oligarchies of other Just as in the pioneering days of trade unionism in the 1890s (eg the formation of the Gasworkers, the militant ancestor to the GMWU) a stable and viable new union can only be formed on the basis of a victory, and not on the A REPLY IO COMRADE CHAPPELI by TED MOONEY (AUEW) Comrade Chappell's letter to the "Militant" is particularly 130 Leading members of the massive Pilkington Strike walked the streets of St. Helens, many of them disillusioned and embittered, with little or not chance of finding work anywhere within the area. The responsibility for this state of affairs rests primarily with an ultra-left sect which throughout the dispute exercised a great deal of influence on the leading elements on the strike committee. "Socialist Worker" of the "International Socialism" group, vociferously and uncritically supported the break-away from the GMWU and the subsequent formation of the new union, the Glass and General Workers' bility as they likewise gave uncritical support to the split. "Militant" supported the Pilkington workers from beginning to end, but the "Militant" stood alone in the Labour Movement in warning Pilkington militants of the dangerous path they were treading. Unfortunately, Comrade Chappell has learnt absolutely nothing from the He continues still at this stage, even when the Is is having second thoughts about its possition, to put forward the same old ideas that led to the downfall of the Pilkington workers. Comrade Chappell was, so he says, sickened to read my article on Having re-read my article a number of times and also having discussed it with numerous people in the Labour Movement, including Pilkington workers, I am afraid that I simply cannot see the "smug, gloating attitude" that he refers to. Might I also add that a number of the ingtons outposts then, the lessons unions. however "left" an image they affect.

2.

demoralisation following defeat.

worthy of consideration at this time.

Union, which now no longer exists.

Pilkington dispute.

Pilkingtons with its for the Pilkington breakaways are:

•..o...

At the time of writing, about Other groups share the responsi- "smug, gloating attitude" of "I told you so."

[page 27]

leading elements on the Strike Committee read the article; not one of them suggested that it was in any way "smug" or "gloating". On a number of occasions I myself, with other supporters of "Militant" discussed at length with the entire committee at Pilkingtons. We received in the most comradely manner and accepted as workers who had alongside all "Militant" supporters, offered every help to the striking workers; on two occasions I took factory collections to aid them In retrospect, Comrade Chappell, I see no reason whatever to apologise for my article. If I were to write it again I would do so Comrade Chappell raises the question of the structure of the employers, as much an instrument of the state as are the armed forces organisations of the working class dialectically in constant flux through internal antagonisms, in the dual role that was always implic is right; the right-wing trade union bureaucracy, as personified by Cooper, Cannon, Carron or Deakin, act as a policing agency for the ruling class over their own rank-and-file membership. But on the other hand, with the rising militancy of the workers, this role becom increasingly untenable, and the bureaucrats fall more and more under of their privileges, they are forced to reflect superficially the radicalised mood of the workers, if only to betray it the more effect. ively. In the process they are compelled to concede some elementary reforms, which in turn prepare the ground for their replacement by elements closer to the experiences and aspirations of the workers. In 1926, Havelock Wilson, General Secretary of the N.U.S., which incidently remained a semi-compnay union up to the recent perio: Today the NUS can be considered to be moving to the left. The events of 1961 and 1966 serve as an indication that once the members become radicalised and put pressure upon the leaders, then they have to move with the pressure or the leadership will get change: Anyone who considers himself a socialist and is not prepared to work inside the unions with reactionary leaders can in no way be classed as revolutionary. Lenin once said "that if necessary we wil work within these unions in order to win those backward elements to a positive contribution to make.

in their struggle.

as it stands.

Democracy in the G& MWU His approach is to write off GMWU.

trade union in simplistic terms as with their hierarchical officer caste.

itly recognised by Marx, Lenin and Trotsky.

the remorseless pressings of their membership.

ordered the seaman to remain at work.

joined the General Strike.

the TUC.

socialism."

