THE
SOCIALISM ANTONI ZAMBROWSKI WANTS FOR POLAND
[Among the young people who have been mentioned as leading figures in the current Polish student rebellion, the name of Antoni Zambrowski, 42, has appeared along with those of Jacek Kuron, Karol Modzelewski, and Adam Michnik. All four have reportedly been arrested since the student demonstrations broke out.
{Kuron and Modzelewski are better known as the former Warsaw University instructors who were first jailed in 1965 for circulating a document calling for a revolution to establish workers democracy based on workers councils. They also called for a revolutionary anti-imperialist foreign policy and spoke favorably of the creative example of revolutionary Cuba. They were released in 1967, only to be rearrested in the present crisis.
{Young Zambrowski was a member of the Warsaw University teaching staff also. In the summer of 1966 his critical communist opinions came to the attention of the bureaucratic party leadership, apparently as a result of a May Day article he had written. He was asked to present his views to the party Control Commission in writing, which he did. Because of this document he was expelled from the party, fired from his job at the university, and given a job in an engineering concern.
{Zambrowski's background is similar to that of Kuron and Modzelewski in another respect. The fathers of all three held important posts in the party regime. The father of Zambrowski, Roman Zambrowski, has long been a prominent government figure, both in the Stalin era and under Gomulka. During the present disturbances, the elder Zambrowski was ousted from his post as a reprisal for his son's indiscretions. The Zambrowskis are also of Jewish origin, which did not help the father's fortunes once Gomulka and company began their virulent campaign against "Zionists, old Stalinists, and revisionists." Roman Zambrowski was one of the first victims of the ugly purge now sweeping the Polish party.
(The text of Antoni Zambrowski's 1966 statement to the Control Commission has become available. We reprint it below, from the version in the March 22 London Times.
{What is most interesting about Zambrowski's statement is the indications it gives of fresh currents of socialist thought stirring among young people in postcapitalist Poland. He mentions several opposition groupings within the Polish party, and seems to represent a distinct point of view himself.
{[Zambrowski declares himself clos-—
est to the standpoint of the Italian Com-
munists, so far as the permitting of in-
ternal discussion within the party goes,
and to the Yugoslavs, in regard to per-
mitting a greater degree of democratiza-—
tion in public life. He is not free of
certain illusions over the extent of
democracy in either the Italian CP or in
Yugoslav society, but he is primarily
using these as Communist examples that
definitely improve on the Polish and
Soviet models.
(Quite interesting also is Zam-
browski's discussion of the views of
Kuron and Modzelewski, who in their en-
phatic opposition to the bureaucratic
government of the Polish workers state,
wrongly call it a "new class" that must
be overthrown by proletarian revolution.
(Marxists are careful to distin-
guish between the form of the governing
apparatus and the class nature of the
state. The governing bureaucracy, cor-
rupt as it is, has no independent roots
in property forms of its own; it is a
privileged caste only, a parasitic growth
upon socialized property forms. It is not
rooted in the very economic and social
system as classes historically have been.
(Zambrowski is right in regarding
"the bureaucratic deformation of revolu-
tionary power as a transitory phase,"
which arises "from the political super-
structure and not from the foundations."
{It is not clear how firmly Kuron
and Modzelewski are wedded to their mis-—
take in theory, however. If there were
freedom of discussion in "People's" Po-
land perhaps they would correct themselves
in the light of criticism from persons
like Zambrowski, or perhaps from revolu-
tionary Marxists in the West.
{On one point, however, there is
agreement all around. As Zambrowski put
it, “depriving them of liberty has brought
great political harm to our country as
well as to Poland's reputation in the
world." And that goes for the bureaucrats'
treatment of Zambrowski and all the other
young rebels as well.]
* * *
I am a Marxist and communist, and
for this reason I am a member of our par-
ty. For me, joining the party was a simple
consequence of my way of life. As a 13-
year-old boy I distributed pamphlets for
the Polish Workers' (Communist) Party at
the 1947 elections. In that same year I
joined the Young Communists' League. But
I must confess that, while accepting the
ideological foundations of our party, I
have a mass of reservations with respect
to its current policy. I feel more sympathy with the standpoint of such communist parties as the Italian Communist Party (PCI) or the Union of Communists of Yugo- Slavia (SKJ). In my view, if we applied the policies of the PCI or the SKJ in Poland, we should have less political difficulties and considerably more influence in society.
The most valuable part of the Yugoslav party's programme seems to me to be their different interpretation of the party's role in the exercising of power. At present our party apparatus provides, in the words of Comrade Gomulka, "a specific, centralized authority...steering a direct course and regulating the life of the whole country." This leads to "an identification of the party with the apparatus of people's power" and to "the duplication of the work of the state apparatus." Another important element of the Yugoslav party's policy is the system of Workers' Councils and social self-administration which is extended to all levels of economic and administrative power. Two consequences of this are the autonomy of the trade unions, which do not belong to the state system but are its partner, defending the interest of the working man, and the independent role of parliament towards government, thanks to which parliament genuinely is the highest organ of the the state. The role of the SELPJ, the equivalent of our Front of National Unity, is also. extremely valuable since it serves as a socialist tribunal of discussion. I approve of the Yugoslav party's policy of a consistent and systematic development of democracy inside both party and state.
