All available from The Other Bookshop, 328 Upper Street, London NI or Birmingham's Other Bookshop, 137 Digbeth cooperative of Kwidzyn. Weare joining with you sorry if we're a bit late, we are all united, and number around 2,000 and support your demands! You must cuse me, l am not a public speaker, excuse me The interviews bring to life the previous rounds of workers struggles 1956, 1970 and 1976. Potel then analvses the Church. the peasantry, the Communist Party and the working class, as well as reviewing the strategy of Solidarnosc in the light of the military crackdown.
Penguin books have pitched in with a dreadful offering persona testimonies to the 'Walesa pnenomenon Various journalists, intellectuals anu bies die wacecu Ou to tell their own stories Walesa's history, ideas and idiosyncracies.
Once you've read one, you've read them all most of it has already been recorded glossy magazines over the last 18 Solidarnosc presented through the prism of heroic individuals fighting against the 'Communist menace issue Socialism journal, special book format, is a seriously-researched atdraw lessons from Ine on events. Despite major political shortcomings the book is well worth a read, contals original material from Solidarnosc bulletins and papers, and detailed figures on the economic crisis.
There are some lessons drawn by Barker and Weber whien would agree: the incompandimy or sondarnose the ruling bureaucracv. the centraliti of the question of power posed by the Polish crisis, and the need for a revolutionary party built out of Solidarnoso movement.
But their attitude 1o in Poland The Summer Before the Frost: Solid Solidarnosc and its leadership is wildly off-beam and 'Within nine months of August 1980 Lech Walesa was acting as if he were the LUSI hardened trade union bureaucrat from the Walesa like Frank Chapple or Terry Duffy? The comparisun made me want to throw up.
for comrades Barker and Weber of the Socialist Workers Partv. Poland 1 essentially the same other European countries there is capitalist class, trade unions, reformist leaders and the rank and file. The key task in Britain and Poland is to galvanise the rank and file against their union leaders the struggle for socialism.
"The leadership
would rush around, trying to cool things down The rank and file membership would then erupt into action over particular grievance,' and regardless of the reasons pact was make the leadershin tr prevent the rank and file struggling', and so on.
Linked to this analysis is a crude division of the Solidarnosc leadership into those dubbed by the Western press as 'moderates' and 'radicals' The representatives of the latter wing supposedly clude Jan Rulewski of Bvdooszcz and Mariar Jurczyk Szczecin But "moderate'/ 'radical' tags are worse than useless.
For example, Rulewski's verbal militancy Howed not from a revolu socialist viewlunaly point, but his association the rightist anti-Soviet KPN nationalists. And Jurczyk denounced the bureau'full of Jews'.
In a forthcoming article in the magazine Internutional Viewpoint Z.bigosc in niew Kowalewski from the presidium of Lodz solldarnosc characterises Rulewski as Cicaulg for "moderates on the boll darnosc national those who prescium. counterposed at the 11/12 DCUCHIDC 1981 national referendum on the Warsaw Pact to the real task of generalising the workers' launching 'active strike' anc the system workers' detence guards.
The Polish reality was a lot more complex than the SWP's unsophisticated attempt to fit it into the mould of the British trade union struggle. In most instances the local, regional and national Solidarnosc leaders were far in advance of the rank and file of the union in realising the danger of a confrontation with the bureaucracy.
Ot course Sondarnosc leaders had severe political limitations, but Jean-Yves Potel explain in the post-martial law introduction to his book weaknesses did not flow from bureaucratism within the union or capitulanon to camnoncism absence of a strong revolutionary current putting forward alternative Cali strategy of workers poled the vacuum lett 'self-limitation' filled by decaaes or slalnist mis education.
The bureaucracy launched their military crackdown when did, simply because of the disNot Solidarnosc, as Barker and Weber claims, but also because sections of Solidarnose's leaders in the regions were beginning to win increasing support for the 'active SUIKe worker Condon idea For the workers Poland to make a successful political revolution to institute real workers' socialist democracy be an easy task. The JUL likelihood of Soviet tervention and massive bloodshed should not be lightly dismissed by comfortable Socast all Britain It will entail not just a higher understanding on the unreformability bureaucracy, it will also necessitate WTERNATIONL SOCIALISH * 15 Solidarnosc: from Gdansk to Military Repression, Colin Barker and Kara Weber, International Birmingham. developed internationalist consciousness WiNI Solidarnose and the interwOrKers nOVe ment. In short it will need enormou solidarity movement Solidarnosc in the West and in the East That's the nub of the difference in approach between Potel's book (a member of the Fourth In ternational) and that of Barker and Weber of the SWP. Their book reads like commentary lon the sidelines, sniping at the *retormis leaders Solidarnosc' while the SWP has done and is doing next to nothing to build solidarity work Socialists should be in the forefront of building unqualified for Solidarnosc within the labour movement. Within that framework they also have a right and a duty to engage the political debates over strategv tha raged and continue to rage within Solidarnosc Potel's Before the Frost is the best book yet published for carrying out both these vital tasks.