within the labour movement DAVY JONES spoke to French author JEAN-YVES POTEL about the evolution of Solidarity and the prospects for, its re-emergence. Potel has been in Britain for a series of meetings to build solidarity with the Polish workers. the French journal specialises in Eastern European affairs author of the new Pluto Press book The Summer Before The Frost.
Could you explain the evolution Solidarnosc after August 1980 and the debates inside Solidarnosc?
Everyone was very enthusiastic after the Gdansk Agreement. Within months this had changed and people saw inal ll was d long and difficult process.
the difficulty of the GdanSK Agreement which was a compromise between the strikers and the party. Party leader Kania said that the official policy ot the party was for a social conlau perneen socielv and • the party. But in reality the ally ner for the workers.
Whenever possible the party tried to turn the clock back.
He is an editor of L'Alternative which and party and joined Solidarnose. For examplo in one 2/3000 members Dally. salsici 1981 there were only 20 or 30 left. the Cacultre members of the party. So the real power in ine lactories in the summer was in the hands of the union. Media On the other hand on the TV incre was d continual propaganda barrage againsi Solidarnose, which had no acess to the media as none or ne agrecinents had heen applied. In this situation the movement hegan 1o radicalise, The desclopment of the movement Solidarose. for in Wester Furopeoneof the main interess in Solidarof the democracy the morement. particularly in relation union democracv. Before August the people insolved hadn'l experienced democracv. they hadhl perienced the minimal democrai!
Europe November 1980 10 July 1981 chere wis a clections Solidar level. then the regional the clections for the autunmn.
Thas congress was ser democratic real a trade mas don lerence. but rather ilelegate ill the congress represemed 10.000 people and cach was mandated b their dector Draft The idopred by soldarnose Well n: magement drati 176721881 programme win descrised region. In lume lul cach region adopte gramme special regional mes por doward ho difter N the special congress programa dom the plar mission ".t. organisel of Belmir the 10e 21 M0 eramme tere was mode than one alternative op. non put forward. Thecondiscussed around programad end different aprions The programme vanced more " than aprisings in Hungar! 1956 Crechosto ahia 1968 And for all the members of the union this programme was their programmic.
Idea Within the leadership there mas a lot of disenIr the beginning the general opinion of Solidar nose was the salme as that of all the democratic op position hetore Augus 1980 namel that Habilivny i compromiss between party state historical compromise ne consend ide wan the self limitation strateg The ide mas that the halance the workerepaine balanece forces internationalls Will sei/ure of would theretore lei! 10 war with the Find the crushing of the workers Theretore i comprons was essental.
This vers umul «hont Tanuary or Pobruary 1981 hur from the Badgoner disclassion oponed with Solidaries Pitais 110 pa Hon:
hilton.
¡ 1 1‹1!1,1' that if the party didn't accept this it would have 1o be imposed by strikes and Such an agreemen s0 On would allow special economic reform with selfmanagement. Strike The second was exactly the reverse ment should build sell management economic reform, and it the government opposed " then the use • Of the actise where the workers wonh words self-managemen would be imposed through co-ordination with other and possible an agreement would he signed with the government There was no one rei! ly who said the! shoukd fake power imediarch No one thought the arm would attack the mode ment in the way it cid the left. the militands. thought that if the dictatorship war imposed that would be done through legal channeh. that the party would ast lor such ponters through the parliament Coup As kale cart December theretone only 1 ° 201 per ient duvrial management podis And the ative strike ident wis fil Noember 198t when it bogan amond the regional lende The his 1061 100% nositive but the strategk discussion had coup.
When will Solidarnosc rise again? ,First we must note that the whole against the regime. Their hostility absolutely clear. bul i is very alficult for Jaruzekki leadership par divided.
leadership divided. Jaruzeiski has a project like Kadar's in Hungary 10 rebuild a party with some legitimacy among the per. ple and through an open policy to the Church and peasantry.
Olszowski and Girabski. the party hard-liners want to follow the (rech model with an ideological purged and hardened party of workers, and con tinuing repression agains and Church and peasands. But both projects are imprattical, particularly given the lack room for manoeuvre at the level of the economy Morale important members of Solidarnose are free and the revistance quite well organised in somo maior sh. Kalowice. Warsil and lado. Peonio are not vo ready for a general upris are huilding their and morale through There's a problem of solidarnose hut the generation "ho ma! he poked into armed ad tions. What don't happen the government or ans gencral uprising agains! : in the short term.
Ine defeat of lei December was a politica defeat and it will take time :or Solidarnosc to absort the lessons. The scope the defeat is clear from th limitation of the initia resistance to martial lav Some 300 factories wen: on strike In December but in the August events oi 1980 there were 4000 Solidarity Solidarnosc is vital from the labour movement. When Reagar and Thatcher come out in of Solidarnosi this is used by the govern discredit Solidarnosc. The labour must make moverei Solidarnosc's own.
More extensive treatmen: of some of these themes :: avanute corn in rotel. book. The Summer Before the Frost, and also in ar excerpt laken from the book in the latest issue or