[The following is the statement issued September 23 to announce the formation of the Committee to Support Worker Victims of the Repression. We have taken the text from the September 29 issue of the French Trotskyist daily Rouge. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
An appeal addressed to the population and the authorities of the People's Republie of Poland.
The revolt of the workers against the price increases, which expressed the reaction of the whole population, has been answered by extremely brutal measures of repression. In Ursus, in Radom, and in other towns, a massive number of demonstrators have been arrested and beaten. In addition, there have been numerous dismissals which, like the arrests, especially hit the families of those who were victims of the repression. These measures were an expression of a total contempt for the law on the part of the official bodies of the government. The courts have issued verdicts without any proof. And the firings were in violation of the labor law. The authorities have gone so far as to compel individuals to make forced confessions. Unfortunately such methods are not new in our country. It is enough to recall the repressive measures taken against those who signed letters of protest against the change in the constitution. Some were expelled from the university. Others were subjected to illegal interrogation and various kinds of blackmail. It has been a long time since the repression has been as massive and as brutal.
For the first time in many years, physical violence has been used during interrogations. The victims of the current repression cannot count on any kind of aid from the bodies that are supposed to defend them, such as the unions, whose activity is almost nonexistent. The social institutions as well refuse them all support.
It is incumbent on the people themselves to play this role since those who have been arrested were defending the interests of all. The only way for the population to defend itself against the nonenforcement of the laws is to demonstrate solidarity and mutual aid.
This is why the undersigned have decided to found the Committee to Support the Workers, so as to give an impetus to this absolutely necessary defense on the legal, financial, and medical levels.
We must know the whole truth about the cases of repression. We are convinced that only full knowledge of the methods used by the government will make an effective defense possible. Therefore, we ask that all who have been victims of repression, or who know of such cases, send this information to the members of the committee.
To our knowledge 60,000 zlotys has already been collected to aid the workers. But the need is much greater, and only an initiative taken by the entire population can meet it. We must organize ourselves in a way that can aid the victims wherever they are. In every neighborhood, in each factory, it is necessary to find courageous people who will come to their aid and begin giving collective support.
The measures of repression used against the workers violate human rights established in international law as well as in Polish law: the right to work, the right to strike, freedom of expression, of assembly, and to demonstrate.
That is why the committee, in accordance with the resolution of the conference of bishops of September 9, 1976, demands amnesty for all those who have been arrested and sentenced, and that they be rehired at their jobs.
The committee calls on the whole population to support these demands. We are deeply convinced that in founding it, we are carrying out our duties as citizens and human beings for the good of the country, the nation, and humanity.
Committee to Support Worker Victims of the Repression Following the Events of June 25, 1976
Signatures: Jerzy Adrzejewski, Stanislaw Baranezak, Ludwik Cohn, Jacek Kuron, Edward Lipinski, Jan Josef Lipski, Antoni Macierewicz, Piotr Naimski, Antoni Pajdak, Jozef Rybicki.
(The October 6 Rouge reported that Halina Mikolajska, Aniela Steinsbergowa, Adam Szczypiorski, Father Jan Zieja, and Wojciech Ziembinski should be added to the initial list of signers.)
'Trapped in Poverty'
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has released the first study on the 1.7 million Puerto Ricans in the United States ever undertaken by a federal agency. The report, which was released October 13, said that the number of Puerto Ricans "trapped in poverty" rose from 29 percent in 1970 to nearly 33 percent in 1974.
"Official insensitivity, coupled with private and public acts of discrimination, has assured that Puerto Ricans often are the last in line for benefits and opportunities made available by the social and civil rights legislation of the last decade," the report said.
The figure of nearly one-third of all Puerto Ricans in the United States living in poverty compares to a level of 11.6 percent for all American families as of March 1975. The study called prospects for future improvement in the condition of Puerto Ricans "uncertain."