On 25 May 2014, Wojciech Jaruzelski age 90 died. Most Polish workers hate him and the ruling bourgeoisie will use his death to spread more anticommunism. Jaruzelski was the face of the brutal militarist regime, that ruled the People's Republic of Poland from 1981 until 1989. By 1981 most workers in Poland realized that the Polish United ''Workers'' Party was not their party. Workers from the shipyard; ''Vladimir Lenin'' started a strike after Jan Rulewski, Mariusz Łabentowicz and Roman Bartoszcze ( members of the growing Solidarity Trade Union ) were beaten by members of the Polish secret police!
The workers at the Lenin shipyard elected Lech Wałęsa, Andrzej Gwiazda, Zbigniew Bujak, Andrzej Cierniewski, Lech Dymarski, Krzysztof Gotowski, Marian Jurczyk, Ryszard Kalinowski, Antoni Kopczewski, Bogdan Lis and Andrzej Słowik to lead them in a massive strike against the government. Most of these trade unionist leaders would later turn against the workers, betraying them to capitalism after 1989. But in 1981, Lech Wałęsa was a strike leader and supported by most workers. On 30 March, the government and the strike leaders made a deal. At the same time general Wojciech Jaruzelski, made plans to remove the civilian Stalinist leaders from power!
General Jaruzelski was ''elected'' ( made ) leader of the Polish United ''Workers'' Party after his predecessor was caught criticizing the economic model of the USSR. By 1981, the economy of Poland was stagnating. Because of bureaucratic mismanagement, the planned economy could not meet the demands of the people. Workers had to wait in long line for basic needs, because there was shortage. Hungarian economist; János Kornai called this the shortage economy, a result of dictatorial top-down management by the political leaders of the ruling communist parties. But like most Stalinist leaders Jaruzelski only cared about his own position. On 13 December 1981, he claimed that the Solidarity Trade Union wanted to stage a coup to ''destroy socialism'', Jaruzelski declared martial law and created a military junta!
The new military government soon started to arrest the leaders of the Solidarity Trade Union movement. Lech Wałęsa was arrested for 11 months and Solidarity was banned on 8 October 1982. Although the militarist government was able to crush the workers and their trade union, they were not able to keep the People's Republic of Poland from collapsing. As the ruling military tried to control the nation, the economy started to collapse. 700.000 workers left Poland between 1982 and 1989!
Wojciech Jaruzelski, the man who led Poland for 8 years was not born as a typical Stalinist. He and his family lived near Białystok, were the young Wojciech joined a Catholic school. In September 1939, the family Jaruzelski fled Poland after the German-Soviet invasion. They stayed with friends in Lithuania, but were captured by the Red Army after Lithuania was annexed by Joseph Stalin. Wojciech Jaruzelski was only 16 years old when he was separated from his family and forced to travel to Kazakhstan to do slave labour. During his labour work he suffered permanent damage to his eyes and back. The damage to his eyes forced him to wear dark sunglasses most of the time, which became his trademark!
It is therefore strange that a man like Wojciech was able to become a Stalinist, after he experienced the evil that was classic stalinism. It is likely he never truly believed in the Marxist ideology and he only joined the Soviets to return to Poland. In 1943, Wojciech wanted to join the Polish Home Army, this underground movement was founded to fight the Germans. Unfortunate for him, the leaders of the Polish Home Army were anticommunist and rejected the Soviet controlled: Polish First Army. After the end of the war, Wojciech Jaruzelski graduated from the Polish Higher Infantry School, an event which was followed by a graduation from the General Staff Academy. At the age of 25, he joined the Polish United ''Workers'' Party not because he was a true Marxist, but because all officers of the new Polish People's Army had to be party members!
Under the name ''Wolski'', he started to denounce people as ''class traitors'' which gave him credit with the Soviets. As a member of the military he participated in the hunt for anticommunist rebels, who still fought the Stalinist government. Ironically he fought the same army he wanted to join in 1943. At the age of only 37, Wojciech Jaruzelski became the chief political officer for the whole army. Four years later he was made chief of staff, all made possible because of his loyalty towards the party and the USSR. After serving four years as chief of staff, Wojciech was made minister of defence. He now controlled the army, navy, air force and police of the People's Republic of Republic at age 45!
Jaruzelski was not only a Stalinist militarist, but also anti-Semitic. He demoted and expelled more then 1000 Polish officers on the grounds that they were Jewish. This anti-Semitism is not uncommon for stalinists. Joseph Stalin himself wanted to murder all Jewish doctors just before he died in 1953, his death prevented his. Vladimir Lenin hated anti-Semitism and rejected the hatred many Russians had for Jews in 1917. He was among the first world leaders who took a stand against anti-Semitism, but after Stalin took power the old hated of Jews returned to Russia, which we still see today!
