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Excerts from an address by William.Kashtan

TORONTO — Recent strikes in Poland received
frank examination in a public address here, Oct. 10,
by William Kashtan, leader of the Communist Party
of Canada. He pointed to efforts by outside forces to
interfere in and influence Polish developments; he
dealt with conditions inside Poland, acknowledg-
ing some specific shortcomings; and he left no
doubt of the solidarity with Poland on the part of

‘other members of the socialist community, and the

Warsaw Pact. : i

‘Among progressive-minded Canadians, 1n-
cluding Communists,’’ he said, “‘there were many
who were taken aback by these events. Their
reaction was: ‘How is it possible that in a socialist
country, strikes could take place?’ That was one
reaction. —

‘There was another reaction by the mouthpieces
of imperialism, who immediately seized on the
events in Poland to make two points. First, “it
shows that socialism doesn’t work; it’s not in the
interests of the working class’. And, second, “it
shows that’ what they choose to call ‘the Soviet
empire, is collapsing’.

‘There was also a third kind of reaction,” he
noted, and caustically describing NATO as “*a very
peaceable military set-up, concerned with the
well-being of the people of the world,’’ said that
body had set up a special task force in the belief that
in Poland, ‘‘with some subtle intervention, or
not-so-subtle intervention, they perhaps could bring
about a weakening of socialism and eventually the
collapse of socialism, and open the door to changing
the relationship of forces in the world.”’

A Class Position

A fourth reaction, he said, was that of the media
in Canada, which in 1967-68 had ‘cheered on the
workers of Czechoslovakia ... not that they were
concemed with the working conditions of the
people.of Czechoslovakia, but they hoped that that

series of events in Czechoslovakia would lead to the ~

collapse of socialism.

‘“‘And from their standpoint,’’ said Kashtan,
“they took a class position. Every organ of
monopoly — radio, TV, the press — suddenly
found allies in Poland.’’ He contrasted their “‘sym-
pathetic” approach to the workers of Poland, ‘and
their ‘‘unsympathetic’”’ attitude to the workers of
Canada.

In Poland, he noted, ‘‘not one worker was
arrested, no violence was used against the working
class, no injunctions were used against trade unions
... where the workers were concerned, they were
not dealing with enemies of socialism, but with a
number of legitimate claims of the working class.”’

Mistakes in Economic Policy ;

‘As to the cause of the strikes, Kashtan said, we

did not yet have all the facts, but information

available did help in making judgements. Basic to

the problems were a number of mistakes in
economic policy, aggravated by historical difficul-
ties. Poland was a relatively backward country
under capitalist conditions; Poland was virtually
razed to the ground by Hitler fascism. . ... ;

‘Tt was the help of the Soviet Union that made it
possible to build socialism in Poland, and to build it
as a modern state.”
- Poland undertook a vast investment program to
lift the standards of the people. “‘But sometimes in
pursuing such a policy you can make serious
mistakes; and serious mistakes were made,”’

htan said. ‘‘The government chose to acceler-
ate the process of investment and spread it out too
thinly. And to do that, they went to the bankers of
the West ... they borrowed over $20-billion. In
order to repay these loans, they had to have what is
called ‘hard currency’, based on increased exports
to the capitalist world.”
West’s Bankers Touched It Off

As a further insight, Kashtan quoted Fortune
Magazine (Sept. 22/80), the magazine of big busi-
ness in the United States. An article by Juan
Cameron, What the Bankers Did to Poland, tells
how, in the opinion of the author, their discussions
with heads of the Polish bank, ‘‘led eventually to

the government actions that touched off the strike.”’

The Western banks not only wanted to dictate
Poland’s economic plans, but ‘‘Poland was to repay
$7,200,000,000 in interest and principal to Western
lenders in 1980,” with only slightly smaller amounts
thereafter, Fortune reported.

Kashtan questioned whether Poland should have
gone to the West to such an extent that it became a
prisoner of the Western bankers. ‘‘I think that was

part of the serious mistake made,”’ he said. *“The

WHAT HAPPENED IN POLAND

A frank look
at Poland —
Socialism can
solve its own
problems

motivation was well-intentioned, but the end result

was negative.” Ae ,
The decision to cut subsidies on certain foods

meant declining standards and reduced incomes. It .

brought a sharpening disparity between the better-
paid workers and the lower-paid workers.

“In short, the workers had legitimate griev-
ances,’’ Kashtan said.

“This is why the government and the Party took
a position right from the beginning, that the strike
should be settled by peaceful means. As you know,
there were settlements ... which raised (the
incomes of) 12 million working people. The adjust-
ment included increased pensions and disability
payments ... increased family allowances,”’ the
Canadian Communist leader related.

AND MY GoveRNHewT
RESOLUTELY SuPrPoy
THE RIGHT oF
WORKERS To STKIKE
.. IN. POLAND

VAs fe FO MS

‘*A trade union in conditions of socialism has a
two-fold task,”” he explained. ‘‘Its interest, and the
interest of the working class lies in increasing
production so that the benefits of increased produc-
tion will accrue to the whole society, in rising living
standards, better welfare benefits, education, and
so on.

