POLAND
We are publishing below large excerpis from the fourth communiqué issued by the Committee to Defend the Workers, which was released in Warsaw on November 22, 1976. The Committee was formed after the workers mobilizations of June 1976. (See INPRECOR, No. 56, July 22, 1976; No. 60, October 21, 1976; and No. 63, November 25, 1976 for reports on the workers mobilization and the committee's founding statement and subsequent communiqués.) The text of the fourth communiqué presents some detailed information on the means the Polish bureaucracy is using in its attempts to beat the workers into line. In a statement issued at the beginning of January 1977 the committee emphasizes that "terror and illegality still reign in Rodom and threaten to spread throughout the country if all the violations of legality are not punished." But the bureaucratic repression is also - even especially - aimed at the members of the defense committee, who now represent a not negligible current in Poland. Their audience in the working class is broad, For example, of the 5,000 workers of two factories in Radom and Zielona-Gura, only 160, among them the party leaders and factory managers, signed a petition demanding the "explusion from Poland" of the members of the defense committee. Gierek and his police are using various meihods to try to take the deferse committee apart. For example, the postal administration has been ordered to confiscate the material donations that are sent to committee members, which are instead to be delivered to the state treasury! In this manner the police are attempting to prevent the committee from carrying out its function of materially defending the workers who have suffered repressive measures from the administration and the judicial system. Two members of the defense committee, the writer Jerzy Andrzejewski and the actress Halina Mikolajska, were brought before a "special tribunal" at the beginning of January to answer charges of having "¡llegally" collected money. " Andrzejewski, the author of Ashes and Diamonds, has, like the committee itself, been attacked in the Polish press. The editor in chief of the daily Zycie Warszowy wrote in the January 8, 1977, issue of his paper: "It is too bad that Andrzejewski, in the twilight of his life, should associate himself with 12
COMMITTEE TO a small but noisy group of people who desire through their octivity to disturb the moral atmosphere in Poland. These people would like to take Poland backward from the road of national development. In their program we find all sorts of things: the utopia of Trotsky, morsels from Social Democracy, fragments of the New Economic Policy of the Soviets, and the latest anticommunist ammunition, a dash of Zionism and an extract of Christian Democracy — in a word, a frightful chaos and mélange of ideas." Nevertheless, increasing numbers of "personalities" seem to be attracted to this "Frightful chaos," which has taken the form of an effective campaign to defend the workers. The defense committee, which had fifteen members at its formation, now has twenty-three. And at the beginning of January, 172 "personalities" sent a letter "to the representatives of culture in the parliament. " In it they demand the creation of a commission of inquiry into the repressive measures taken by the police against the workers who demonstrated in June 1976. This letter asserts: "We think that it is necessary to establish a commission to inquire into the abuses and victimizations of which the entire country is speaking ....It is the civic and moral duty of every honest man to stigmatize these abominable practices and to combat them with all possible means. As usual, to remain silent would be to give a sign of approval, and in this case that would mean approval of injustice and physical violence. " All Gierek's measures of intimidation have been unable to silence the vast protest movement against the repres-
POLISH BURERUCRATS HELE MULTIN ATONAS WORKERS EXFLOIT RELEASE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS Militants picket Polish Embassy in London.
sion, and this in turn can only strengthen the workers in their struggle. The response to the Committee to Defend the Workers has gone beyond the Polish borders. In France a Committee of Solidarity With the Polish Workers was formed in November 1976. It defines its task this way: "The role of the French committee is to support the Polish committee in all its activities and to call upon French public opinion to show its solidarity with the workers movement and democratic opposition in Poland. The most urgent task at present is to collect money to aid the families of those imprisoned and laid off and to assure the defense of all those still awaiting trial. " (The oddress of the French committee is: Cahiers du Cimémo, 9 Passage de la Boule-Blanche, Paris 75012.) * • ** * * Communiqué No.4 All the information furnished below has been checked; it brings up to date the fors reported in communiqués Nos. 1, 2, and 3, respectively dated September 29, October 10, and October 30, 1976. 1. General facts on arrests and imprisonments
According to present estimates, a total of 2,000 people were arrested in Rodom and about 500 in Ursus in connection with the events of June 25, 1976. Up to now we have received information concerning 261 people sentenced in Radom and 112 in Ursus. We cannot give the exact number of people still in prison, for in Rodom they are now releasing those awaiting their appeal, while at the same time some people already freed have been brought back to prison. We know of three people who are still imprisoned in Ursus.. 3. Facts on repression outside Radom and Ursus