Further in every way, I personally any right-wing or undemocratic an incorrigible agent of the He fails to see the mass On the one hand, Chappe To protect the sourc Many thousands ignored him an Subsequently the NUS was expelled from

[page 28]

Is it not true that the structure of the G&M at the Pilkington factory since the strike has undergone far-reaching changes, even though they leave a great deal to be desired. Cooper was forced to concede one of the main demanás put forward by the rank-and-file Committee, i.e. a branch for each of the six factories in St. Helens, thus allowing the members the basic right to voice their opinions in the If the leading elements had stayed in the G&M then their other demands:- removing the "Company" stewards and replacing then with the Rank & File Committee members; branch committee members to be elected by the branch - thus ending the appointment system allocated to the St. Helens group on the glass NJC - would have been achieved; for the very obvious reason that the rank and file gave unswerving support to the strike leaders during the dispute! Is it not also true that shortly after the Pilkingtons strike 1,000 GMWU members in the GKN Sankey Group in Shropshire, who had never previously been involved in strike action came out demanding £5 a week increase, and stayed out for six weeks with OFFICIAL support During the recent local authority workers strike also, which cost the G&M £400,000 in strike benefits!, the union Leadership were forced to involve the members to a point - unprecedanted in the past - of holding delegate conferences. recent Electrical supply claim the leaders were forced to report back If Comrade Chappell requires further proof of the tremendous movement now taking place inside this Union, last year twenty one strikes were recognised as Official (significantly more than any other union) which cost £700,000 in strike benefit! In 1967 the G&M paid We know of course this does not signify a revolutionary change in the G&M leaders; but it does reflect a significant change of mood by the rank and file membership of that union and once this pressure is exerted from below the leaders are forced to move in that The fact is, Comrade Chappell, that a new awakening is taking An awakening, that unfortunately, the militants who led the Pilkington strike are now excluded from participating in This new mood among the workers and the relationship of their TU officials started some four or five years ago in the AEU and the I&G, and now is catching on in the formerly most conservative Unions like the G&M. In the coming period it will gain strength and find its expression in the ETU and USDAW, etc. Let me remind Comrade Chappell that a few short years ago the AEF was among the most reactionary of TUs. Lord Carron reigned supreme; Carron's law was the branch.

from the union.

over £27,000 in benefit!

direction.

place in the G&M.

26.

operated by the Regiona: Secretary; to a delegate conference on two occassions!

and giving conscious leadership.

and capturing the nine seats AND during the

[page 29]

order of the day. Today things are somewhat different. Is Comrade Chappell suggesting that during Carron's reign, the militant shop had been done, then what would the position have been today? Likewise Even during the time of Frank Cousins this Union failed to reflect the mood of its most advanced members: for a time it continued the banning of members of the Communist Party from holding eft of the trade union movement. Some workers, however, did Leave but under the pressure of events, the union now stands to the the I&G. They formed the NASD, the Blue Union, but more Comrade Chappel1 refers to the G&M rule-book and wonders if it will ever be changed or is it is possible to change it. A perusal of the rule book does indeed show that it is a document needing radical change in order to ensure a move in the direction of democratising the To a great extent the rules provide for a self-perpetuating bureaucracy and quite obviously for the G&M membership this means a aware that numerous branches of that union have in fact already tabled amendments which will be discussed later this year at the G&M annual They illustrate the growing demand of the members for democracy. One of the many amendments calls for the election of all officials, subject to recall - re-election every two years, their wage to be based on the average skilled workers' pay, etc. Perhaps they will not be carried, but once again they indicate a movement within that union, a movement which needs direction, and a movement from which Comrades Potter and Caughey are now excluded because they followed the Comrades Potter and Caughey, I believe, recognise During the strike "Militant" supporters discussed with the rank and file committee the question of staying in and linking up with those other sections fighting for democracy. If this had been done, then the St. Helens factory branches could have been the established in personal discussion, admitted at that time that this would have been the most obvious thing to do, but as this had not been fully discussed with the St. Helens glassworkers, in desparation they took the advice of the IS and led the movement for opting out of the G&M. Had the glassworkers' federation been successful in forming their orr. union, then quite obviously the management would have been able to =lay failure - and not for the reasons Comrade Chappellhas pointed si. - re G&M bureaucrats, in liason with the Pilkington management, re-er. -ei these glassworkers with the loss of their pension rights are wiir with the T&G.

later.

The Rule Book union.

struggle to amend the rule-book.

Conference.

advice of the I.S.

their mistakes in relation to this aspect of (See "Socialist Worker", 10th October, 1970).

basis of the left move within that union.

one sections off against the other.

benefits.

stewards should have led their members outside • the AEF? If this • about that But Comrade Chappell should be struggle.

