Politics of the past: the use and abuse of history - Socialists ...

The Polish United Workers’ Party had a monopoly on government
until 1989. It developed what could be described as a Stalinesque
totalitarian or post-totalitarian regime. There is much debate about
the use of one or other of these political terms to describe the
regime that actually existed in Poland until 1989.
Poland’s history would certainly have taken a different course if,
during the 1956 post-Stalinist thaw, a number of interrelated factors
had not been present that resulted in a profound crisis of the
system. Despite the monopolistic system, Poland enjoyed greater
freedom after the 1956 crisis than other countries under Soviet
domination. Elite groups opposed to the regime gradually began
to grow. They advocated far-reaching democratisation and fought
for a return to the rule of law, freedom of expression and restrictions
on censorship. They also opposed nationalism in the ideology
of the ruling party. Members of these groups, few in number, were
mostly intellectuals and some students. Nonetheless, effective resistance
developed and the movement rose to prominence at the
time of the student action of March 1968. A few years later the
Workers’ Defence Committee was established and became the
first consistently active opposition group for decades in Poland.
This 1970s democratic opposition cannot be identified with the socialist
tradition dating back to the Polish Socialist Party, despite efforts
to evoke this tradition. The ideas advocated by the Workers’
Defence Committee to inspire and mobilise society were generally
democratic rather than specifically socialist. Nonetheless, many of
its leaders – Jacek Kuroń and Adam Michnik – and activists – Aniela
Steinsbergowa and Edward Lipiński – admitted allegiance to leftwing
ideas and social democracy. The same was true of Bronisław
Geremek who had emerged as one of the leaders of the opposition
in Poland before the 1980 strikes, and many others.
There can be no doubt that this opposition movement, with its links
to the traditions and values of the democratic left, played a significant
role in defining the opposition’s principles, organisation and
strategy. It also established the aims for each stage of the struggle.
It was upon the aforementioned aims and principles that the
Solidarność movement was founded. As an all-Poland movement,
however, Solidarność was by nature pluralist. Following the imposition
of martial law these same groups expanded to include workers’
leaders and defined opposition strategy until 1989. They
107 Andrzej Friszke