The Trotskyite counter-revolution comes to Poland

"An open letter to the party" is a political manifesto written by two Polish dissidents in 1965. It exists in a variety of Western editions. The party of the title is the PUWP, the ruling party in Poland during the Communist period.

The manifesto is extremely curious. The two authors, Jacek Kuron and Karol Modzelewski, considered themselves to be revolutionary Marxists. Their political line was very similar to that of the Trotskyist Fourth International. Indeed, it was so close to the real thing that they must have studied material from this organization, plus Trotsky's own writings. In effect, Kuron and Modzelewski were calling for a Trotskyist revolution in Poland, based on the working class organized in workers' councils. (The theoretical differences between the open letter and "real" Trotskyism are minor and somewhat esoteric. The writers didn't accept the formula "deformed workers' state", but since their program was Trotskyist de facto, this is immaterial.)

And no, "An open letter to the party" doesn't sound particularly crazy. Most of it contains a detailed economic and political analysis of Polish society as it looked like around 1965. Even the conclusion - that a revolution is inevitable - proved to be correct. The Polish workers (and people in general) *did* attempt to organize something close to a revolution in 1980-81, only to be crushed by the Polish army.

Still, the specifically Trotskyist program does sound strangely out of place, certainly in Poland. Thus, the authors express strong support for Cuba, North Vietnam and Algeria, attacks U.S. imperialism, mentions Lenin and Trotsky in a positive light, etc. They call for a multi-party system, but since it will be based on workers' councils at the workplaces and a workers' militia, right-wing parties would (hopefully) be marginalized. Kuron and Modzelewski are less impressed by Tito's Yugoslavia, with its combination of "workers' self-management" and a one-party state. They consider Yugoslavia to be ruled by a technocracy, and believes that the Polish technocracy want a similar solution. (By "technocracy" the authors refer to company managers and the like, who are opposed to both the workers and the centralized party bureaucracy.)

Kuron's and Modzelewski's open letter was distributed abroad by groups associated with the Fourth International and the International Socialists. Meanwhile, the two authors continued to play an important role in the protests against Poland's ruling Communist or "Stalinist" party. Kuron was a founding member of KOR in 1976, and both he and Modzelewski were involved in Solidarnosc 1980-81. However, their political views seem to have become more regular as time went by. After the fall of Communism, both men became politicians: Kuron a liberal, Modzelewski a Social Democrat. (I'm relying on Wikipedia for these details.)

I suppose they eventually decided to serve a very different "counter-revolution" than the Trotskyite version!

Today, "An open letter to the party" feels very dated, but it might have some interest for those looking into East European dissident movements, including those of the left.