Some of the strike leaders, Because this move was doomed ==

[page 30]

Comrade Chappell has a mechanical approach to TU democracy. Democracy concerns more than an alteration of the rule-book; it concerns the involvement of workers in struggle. How was Carron able held office during a period of relative prosperity; during a period when because of this prosperity the membership was inactive, were not involved. But economic circumstances have changed; the members started to move, and hence the election of Scanion. Ah! says Conrade Chappell but the AEF has a democratic rule-book. But it still didn't stop Carron from putting it aside and getting away with it. Carron committed the greatest sin away with it; this would be almost impossible at the moment. In short, democracy is more than the rule-book; it is concerned with the participation of workers who are moving in a more radical direction, and a leadership of such workers should involve them in the course of Might I add, Comrade Chappell, that even when the left wing have control of a Union, if the workers are not involved in struggle in certain areas of the AEWW. Certain districts of this union are most right-wing in their attitudes, despite the apparent control of the district committees by the left: In short, when the leadership . of the work with the D.C.s have to do, that they become rubber stamps for the officials. But when the workers move, officialdom is swept What are the "lessons of the Blue Union", asks Comrade Chappell: The lessons of the Blue Union are many. Is Comrade Chappell not aware that, prior to the formation of 1956, on the Liverpool Docks there was 100% membarship of the I&GWU? At the time of writing there are large pockets of non-unionism on the docks (some estimates put it as high as 20%) and this is a result of left the T&G and joined the Blue, thousands more left and joined no union at all. At the moment there are three groups on the Liverpool T&G members, non unionists and NASD members, with many of the Comrade Chappell suggests that all the militancy on the docks stems from the existence of the Blue. Nothing could be further from the existence of the Blue. Nothing could be further from the truth. The facts are that on the Liverpool docks, almost every single militant is a member of the T&G. In relation to the Devlin recommendations, which propose large scale redundancies, shift work, etc. the Blue Union to dominate the A.E.U?

a great extent.

possible in the AEF:

struggle for a change in rules.

then bureaucracy can thrive.

have an inadequate base among the members.

aside.

The Blue Union the formation of the Blue.

docks:

latter holding two cards.

28.

The answer is simple he over-ruled the Final Appeals Court and got It was because Carron This is true to The bureaucrats can still have control Such is the immensity the Blue Union in What happened was quite simple: thousands

[page 31]

were prepared to accept the report almost in its entirety; simply worthy of mention at this stage that Blue Union shop stewards have only limited recognition by the employers. Their authority as the employers, they are debarred from participation. their work as leaders of the working elass is hampered Comrade Chappell thinks it worthless but the Blue Union has no voice on the TUC. I cannot agree with his attitude. It is true, role on most issues and acts as a fetter on the development of the Nonetheless, mary genuine militant workers have illusions in the TUC and work within its ranks. To say that it has no role is to abandon it and once again divorce oneself from the very people we are trying to influence, ie, genuine rank-and-file militants. is necessary to have a voice within its ranks, and to demand that it live up to itshistoric responsibilities in giving leadership to the It would indeed be a great pity if we adopted Comrade Chappell approach to a discussion on other tendencies. I am not concerned to argue in childist terms of "we are bigger than you". tendencies were criticisms of a programme, or lack of a programme, for workers in struggle. I am well aware that many workers hold alleg- ¡ance to the Commust Party, the "Tribune" group and even the I.S. What was the position of "Tribune" in relation to the Pilking- "Tribune" has made no secret of its political programme It sees itself not as an organisation with proffers a lead to workers in dispute, but simply as a redical left-wing newspaper, with an diverse elements to put forward their ideas (including Harold Wilson In specific relation to the Pilkington dispute, it gave plentiful reports of events, opening its pages to John Potter, one of the actions without commitment. Oh! no doubt "Tribune" can argue that at no time did they ever say "we support the break-away from the G&M." But neither did they warn the Pilkington workers against such action and draw the lessons of similar mistakes made in the past. because it offered them limited recognition.

stewards ends at shipboard level.

circumstances by unnecessary fetters.

that the IUC is no general staff of labour.

movement.

to the don at i entire movement.

Other Tendencies degeneration of politics.

Tribune ton dispute?

emphasis on objective factual news.

and Barbara Castle).

leading elements in the dispute.