Successive Stages
I think that the process of overcoming the consequences of Stalin's autoc-— racy was begun but not concluded by the twentieth and twenty-second Congresses of the Soviet Communist Party. I fully support the view of Comrade Togliatti expressed in his Yalta testament criticiz-— ing the policies of these communist parties which now hold power. It is a question of, in his words, "removing the system introduced by Stalin whereby democrat— ic freedoms and personal liberties were restricted and choked." The problem is that "the return to the Leninist norm, which ensured both inside and outside the party a broad freedom of speech and discussion in culture, art and also politics, is a slow process which is meeting some resistance. This slowness and resistance are incomprehensible to us."
I think the party should embark on a far-reaching programme for democratiz-— ing public life. This would entail successive stages in the controlled development of socialist democracy:
(1) the development of democracy
inside the party by bringing back all the
Leninist norms of party life, for instance,
the right of individual members to orga-
nize different platforms at party confer-
ences and congresses, and to put these
platforms to the vote.
(2) the granting of independence
to social organizations such as trade
unions and youth organizations.
(4) a change in the voting regula-
tions, beginning with the lowest organs
of the state and leading up by successive
stages of power to elections to the Sejm
(Parliament). These new regulations would
foresee elections to one-seat constitu-
encies with several competing candidates
from the Front of National Unity, perhaps
representing the same parties now exist-—
ing in Poland -- the United Workers' Par-
ty, the Peasants' Party and the Democratic
Front. This would follow the example of
the United Arab Republic and Tanzania.
(4) and only in the more distant
future, a change to a political system
which allowed a legal opposition, a party
based on socialist principles and in ac-
cordance with the constitution of the
Polish People's Republic.
The adoption of this programme,
or one similar to it, which would gradual-
ly democratize our public life, would go
a long way to relax the political tensions
in our country. It would give our party
the support of the broad masses of society.
view on the case of Jacek Kuron
and Karol Modzelewski is as follows: Kuron
and Modzelewski embarked on their activi-
ties through their impatience at the halt-
ing of the process of destalinization in
Poland. Examples of this are the closing
of the discussion club at the University
of Warsaw, and the repressive measures
taken against those who signed the letter
of the 34 to the Prime Minister. These
obstacles to consistent destalinization
were taken by them as an expression of the
class interest of a "power. elite," which
is supposed to be building a new class to
exploit the proletariat. Taking this view
of the situation, they decided upon the
historical inevitability of a social rev-
olution of the proletariat. The victory
of this revolution would open the way to
the true building of socialism. The pro-
gramme and tactics of this revolution were
to be an exact copy of those of the Com-
munist International, of which before the
war the Communist Party of Poland formed
part.
Transitory Phase
I do not support their point of
view since I consider the changes begun
by the October revolution of 1917 to be
socialist changes. I review the bureaucratic deformation of revolutionary power as a transitory phase, peculiar to the period of construction of socialism -- a disease which can be diagnosed and effectively cured by applying Marxist theory. It arises from the political superstructure and not from the foundations. This is why social revolution is not now inevitable. The problem is to repair socialism,-not to bring it about by a violent agitation of the present state. The fight against the bureaucratic distortions of revolutionary power must be carried on so as not to endanger the achievements of socialism and, above all, socialist power.
While I reject the opinions of Kuron and Modzelewski, I still think that depriving them of liberty has brought great political harm to our country as well as to Poland's reputation in the world. The worst aspect of the affair has been the use of the Shorter Criminal Code against this communist opposition, a Code which was introduced just after the war during a period of national reconstruc-— tion, and was aimed against such reactionary underground organizations as the "Freedom and Independence" and "National Armed Forces" movements. I can see no justification in treating opposition groups within our party -- such as the groups of Kuron and Modzelewski, of Badowski and Hass, or of Kazimierz Mijal -in the same way that the "National Armed Forces" bandits were treated. One is reminded of the type of behaviour that was outlined to us by Comrade Gomulka in his criticism of the methods used by Stalin to fight opposition within the Bolshevik movement.
My view on the conflict with the Church hierarchy is as follows: We cannot consolidate the achievements of socialism without the firm support of the whole of the working class. But unfortunately the vast majority of the members of our working class are believers. Our dialogue with Roman Catholics is designed to ensure for our party the support of the working masses. We cannot allow the quarrel with Cardinal Wyszynski to be treated by the Catholic masses as a "Kulturkampf" against the Church, since this would isolate us for an important part of the society. Unfortunately the events of past years have combined with the present confrontation with the episcopate to give rise to such suspicions. Catholics have taken great exception to the difficulties they encounter in building new churches and religious schools, to the refusal to allow the Pope to come to Poland, as well as to “sacrilegious" acts of the People's Militia against a vehicle carrying an image of the Virgin Mary. All this is grist to the mill of reactionary clerics.
In reference to my May 1 article,.. I can only say that the most questioned part of my article does contain ideas which are widespread among modern Marxists. What is more, these ideas are a simple continuation of the ideas of Marx, Engels, and Lenin, which were silenced during the Stalinist period and brought into the daylight after the twentieth congress of the Soviet Communist Party -- or earlier by the Yugoslav conmunists.