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Labour Focus on Eastern Europe, Vol. 2 No. 3, July–August 1978, p. 20.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The last issue of Labour Focus reported that a Committee for the Creation of Free Trade Unions had been formed in Katowice, the big mining and industrial centre in Southern Poland. At that time we knew little except for the fact that this Committee, known hereafter by its Polish initials, KWZZ, had been formed on 23 February. We have now received extracts from the Committee’ founding statement and from one of its public leaflets. We print these extracts below. (The French version appeared in the French Marxist daily Rouge of 5 June 1978.)
At the end of April a second committee was established in the Baltic port of Gdansk in the north of Poland, an indication that the impulse towards independent trade unions is spreading. We publish the full text of the founding declaration of this second committee, known as the Committee for the Creation of Free Trade Unions on the Baltic.
In addition to both these bodies an unofficial workers’ paper, Robotnik (The Worker), has been appearing regularly since the autumn of last year. Its tenth issue has now appeared and according to sources close to the editorial board, Robotnik is now produced in 12,000 duplicated copies per issue.
The Polish trade union committees invite comparison with the Soviet Trade Union Association formed at the start of February by Vladimir Klebanov and his comrades. Unlike the Soviet Association, the Polish Committees have not published a list of members and supporters, and their size cannot therefore be assessed. They have also given themselves names which indicate that they do not actually consider themselves to be trade unions: rather they aim to win workers to the idea of creating independent trade unions. Their members appear to be exclusively proletarian, and unlike the Soviet Trade Union Association, the Polish committees consisted of workers still in employment, though one of the Katowice activists was sacked for joining KWZZ. Finally, neither of the Polish committees has sought to affiliate to any international body like the ILO – such an attempt would, in face, be inconsistent with their decision to form themselves as bodies preparatory to the formation of genuine trade unions.
The KWZZ in Katowice is unique in having launched a campaign for certain concrete social demands, namely the 40 hour week and the right to complete rest on Sundays. According to the Polish emigré journal Kultura published in Paris, the miners in Upper Silesia have engaged in a struggle for Sundays off earlier this year and have won this right from the mine management. Kultura does not mention the KWZZ appeal on this issue, but if this victory was indeed linked to the KWZZ campaign it would indicate real mass support for the KWZZ in the mining area around Katowice. The issue of compulsory Sunday work has been a source of tension in the mines for some time as an article written by a Silesian miner in Labour Focus last year indicated.
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