It might also be When it comes to negotiating with Under these It plays a reactionary This would be a The criticisms I made of other political It offers a platform to the most Tacitly they thus approved his 20

[page 32]

Like "Tribune", the. "Morning Star" reported the dispute daily; every move in the dispute was covered at length. But, like "Tribune" also;as a newspaper giving objective news. Once again, no advice was given on the direction which the workers should take, no attempt to inform the Pilkington workers of the experience of the Blue Union. No doubt too, like "Tribune", they can absolve themselves from blame Such a claim by "Tribune" is at least plausible as they claim no other role, but the G.P.G.B. claim the leadership of From the outset the "International Socialists" grouping, as we have previously said, played an influential role in the Pilkington A number of I.S. supporters were regularly on the picket lines issuing leaflets etc., and generally supporting the struggle. But the credit they earned in this manner was completely negated by the criminal irresponsible ideas that they poured into the minds of the leaders of the dispute, which were eventually passed on to the Pilkington workers: ideas which directly resulted in the present state of The culmination of the I.S. activities at Filkington's was the publication of a pamphlet by Colin Barker entitled "The Pilkington Strike". It is a "Socialist Worker" pamphlet.

out hesitation that it lays down the official I.S. line. Barker poses three alternatives for the Filkington workers. First of all, he says they could stay in the G&M and form an opposition movement within, but he dismisses this as impractical. since the right-wing bureaucracy has so many safe guards built into the constitution to prevent militants getting into influential positions, since the rules prohibit organisation between branches, and since history shows now the NEC can chop off and re-organise any sections whose policies, etc. it does not like". But then Comrade Barker does an apparent about-turn: he goes on to say: "Nonetheless there are 800,000 workers in the GMWU and it is useless to suggest that they should just sit there and take it. What is needed is a real fight inside the union, over a long period, probably, to re-introduce the basic principals of trade unionism into that organisation, to Comrade Barker and the IS should be more specific. Are they The Communist Party by suggesting that they did "reported the facts".

the working class.

'International Socialism'

dispute.

aflairs at St. Helens.

GMWU be reformed from within?

clean the union up".

staying in the GMWU or not?

30.

not support the break-away but only We can assume with- "Can the The obvious answer is to say no,

[page 33]

Alternative number two, says Colin Baker, is to leave the G&M and form a break-away Union based on the glass industry. issue he isn't quite sure what to do as a perusal of the first section advantages of such a move, ie "On first sight this (idea) has obvious attractions: the rule book could be a genuine democratic one from the start, the members would not be bound to sets of procedures and snags, and concludes the passage as follows:- "All in all, the prospect of an independent union for glassworkers does not seem very Those who proclaim this idea should look up the history Once again no commitment from Comrade Barker. I suspect that Comrade Barker is against such a move now that the damage has been done. But this most certainly is not the position that was held by Comrade Barker, it won't be easy and, once in, no problems will be solved. However there are differences between the T&G and the G&M. They are only small but they are there, and if you do get into the Ill it will only be with the help of other workers. comments of the IS at this stage. But yet again we have no recommendation from the author; just the simple posing of three alternatives In short the IS pamphlet is a typical academic production; it explores some of the avenues in a completely abstract manner. conclusions, so far as they exist, are merely ideas which are dangled in the air from which the workers may take their pick. And such is the general approach of the IS to work within the Labour Movement. The pamphlet in other ways too illustrates just how far out Barker believes that the ETU is moving to the right. be further from the truth. Likewise Comrade Barker believes that the "Closed Shop" is a tool in the hands of the employers. at this stage the Tory government agrees with Comrade Barker that the Closed Shop should be abolished, and at the same time the entire Trade Union movement is fighting for the safeguarding of the Closed Shop, a These then, Comrade Chappell, are my criticisms of the tender.tion than to clarify the issues, to draw the correct conclusions in the benefit of the Labour Movement. In my article in the "*liter:" of page 22 of his pamphlet will show.

officials they distrust, etc."

encouraging• of other attempts of this kind."

the Is during the actual events.

with a few of the pros and cons thrown in.

of touch the IS are in regard to our movement.

condition it has struggled for years.

Conclusion cies involved in the Pilkington dispute.

The third alternative is to join the I&GWU.

dasand, on On this • He points out some of the He goes on to mention many of the But, says These are the Its For instance, Comrade Nothing could Ironically, They have no other inter.- .-.

[page 34]

Perhaps I attempted to do that.

of such a publication it was done catagorically state that to leave would only lead to fiasco. And f should take place within the G&M w members will move to the left at a firmed the validity of my approach

within the technical limitations inadequately. However, I did

the G&M would be incorrect and inally, that the line of action hich under the pressure of its

later stage. Events have con-

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