ee ee oe i eee Boe 1 BB ee | Li While many progressive-minded people have expressed legitimate concern over recent events in Po- land, it must also be said that an ocean of hypocritical tears has been shed by the big business news media and by some labor leaders. CUPW, the official organ of the Canadian Union of Postal Work- ers, in its September-October, 1980 issue, placed the recent events in Poland, in a more objective fash- ion than our big business news- papers. The following quotations should prove my point: : “Despite the considerable im- portance of the events in Poland, it has been extremely difficult to de- termine the actual situation due to the extremely biased press cover- age. Right-wing media analyses have done their best to distract at- tention from the real issues by rais- Labor Comment ing the spectre of Soviet interven- _ tion. The suggestion has even been made that Polish workers were striking for ‘freedom’ and against socialism. Yet an examination of the gains achieved by the workers shows clearly that it was their desire to increase government interven- tion into the economy, through in- creased day care, housing, etc., and to decrease the influence of the market through price controls, that led to strike action. If the strike was about ‘freedom,’ it was for free- dom from the market system. ~ “One of the most instructive as- pects of the Polish strike action has ~ been the treatment it received from western politicians. Everywhere, the same politicians who have op- posed everything which the Polish workers were trying to achieve have been applauding the strikers and their methods. Canadian and Am- erican politicians who deny many of their own public sector workers the right to strike, vigorously sup- port the Polish workers’ demand for the right to strike. Canadian politicians, who supported the im- prisonment of CUPW president Jean-Claude Parrot, described the Polish workers as heroic for strug- gling for the right to strike. __ “Like some elements in the me- dia, many politicians have also not been above distorting the issues in Poland. The strikers have been de- scribed as freedom fighters fighting against socialism. Ironically, it is usually these same politicians who are the first to red-bait as commun- ists and socialists any Canadian workers who advocate the same de- mands. Hypocrisy is too nice a term.” Canadian Labor, the official or- gan of the Canadian Labor Con- gress, Canada’s largest trade union centre, in its November, 1980 issue, carried an article on Poland by Ed Finn, public relations director for the Canadian Brotherhood of Rail- way, Transport and General Workers. Finn is also a frequent contributor to the Toronto Star, a big business newspaper. In this CLC article, he joined the anti- communist brigade in respect to Poland. To justify his position Finn quoted the August 21, 1980 state- ment of CLC president Dennis Mc- Dermott: “The uprising in Poland, said CLC president McDermoit, - “should finally show the world that the workers’ desire for freedom is alive in Eastern Europe, and that opposition to the Communist re- gime is not confined to a few intel- lectuals and dissidents.’’ Finn also informed his readers that ‘‘the federal leader of the New Democratic Party Ed Broadbent, who spent eight days in Poland at | the height of the labor unrest there, feels that the sweeping concessions made to the strikers have started an irreversible movement towards de- mocracy in the entire Soviet bloc.” This is the same Ed Broadbent, who in 1969 as a political science professor and newly-elected MP for Oshawa-Whitby, withdrew from the Waffle group, which was seeking to move the NDP to the left by working within the party. Among Broadbent’s reasons for withdrawing were: his failure to soften the Waffle critique of the American domination of the Cana- dian economy; its stand on public § ownership; its position favoring self-determination for Quebec; and its-call for workers’ control of in- dustry. Thus the record leads me to as- sume that the democracy Broad- bent is wishing on the workers of Poland and other fraternal, social- ist countries, is, in the last analysis, a major retreat from socialism. Despite temporary difficulties, such as those in Poland, the social- ist community of nations has firm- ly established its superiority over capitalism and will not be deflected - from its course. The noisy anti-Communist cam- paign around the events in Poland is designed to assist those in Poland who are fundamentally opposed to socialism, to discredit the Soviet Union and other fraternal, socialist- countries and to poison the minds of Canadian workers against real socialism, which is the most demo- cratic society ever devised by man- kind. =e It was Lenin, the leader of the so- cialist revolution in Russia, who pointed out that socialism brings a new type of government to power, which must undertake the revolu- tionary reorganization of society as a whole. Asin the Soviet Union, the trade unions in Poland had a major re- sponsibility for the reorganization of all economic life on a socialist basis. As Lenin pointed out in the early days of Soviet power, “‘social- ism can be built only when ten and a hundred times more people them- selves begin to build the new state and the new economic life.’’ Itis self-evident that the strikes in Poland were not the result of a ba- sic defect in the socialist system. On the contrary, they resulted from the weaknesses of leadership, because of the wrong application of social- ist planning and from a failure to involve the workers sufficiently in meaningful dialogue and in the process of decision making. ‘Last month, the central commit- tee of the Polish United Workers Party met and discussed the situa- tion in their country. A few quota- tions from the report of Stanislav Kania, first secretary of the party, should help readers to understand better what is taking place in Po- land: “We associate great hopes with the growing role of the trade union movement. Our attitude to the trade union movement is absolute- ly clear. We support the restructur- ing of the sectoral trade unions and we see that they play an important _ role in the social and economic life of our country. Today, many members of our party are members of the Solidarity National Council of Trade Unions. We expect these PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JAN. 9, 1981—Page 12 Hypocritical tears shed over Poland I aera} AND MY GoveRNMEwT RESOLUTELY SurPocy THE KIGHT oF H , WORKERS TO STKIKE ‘ IN POLAND comrades to take vigorous actions on the basis of the trade union charter and to determine their posi- tion with regard to all questions bearing on the preservation of the socialist aspect of this organiza- tion. “Ever broader segments of our society reveal a growing desire to live in tranquillity and to see life re- turnto normal. Peopleincreasingly realize the crucial character of the current situation in the country. It becomes more and more clear that the socialist renovation of socialist life, which can be effected by our people and with which they con- nect their hopes, will become poss- ible only if we stabilize the eco- nomic situation and normalize po- litical life.”’ Kania’s report dealt specifically with problems that must be solved: “J must point out frankly that the process of socialist regeneration is encountering many obstacles. The political situation in the coun- try remains very complicated and fraught with numerous dangers. Considerable pockets of tension persist; there is tangible nervous- ness and agitation; sharp debates go on; and public sentiment is a long way from being stabilized. ““We are living through a year of exceptionally unfavorable anomal- ies and crop failures. There are ser- ious difficulties in the field of en-- ergy; the investment front has been disorganized; the house building program is being carried out at a rate which is below the planned tar- get; and supplies are uneven and vastly insufficient. In such a situa- tion it is necessary to avoid every- thing that aggravates difficulties and prevents their lessening.” Speaking of relations with the Sate trade unions, Kania said “The leaders of the PUWP and Polish government continue to - hope that the atmosphere of nego- tiations and agreements will make it possible to work out rational methods of cooperation and inter- action. Unfortunately, the drafting of a platform for an agreement is darkened time’ and again by Soli- darity’s regional and branch links maintaining a strike atmosphere and too hastily resorting to the threat of strikes. We warned and’ warn again that all the rational pos- sibilities of expanding the wage fund have long since been ex- hausted and the further broadening of the scissor effect between wages and provision of goods on the home market would be against the interests of working people. It is now necessary to protect the right to calm work. We must painstak- ingly and in a businesslike manner explain this truth.” Kania also made pointed refer- ence to certain elements who have penetrated the Solidarity unions in an attempt to undermine the social- ist system: “The gist of the matter lies in the fact that groups and individuals, linked with the imperialist subvers- ive centres abroad, have penetrated into some sections of the move-— ment which is a workers’ move- ment, a movement of the working people in its essence. These groups and individuals pursue aims hostile to socialism and to people’s power, and adversely affect the move- ment. : “They represent different trends and nuances. Sharp class struggle continues. Each time the enemies of socialism adjust their tactics to the aspirations of the working class because this serves their purpose of using all this as a springboard for attaining next stages. The working class will not go their way. These forces want to dismantle and to ev- entually undermine and overthrow. Poland’s socialist statehood. This intention is anti-working class and counter-revolutionary.”’ As an indication of its inten- tions, the central committee meet- ing made this statement: d gram without delay, if we want all WRG (O-FO- NG “‘We must implement our pro- our intentions to become a reality. This program provides for a social- ist renovation in the conditions of | ; normal work and order. It envis- ages an alliance of the sober-mind- ed forces realizing their responsibil- ities to the country, in the interests of democracy and against anarchy. The program provides for shaping the correct methods of cooperation between the authorities and the self-governed organizations of working people, particularly the trade unions.” a That statement should be wel- comed by Canadian trade union- ists, because it reflects a construct- ive attitude towards the solution of Poland’s economic and social — problems with the maximum par- ticipation of the self-governing trade unions. = Earlier in this article I referred to Ed Finn, one of the journalistic gu- rus of the trade union movement. When the CUPW editorial writer used the term hypocrisy, he may have had people like Ed Finn in’ mind. Writing in Maclean’s Sept. 28, — 1980. Finn called for an end to “bickering” between labor and capital in Canada (meaning an end to strikes), and the introduction of tripartite agreements between big business, big business government and labor — to improve the profit picture for big business. Someone should tell Ed that big business has been replaced by workers’ power in Poland and the Poles don’t need his advice. RiBbUNE ay 9 3 © Old ———eeeEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeOOOO SEEN * ~~ published weekly at Suite 101 — 1416 Commercial Drive, ; Vancouver, B.C. V5L 3X9. Phone 261-1186 Read the paper that fights for labor Eee sere T NS le ba ee ot CA Tg Naps eo et are aaah Rabe tae res gaat gd 1 Gis BOdreSS sce ws ee City or tOWNn .....-6 eee Postal Code .....-..--++-: aur | am enclosing: 1 year $10] 2years $18 {1 6 months $6 DO New C1 Foreign 1 year $12 C Donation $ SERENE IS SCREEN ¢ vnice: watake