“Here, when workers are called upon to increase
production, they must agree to increased exploita-
tion; they don’t get the benefit of increased

production,”’ he charged.

“But the other side of the trade union under
conditions of socialism, is to defend the interests of
its workers, and while I haven't got all the facts,
perhaps on that score, not enough attention was
given to the defence of the material interests of the

workers,” he said.

He cited the words of Lenin, who wrote on trade
unions in 1922, and, while in somewhat different
conditions, drew attention to their tasks in a
socialist society.

Lenin said: ‘‘The Communist Party, the Soviet
Government and the trade unions must never
forget, and must never conceal from the workers
and the mass of the working people that the strike
struggle in a state where the proletariat holds
power, can be explained and justified only by the
bureaucratic distortions, mistakes and flaws of the
proletarian state, and by all sorts of survivals of the
old capitalist system in the government offices on
the one hand, and by the political immaturity and

- cultural backwardness of the working people on the

other.’’ Where strikes do take place, Lenin had
said, the trade unions’ task is to find a speedy
settlement of the dispute by means ‘‘in conformity
with general trade union activity.”

Workers from Peasants
Kashtan saw as, underlying problems in Poland
the fact that while industry is run by the state,

agriculture consists largely of small plots in private
hands. ‘‘It means that with small plots of land,
mechanization is difficult,’ as contrasted with
Canadian farms where with huge plots of land and
mechanization, productivity is high.

The fact that replenishment of the working class
comes from such conditions in some areas, helps to
explain how petty bourgeois, not revolutionary,
ideas are found in the working class. These were
the conditions under which the industries of
Gdansk, for many years held by Germany as
Danzig, were supplied with workers after the war.
‘‘These people did not have ‘deep roots in the
working class.”’ .

The Catholic Church, said Kashtan, was another
factor in developments in Poland, where. the
majority of people are Catholic believers. But-what
happened in Poland was not the question of
“respect for their point of view’’, but that “‘the
necessity of an idedlogical struggle to win the
people of Poland against conceptions that were
leading toward anti-socialist views was not energet-
ically undertaken. ... There is a constant struggle
between idealism and materialism, between scienti-
fic socialism and the religious point of view. To give
up this struggle is to leave the field open to
anti-socialist views.”

The church and school are not separated in
Poland, Kashtan revealed. Further, the state only
acquires private land when the owner dies and his
family is prepared to have it go to the state, *‘a very
long perspective of capitalist relations.”

'
No Unemployment

. ‘Putting these questions the way I have is not to
denigrate in any way the efforts of the Party and the
government to build socialism,’’ Kashtan stated. It is
not to detract from what they have done to overcome
the backwardness that was typical of Poland in the
past and, with the help of the Soviet Union and other
socialist countries, to build a socialist society.

‘We should remember,” he said, ‘‘there is no un-
employment in‘Poland. Here, the workers still have to
fight for the right to a job.

“If we compare the rights and freedoms of the
people of Poland with the rights and freedoms that
people here do not yet totally possess — the right toa
job, to equality, to dignity, to education, the rights of
the Native people, the rights of women, the rights of
the French Canadian people; these are rights that are
being battled out and will be battled out for years and
years. These are rights that are already pinned down
in Poland,’’ he said.

“I'd like to draw your attention to two decisions
that were made by the trade union movement in Po-
land,’’ the Communist leader said. ‘‘One: No decision
on wages, prices; or standards of living can be
adopted by the government without the agreement of
the workers. Do we have that in Canada?

““Two: Questions of the division of the national
income between investment for industrial develop-
ment and consumption will not be decided without the
workers’ participation in the decision-making pro-
cess. Do we have that right in Canada?’”’

Would Change Map of Europe
Finally, the Communist leader spoke of attempts at

- outside interference in Polish affairs. ‘‘We know,’ he

said, ‘‘that U.S. imperialism is trying to turn things
around in the world, to restore . . . a situation in which
imperialism was dominant.

“From West Germany it is put on the line: what
they would like to see is the restoration of old fron-
tiers. They want to change the map of Europe,”
Kashtan charged. Some people want to close their
eyes to the activities of anti-socialist elements in Po-
land, who used temporary difficulties to undermine
socialism. These elements have direct contact with
imperialism. We must not have illusions about that.

‘Polish independence,’ he said, ‘depends on
socialism ... on the alliance with the Soviet Union
and the Warsaw Pact countries. Poland’s secure bor-
ders, and therefore its independence, were not given
to it by imperialism. They were achieved by their
struggle, and above all by the victory of the Soviet
Union over Hitler fascism. These borders are now
guaranteed by the Warsaw Pact countries, of which
Poland is a member. And they will be defended.

‘It is not our task to lecture or teach the Polish
people,’’ Kashtan said. “‘They’ll work out their own
problems in their own way, as long as there is no
interference in their internal affairs. Our task is to
prevent any interference in their internal affairs.
Socialism in Poland is here to stay. Socialism can and
will solve its problems. And we will stand with social-
ism in the solution of these problems.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCT. 24, 1980—Page 7

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