It has now been over 14 years since the victory of the counterrevolution in Poland.

As a result of the "transformation of the system," Poland has become a semi-colonial country, dependent on capital from the US and European Union [EU]. Whole branches of industry have been shut down, thousands of large industries have been liquidated and thus millions of jobs have been lost. Agriculture is producing 30 to 50% less than before 1989. As a result, there is much chronic and structural unemployment – according to official figures it is 3.4 million (18.5%) – but according to independent economists it is 5 million, or 25% of the Polish labor force.

The contradiction between the new bourgeois class (10 to 15%), who together with their political and social hangers-on spend up 40 to 50% of consumer funds, and the great majority of the oppressed and exploited people, is steadily increasing. Thus 20% of the population are living under minimum living conditions, and about 60% are below the poverty level.

All social illnesses such as tuberculosis are spreading once again. Through homelessness (which affects 500,000 people) and the cold, between 200 and 500 people die every winter. Seeking after drugs, drug addiction and alcoholism are growing among young people. Hundreds of thousands of young people are joining the ranks of the unemployed, people who cannot get jobs even after they completed professional training or finished vocational school. Officially in Poland more than one million graduates with university or vocational school diplomas are unemployed. At the same time, the workers and farmers are being held back culturally and by lack of education.

The bourgeois Polish state has fallen into deep dependence on the international capitalist centers. The debt has grown to more than $80 billion U.S., and the internal debt has become more than $20 billion U.S.

Because of these policies, Poland is clearly headed in the direction of a Latin-American type economy. For14 years, the chief proponents of these policies have been the big bourgeois and social-democratic parties which, despite their political and ideological differences, have concluded an "above-party pact" in favor of:

• Privatizing the economy (sale for 10% of its actual value),

• Integration into NATO, and

• Support for EU expansion to the East.

These policies unite all groups of the comprador bourgeoisie (those bought-off bourgeois who are linked with foreign capital), which as the chief class subject serves the interests of foreign capital.

In this dramatic economic and social situation, the consciousness of the Polish working class has changed. Many workers have lost their former ideals and illusions. But the working class is split, thanks to "Solidarity" and the opportunists. Within the upper strata of the trade unions there is the consciousness of class solidarity, of social reformism and church influence. A section of the unemployed has become declassed and become a lumpen-proletariat. They could be bought for a few pennies and easily fall under the political and ideological domination and for the arguments of their own class enemy, for example, regarding the EU expansion to the East and the EU referendum.

There are great difficulties, given the poisoned consciousness in the ranks of the working class, to prepare to organize a new struggle against capitalism. The present slogan for the communists in Poland should be: Unity in the struggle against the class of exploiters.

The successes of the bourgeoisie in Poland as well as in other countries will be possible, as long as the workers and other working people do not remember the old Marxist slogan: Workers of all countries (in particular of all industries in one country – Zb. W.), Unite! It is still too early to put forward concrete, socialist goals and tasks in Poland. The chief slogans should for the time being be anti-capitalist ones, which create the possibility of uniting broader forces.

The contradictions will become clear through the view of the trade unions. There is a great split within the trade unions in Poland. There are many weak trade unions within the same enterprises, for example there are 12 among the railway workers, 8 among the miners, and in the new enterprises, thanks to the wishes of the employers, there are no trade unions. In the remaining large industrial plants, the OPZZ (social-democratic oriented) and "Solidarity" (church-conservative) play the leading role. They serve to help and support their "own" regime.

The leaderships of the trade union federations do not work together. They are often hostile to each other. On the other hand, the employees in individual enterprises are forming (independently of the trade union federations) a broad front against the liquidation of their enterprise and of their jobs. They are organizing against the destruction of social services.

From Red Brandenburg
December, 2003