European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 12, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse By David Binder new York times Apa a 10-year-old boy said to his father an i East european Diplomat Why Are inc workers sinking in Poland in t Poland a socialist coun try the father relating the incident in Washington with visible distress said he had to Ponder this 64 zillion zloty question before he could assemble a delphic response to the son socialists make mistakes too. And some socialists make big in us Light of three weeks of widespread strikes in Poland and labor disturbances in other soviet bloc countries in recent years some communists Are wondering whether the venerable boast of erecting the dictatorship of the proletariat has grown hoi Ion. Marxist Leninist ideology has Long held that strikes were not possible in communist societies because work ers cannot strike against their own a philosophical dictionary published in East Berlin defines strike As something that happens Only under however communist countries have avoided expressly forbidding strikes on the principle that what cannot be will not thus As these countries told the United nations last year none has Laws mentioning strikes. Yet strikes in recent years in Poland the soviet Union and Romania have opened a serious Gap Between communist theory and industrialized reality. Most soviet bloc governments have been slow to adapt their Cumber some apparatus to social and technological advances. Hungary East Germany and Yugoslavia Independent though communist have introduced economic re forms that use Market forces and attempt to untangle the chaos created by Over centralization. Now Poland has announced similar reforms. Virtually All East european governments have resisted altering ancient work quotas norms that were set before the age of the computer and the forklift. Factories still produce goods nobody wants but keep operating As a czechoslovak official said because there is no place for the workers to in effect the state sponsors Feath embedding. Sustaining thousands of useless jobs. Traditionally labor organizations in communist coun tries have enjoyed an August status As representatives of the working class the most progressive of All Lenin defined unions As the conveyor belts of the Par by and the Heads of Union federations traditionally Are members of the ruling party politburo. Unions tre empowered to distribute goodies such As cheap mentions at Union no resorts bonuses and University student stipends. Successful Union activists usually Rise in the Parry Hierarchy. But even if communist workers strike communist unions do not nor do they engage in collective bargain ing in the Western sense although hungarian workers in a targe Budapest construction Enterprise managed some time ago to obtain a wage settlement by working for years american and other Western Trade unions shunned Contact with the communist labor organizations viewing them As representing party interests not worker interests. Now however the Al Cio has decided against the advice of Secretary of state Edmund s. Music. To Send seed Money to help launch Poland s new Independent unions. American British and French unions sent $120, 000 to the polish strikers through the International fed marxist Leninist ideology has Long held that strikes were not possible in communist societies because workers cannot strike against their own interests " ration of Metal workers in Switzerland Money denounced by Tass As intended for forces that adopt anti socialist positions and conduct subversive since 1978, there bad been sporadic Small scale efforts in Poland the soviet Union and Romania a create free Raje unions but Ibe initiators were harassed and relegated to the pariah status of dissidents. Thus the strikes last month that spread across Poland from the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk demanding Independent unions provoked deep worries in communist hierarchies East european diplomats say As symptoms of fundamental social economic problems rooted in their system. The polish strikes also put a spotlight on the communist countries relations with the 130-Meinber International labor organization. The Eastern europeans have All ratified the Ilo s convention 87, thus agreeing not to limit workers rights to organize in full Freedom. Poland which ratified in 1957, faces Ilo review of two year old allegations of . The new in dependent polish unions if they survive might make the question moot. However Francis Blanchard Ilo s director said in Geneva that gaps remain Between but european Laws and convention 87. A i to. Page 14 the stars and stripes out. Most of these Wildcat strikes were settled within a Day by on the spot mediation. Conceivably economically troubled Eastern new 3 Pean countries could take some of the steam oat of 1 labor unrest by increasing worker participation fat decision making As Yugoslavia has done. Bat communist parties described sardonically la Karl " Man s manifesto of 1848 As the Specter Hao Atik Europe Are haunted now by their own ghosts. Today s party members can look Back to the Exptorfw-2 uprisings of Stalin Allee construction workers in but Berlin in 1953, of Poznan locomotive workers in poled and of Budapest s Csepel steelworkers in Hungary to 1s56 All culminating in Street Battles and threaten uhf the collapse of governments. 4 Friday i
