FREEDOM FOR TRADE UNIONS on Eastern Europe. ly Campaign and Eric Heffer MP.
Poland was devastated by the war. One in five Poles died in the war, forty per cent of the national wealth was destroyed, and the whole country ' WI MOVE two hundred miles to the West!
The Communists led by Wladyslaw inherited power after the Soviet Army drove back Hitler's troops. Gomulka WUn ousted in 1948 by Boleslaw Bierut, hard line Stalinist, who set on the followed by the rest of post-war Eastern Europe.
Protestors outside the Polish Embassy in Rome Coming events Manchester Public Meeting 7.30 Friday 18 December Central Hall, Oldham St, Manchester Speakers: Bob Litherland MP; Ken Easthan MP; Ewa Barker, Polish Solidarity Campaign; Oliver MacDonald, Labour Focus London Revolution International Solidarity Rally Friday 18 December at 7.30 Conway Hall, Red Lion Square Tickets £1.00/50p unwaged or YOPs National Demonstration Sunday 20 December Assemble 2pm Speakers Corner to march to Polish Called by Polish Solidarity Campaign, East European Solidari1956: Polish October In the years following the of Stalin many of the East Euro pean regimes experienced crises. The workers at the ZISPO engineering plan in Poznan, Poland struck 1956. A protest march of workers into the cuy centre on to dune was shot down by riot police. Fifty died and hundreds were injured.
An intense political crisis followed throughout the both colone and Hungary. led to a Soviet invasion in workers' councils, and a change of Gomulka was brought back as party secrelary pleugea I •eXtend workers democracy But he incorporated the workers' councils into the 'official' unions and the liberalisation the regime was short-lived 1968: The student rebellion.
intellectual circles had developed in the 1960s. Jacek Kuron and Karol Modzelewski published their Open Letter to the Party' in 1964, for which they were imprisoned. When the RPACK OF launched lests in 1968 the: repressed.
The crackdown linked to a vicious antithe authorities who blamed Jewish intellectuals. Hundreds of students and lecturers were expelled fron the universities. The stu dents recerved no help from the workers — a fact tha was to have drastic implications two later 1970: Workers attacked Gomulka's regime finally attempted to deal with the growing economic CrisIs. Meat and foodstuff prices shot up. But the workers' response was unexpected: widespread strike action and revolt, particularly in the Baltic ports of Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin. Hundreds workers were shot down The students failed ao aid ine ponce ana army their worker comrades But the shock of the everts led to the downfall of Gomulka, the cancellaROY CUCKOW tion of the price rises and , a new regime under Ea ward committed to full-scale industrialisa• tion. 1976: Workers Revolt The government had borrowed huge sums of Western money to finance the expansion and modernisation of Polish industry. In July 1976 the authorities tried to the problems agriculture through food price rises of sixty per cent. here was a wave 01 factory occupations and work stoppages evel more widespread than in 1970 This revolt confirmed the and self confidence of the • Polish workers. It also saw the beginnings of attempts to link the struggles of the workers with the intellec tuals. Dissidents like Kuron formed the KOR to protect workers victimised after ine 19/0 everts Over the next four years there was a stead) growth in organisation of workers round journals like Robotnik. The workers were preparing for the Polish August.
Socialist Challenge 17 Decerber 1981