Settling Their Own Affairs

Settling Their EDITED BY MICHAEL HARRINGTON Own Affairs May 1981 Vol. IX No. 5 $1 By Peter Steinfels T IS DlFFICULT TO WRITE ABOUT Poland. Will the situation there be dramatically changed by the time INSIDE I finish this paragraph, let alone by the time these words appear in Foreign Aid as Weapon, p. 3 print? Indeed, has the situation The Reagan administration seems to be bran· already been dramatically changed dishing more sticks than carrots these days in since the last moment I glanced at a newspaper or listened to the radio? its relationships with Third World countries. Vince Wilber examines recent developments. It is also difficult to write about Po land for another reason. What needs to be said can be said simply, .should be said New Tack for Citizen Groups, p. 5 simply. Of course, experts can enlighten If Ronald Reagan were smart, he'd continue us at length on the roots of the workers' to fund VISTA programs, whose staff are movement for independent unions, on forbidden to engage in electoral activity. Cuts the special ways in which nationalism and in the staff base of citizen groups may lead io religion have nourished Polish resistance more political directions, says Steve Max. and disciplined its expression, on the im plications of the Polish events for all,of Special Report: Honduras, p. 8 Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. With a border that touches Nicaragua, El Sal They can, if they dare, try to locate that vador and Guatemala, Honduras is of strategic fine line that will divide a tug-of-war importance to the U.S. Peter Shiras and Leyda from war plain and simple. But identifi Barbieri discuss U.S. moves there. cation with what has been happening in Poland does not turn on any such anal yses, valuable as they may be. It springs Cultivating Culture, p. 12 from something more basic, almost vis New union programs are putting workers in ceral: a rejection of a system of lies, of '' In a Communist touch with cultural activities and roots in a bullying, of mean corruption and massive way that hasn't been done since the early days stupidity. To say the simple things that country, simply to settle of the labor movement. Patti Simpson looks need saying about Poland we need lan your own affairs is to at Bread and Roses and THREADS. guage that has too often been debased by editorialists and politicians, East and make revolution. '' On the Left, p. 14 West. "During these August days," one A new City Council member in Ann Arbor, Polish journalist wrote after the Gdansk Democratic party activity in New England, strike, "a host of words have suddenly conferences and peace activities are some of come to life again ; they have regained this month's highlights. their weight and their radiance: the words 'honor,' 'dignity,' 'equality.'" One fully learned suspicions pressing hard to a greater freedom. Their irritation is must add "freedom," and the word that against the extraordinary moderation and understandable. Is 1t surprising that peo became the workers' emblem, "solidar negotiating capacity of Solidarity's lead ple edging their way along the side of ity." ers. Already the idea of minimizin ~ Rus a mountain do not appreciate constant The same journalist was asked to sian fears by seeking to establish democ shouts from afar reminding them that serve as interpreter for two Spanish Trot racy in basic social institutions while there is a canyon below, that the ledge skyists who arrived at the Gdansk ship leaving the Communist party and central twists, that the rocks are slippery? yards and announced their desire "to authorities relatively intact has been out A case can be made on the other learn about your revolution." stripped. What was a division between side, to be sure-that to be low-keyed "You are mistaken," they were po people and party has become, as in Czech about the Russian danger risks the ap litely told by a strike leader. "We aren't oslovakia in 1968, also a division within pearance of tolerating it. But the differ making a revolution here. We are settling the party. ence between Polish and Western per our own affairs." One can hardly exaggerate the chal spectives in this regard reveals something The reply was ironic. It was meant, lenge these developments present to the deeper. The Poles are the actors, and ac on one level, to disabuse the Spanish left Soviet Union. Poland is the key nation tion both requires and generates its own ists of whatever romantic notions of revo in Soviet geopolitics. It is the corner boldness. We, on the other hand, despite lution they may have hoped to inflict stone of the Soviet empire. And the costs the marginal impact our policies can have upon the Polish reality. At the same time, -military, economic, and