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Bookshop, DURHAM: A New Ever n City Co-op 85a New Less within Solidarity following the calling off of the proposed general strike at the tional leaders of the union movement.
letter sent by member of Solidarity's national committee to Lech Walesa. In future issues of Socialist Challenge we hope to publish other contribu tions to the debates within Solidarity.
I'M writing this open letter to you to raise some of the most I voltell ISSUC stake in Solidarity. The Founding Committee for Free Trade Unions on the Baltic Coast was SCi up ycals ago on April:
l'd observed the methods and arbitrary decisions government. and the weakness of the workers. The source of the probiem was demon. strated by the degrading and paralysing fear which grippea society The aims of the free trade unions, of which we were both were to break this grip to gain and defend the right to develo our ideas freely and to organise ourselves to realise these aims.
Their realisation the well-known is the massive debate end of This week we publish extracts of an open Andrzej Gwiadza, a leading They believed us in the August strike and that led to the foundation of Solidarity distant seems the handing out of leaflets to the working out statutes, finances, norms, negotiations the -government...
Workers at the Lenin shipyards in Gdansk This was an accident.
Our rights aren't 8 cale than anyone else's, but our responsibilities are.
our fault that tor" a symbol been transformed into the right to contravene demo.
cratic union rules by mak.
ing unilateral decisions.
Let's explain clearly.
The memorandum of 31 March calling for a pos!ponement of the strike in practice called it off. Wise Without resurrecting the whole issue, was this a wise decision to take given that we were in no way em.
powered to make such a decision? When the negotiations with the government dragged on violently seriously injuring The national commission 23/24 March threatened a demands of Solidarity On 30 March after pro-government LADZOM POLSKIM should have convened the union's national commitLCC. Broken I'm partially responsible for that decision. I was unable to stop allautu cratic decision being taken without due consultation WILl proper union body. If we look honestly the events responsible Lech, then we must admit tha the democracy of the union was broken I know that we could unearth a thousand and one reasons for why it happened. But I also know that internal union demo. cracy Is vital. Its guarante is complete honesty and an unfettered flow of information Its grave is suppression of criticism and censure of materia written for inter. nal circulation Every union member should ex ercise their right to make criticisms and equally abide by the union's decisions. Union discipline reCUll C allowing cyclolic the right to give their opi nion on the issues at stake.
Criticisms This is the difference between ourselves and totalitarian organisations.
I state that criticisms of the chairperson or vicechairperson of the union's nanonal committee normal occurrence. Otherwise the union is run autocratically whole of deciding. on statutes loses any meaning Influence Certain individuals have a decisive influence but, because they aren' controlled or limited b responsibilities they aren averse to manipulating the situation. We must say this does tending a lind alley disregard lucals we ve been nignling for.
As the vice-chair person OT the national committee I feel responsible. This is why I tendered my resignation on 1 April. It wasn't an act of desertion, but was made under the influence . of the national committee's deci sions.
['ll continue to fulfil my functions as long as the NC recognises this to be legitimate I'll stand down when whose Value union helped to found, are betrayed. I await the. same declaration from you Lech.
Andrzej Gwiazda
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POLAND hits the headlines less often these days. You may have heard about the granting to Solidarity of its own TV and radio program- mes, and the developing crisis within
March. The debate has centred round demo-. cracy within the union and the role of the na-