We know of cases of repression - mainly layoffs -in the following cifies: Nowy Targ, Lodz, Gdansk, Pruszcz Gdanski, Elblog, Plock Szczecin, Starochowice, and Warsaw. For example, between 200 and 400 people were laid off at the Lenin shipyards in Gdansk, about 300 in the Starachowice fruck factory, and 200-250 in the shoe foctory in Nowy Targ. In Gdansk we know the names of ninety-two of those laid off in the shipyards, the Zremb and Budimer factories, and the milk-machine factory. As of July 31, sixty-eight appeals had been presented to judicial bodies. Of these, fifty-three were rejected, eleven were settled by compromises, and four people were rehired. As of September 29, twenty people had appealed to the labor tribunals. In reports on the layoffs there are systematic directives from the Department of Employment and from the Department of Social Affairs of the National Council of Gdansk forbidding the rehiring of these workers: ... directors are reminded of the necessity for the strict application of the rules in effect concerning the hiring of personnel with particular considerations. ,. namely, the non-hiring of persons whose labor contracts have been immediately abrogated. "
As in Rodom and Ursus, the layoffs were ordered in violation of the right to work, utilizing article 52 of the labor code as an antistrike regulation. The trials of E. Szreder against the Zremb factory and of J. Zapolnik against the shipyards are characteristic of such practices. Szreder was fired because he, "commanding great authority, provoked the work stoppage of others by stopping work himself. " Zapolnik was fired in spite of the fact that "he was on sick leave on June 25, 1976, and came to the shipyards only to obtain Financial aid for the funeral of his daughter, who had been buried two days earlier. " (From the deposition signed by the president of the regional appeal commission for labor affairs in Gdansk..) Henryk Kicja was fired because, as president of the circle of the Socialist Union of Polish Youth, he convoked a meeting to defend J. Trzaska, who had been fired, and tried to gather signatures in support of Trzaska. The latter hod been Fired after requesting during a consultative meeting that the price increases be discussed by economists! The strike in Nowy Targ began on June 29, 1976, as a protest against the false information being published in the press. About 250 people were laid off, Since then, around 50 have been taken back. In Lodz, as in many other cities, many enterprises went on strike on June 25. We do not have a complete list. A strike committee was formed in the Malgorzata Fornalska textile factory. On July 1 no less than 300 people were fired on the basis of article 52 of the labor code. By now nearly all of them have found jobs, after period of unemployment varying from one to four months. In general they have found jobs paying less than those from which they were fired. Only in the Malgorzata Fornalska factory did a significant percentage of those Fired utilize the possibility of juridical defense, and many complaintants were rehired after the decisions of the labor tribunals. In all the cases we know of, the appeals commissions ruled against the workers. During the second half of July all those fired were brought in by the militia and questioned about their means of subsistence; they were advised to inform the militia if they found jobs. 4. Extent of aid donated to workers of Rodom, Ursus, and Lodz
Ursus: The committee has information about 209 people who suffered repression. One hundred seven families enjoy permanent aid. Of the 209 people, 69 have already found jobs. .. 338, 170 zlotys were spent, 39,900 for occasional aid, 198, 160 for extended aid, and 100,110 for court expenses. The major problem is the payment of court costs which amount to 137,140 zlotys.. According to official information transmitted by the leadership of the Voivodie committee of the Polish United Workers party (the Polish CP -INPRECOR), 500 people were fired in the Ursus tractor factory. Only 15 of them have been rehired... Rodom: Here we have reports on 292 cases of repression. Eighty-five families have received financial aid and
thirty-four persons have received judicial aid. There were 261 sentences, of which 54 were more than two years in prison, thirty-seven ranged from three months to two years, and 48 were less than three months. ..
We know of many cases in which workers were ordered - in exchange for maintenance of their senority — to sign statements waiving payments for the time they spent on forced unemployment, payments which were legally due them in any case... .304, 960 zlotys were spent. Lodz: We have information on thirty-four people and spent about 15,000 zlotys in various forms of aid... In all, we spent 658, 030 zlotys in Radom, Ursus, and Lodz. Two hundred thirty families receive permanent aid, which falls far short of all the families who need help. ... 9. Aims of the defense committee
We repeat the aims of the committee formulated in our communiqué No. 3: The committee was formed to provide judicial, medical, and financial aid to the participants in the June protest who were repressed. In a situation in which the trade unions, the agencies of social aid, and the organs for the defense of citizens have not fulfilled their functions, a group of people of good will had to play this role. Whenever these institutions fulfill their obligations and put an end to the persecutions, when there is an amnesty, or when all those repressed are rehabilitated and have found jobs where they enjoy full senority, when the full extent of the post-June repression is made public, and when those responsible for the abuses, violations of rights, and tortures committed against the workers have been indicted, then the committee will lose its reason for existence.... 12. Appeal
We recall once again that wherever there are persons who have suffered repression, it is a social duty to organize to defend them. In every milieu and every factory there should be courageous people to take the initiative in forms of collective defense. We call upon those people repressed to make use of all their rights in defending themselves. The committee is prepared to come to their aid to whatever extent possible. The Committee to Defend the Workers continues to call for financial, judicial, and medical aid to those repressed. We thus issue an appeal to send exact information, which is indispensable for the work of the committee. Committee to Defend the Workers: J. Andrzejewski, S. Baranczak, B.Borusewicz, M. Chojecki, L. Cohn, J. Kuron, E. Lipinski, J.J. Lipski, A. Macierewicz, H. Mikolajska, E. Morgiewicz, P. Naimski, A. Pajdak, J. Rybicki, J. Sreniowski, A. Steinsbergowa, A. Szezypiorski, W. Zawadski, Mgr. J. Zieja, W. Ziembinski. 14
STRIKE SWE SRI The biggest transport