political-of a on the outcome in Poland, are largely the strike leader knew full well the Soviet intervention and occupation will spectators. For Americans, accustomed to further truth: in a Communist country, be tremendous. a major role in great world events, this simply to settle your own affairs is to Not a few Poles find this Western is particularly frustrating, and our an make a revolution. preoccupation with the Soviet threat ir xiety is linked to our frustration. It would Can this revolution succeed? Can it ritating. They fear that our constant be bad enough were the Poles waging a survive? The Gdansk Agreement is still worry about Soviet intervention may turn struggle in which their future alone was not being honored by the government. into a form of resignation before the at stake. Our frustration is worse once The economic situation worsens. The mo fact, that our repeated alerts may break we realize how much of our own future mentum of change continues to build, rather than bolster the kind of steady is at stake. with long pent-up demands and pain- resolve they need to negotiate the passage And our future is at stake, in a stronger sense than the one we have in mind when we say that freedom is indi visible, that assaults on human dignity, whether in Eastern Europe, South Africa, IJil'I'ERS or Argentina, assault human dignity To the Editor: group-the Committee Against the NAM The central issue is the disintegration of the Soviet empire. In the description of the "unity Merger-or who wish more information talks" between DSOC and the New about our Committee, which includes American Movement (NAM) in the DSOCers such as Irving Howe, Jacob End of Empire March, 1981 issue of DEMOCRATIC LEFT, Sheinkman, Sol Stetin and Martin Ger The Soviet empire is coming apart, you correctly noted that an active group ber, may send their inquiries or contri which does not mean that it will come of DSOCers opposes this unity, because butions to: apart but rather that it can be kept to of differences over a good number of Committee Against the gether only by maintaining-no, reinforc crucial issues. DSOC members and other NAM Merger ing-all the mechanisms of surveillance, readers who are interested in joining this 1612 Eastwood censorship, corruption, infiltration, arrest, Houston, Texas 77023. and intimidation, in short, of pervasive Letters to the editor must be signed. We We, too, are watching closely rhc d~cl intimidation and repression, backed ul reserve the right Jo edit for brevity. opments in the proposed unity talks, and timately by Soviet divisions. The govern Please limit letters to less than 250 words. hope to play a crucial role 10 the resolu ment that oversees such an empire must tion of this issue wirhin DSOC inevitably be secret, paranoic, brutal ; its Letters should refer to articles that have The Committee Against leaders will be the products of the natural appeared in DEMOCRATIC LEFT. the NAM Merger selection that such an environment en- . Michael Harrington DEMOCRATIC LEFT is published ten times a year Editor (monthly except July and August) by the Dem ocratic Socialist Organizing Committee, 853 Maxine Phillips Broadway, Suite 801, New York, NY. 10003. Managing Editor Telephone: (212) 260-3270. Subscriptions: $15 sustaining and institutional ; $8 regular Signed Jim Chapin articles express the opinions of the mthors. Nation:zl Director ISSN 0164-3207. Second Class Permit Paid at • ~ew Yorlc. N.Y. 2 DEMOCRATIC LEFT May 1981 tails. National self-interest, especially in talitarianism is "irreversible." The crush the West, is essential. But these decisions a nuclear age, will as always provide ing of the Solidarity revolution by Soviet are not now in the hands of the demo grounds for co-existence with such a re arms will have the contrary effect: it will cratic left, at least not in the United gime; but those grounds will never be push global tensions to the limit; 1t will States. The democratic left can only insist anything but narrow and precarious. Gen burden for years even the most self. on the centrality, for the future of both uine detente between the superpowers interested agreements-on arms limita freedom and peace, of the survival of the and a qualitative reduction of the chance tion, for example-with the drawback of Polish democratic movement. The demo of nuclear war will not be guaranteed by appearing to legitimize Soviet conquest. cratic left can only exert pressure in the a successful loosening of the Soviet em What, then, to do? How exactly to same ways it declares itself on El Salva pire; but they also cannot be expected balance the economic and political re dor, the draft, South Africa, or the MX without it.

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