During the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces, Wojciech Jaruzelski ordered the occupation of the northern provinces, until Soviet forces replaced the Polish troops in November 1968. Two years later he was part of the plot to remove Władysław Gomułka, who was first secretary of the Polish United ''Workers'' Party and a deep nationalist. Jaruzelski used the 1970 protests to remove Gomułka from power. The protests were sparked by a sudden increase of prices of food and other everyday items. As a result of the riots, brutally put down by the Polish People's Army and the Citizen's Militia, at least 42 people were killed and more than 1,000 wounded. Władysław Gomułka was forced to step down as party leader!
As the Polish workers united to create Solidarity, Wojciech Jaruzelski enjoyed the good life. As minister of defence he was part of the party elite. He could shop at special stores which had western goods. Wojciech never had to wait in lines for food and other basic needs and like most Stalinist leaders he lived in a comfortable home. Yet the working class started to organize themselves against the government. When Solidarity was created, Wojciech Jaruzelski saw the danger of this trade union. Its leaders demanded socialism and democracy, the ruling caste could not allow this. So the defence minister took power and established the military junta!
Although the militarists still sang socialist anthems and used Lenin's face, the working class was not fooled. They still fought against the military and the remnants of the Polish United ''Workers'' Party which was now a empty shell. After more then eight years, general Wojciech Jaruzelski realized that he could no longer keep the nation under his belt. The Soviet-Union was collapsing and to save his own neck, Jaruzelski started the Polish Round Table Talks with Solidarity. By now the leaders of the trade union had abandoned their socialist ideals. Leaders like Lech Wałęsa were now deeply catholic conservative and supporters of capitalism. However the workers did not realize how far their leaders had degenerated since 1981!
The Polish Round Table Talks led to the legalisation of Solidarity, who soon created a political organisation called; Solidarity Citizens' Committee. The first partly free elections in Poland were held in June 1989, the Polish United ''Workers'' Party was led by Wojciech Jaruzelski and the Solidarity Citizens' Committee was led by Lech Wałęsa. The stalinists still controlled the media and all printing means. So the Solidarity Citizens' Committee had little means to spread their message. In the end, the results were a big surprise for Solidarity. They won 35% of the votes, while Jaruzelski won 37%!
On 30 January 1990, the Polish United ''Workers'' Party dissolved itself. Out of her remnants ''Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland'' and the ''Social Democratic Union'' were founded. The old Stalinist party had tried to rebuild itself, but they soon realized that they had no support among workers. After oppressing, lying and killing the Polish proletariat for over 40 years, the party of Wojciech Jaruzelski decided to end its existence. The new social democratic parties that were created, would never struggle for Marxist socialism!
Jaruzelski became the first president of the Republic of Poland. He only served one year and did not participate in the first free presidential elections in November 1990. Solidarity Trade Union leader Lech Wałęsa was elected with 74% of the vote. Wałęsa turned out to be a class traitor, who sold Poland to capitalism. The now capitalist media of the Republic of Poland claims today that Lech Wałęsa is a hero, for fighting ''communism'' and creating a ''free'' Poland!
Anticommunism grew very fast after 1990 as Marxism was blamed for the nation's bad economy. The media of Poland portrays the 1945-1989 period as ''communist'' and anybody who tries to fight for genuine socialism is called a ''supporter of totalitarianism''. It is no surprise that in such hostile anticommunist climate, the Polish social democrats never tried to be socialist!
Wojciech Jaruzelski retired from the Polish Army in 1991. He took personal responsibility for the crimes of his government against the working class. Jaruzelski said he was deeply sorry for all the evil his Stalinist party caused. Although the anticommunists wanted him trialled, he was never jailed for his actions. In 2008, the conservative government of Lech Kaczyński started a witch hunt against all people who used to work for the Stalinist government. Even former state bureaucrats were called ''communist traitors''. Kaczyński and his anticommunists used the Stalinist period, to start a massive hunt against leftists and progressives. The conservatives also tried to ban the hammer and sickle as ''symbols of totalitarianism'', but they failed in this anti-democratic attempt. Jaruzelski also became a topic again, but he was never jailed!
In private, the old general said that communism has failed. This proofs that Jaruzelski like so many Stalinist leaders never understood what Marx and Lenin wanted. They were guided by the totalitarian believe that only one party had the right to rule. That the economy had to govern by this one party, without workers self management and participation. With their ideals destroyed by capitalism, most stalinists became deeply disillusioned and abandoned politics. Consider that Wojciech Jaruzelski was forced to do slave labour as a 16 year old boy, you should think he knew the true face of stalinism. But in the end, he was corrupted by power and greed. This corruption is common to stalinism. It is therefore that we revolutionary socialists fight against people like Wojciech Jaruzelski, who still rule Cuba, North Korea, Laos, Vietnam and China!
Poland is a capitalist hell on earth. The nation is ruled by corrupt conservatives, who serve the new ruling class. The average wage is 600 euro's ( 818 dollars ) and minimum wage is 405 euro's a month ( before income taxes ). European capitalists love to exploit Polish workers as they are known to be hard working people. Democracy has come, but this is only half the way. When the workers rose up in 1981, they wanted democratic socialism. Their dreams of a free socialist Poland were betrayed by the Solidarity Trade Union leadership, who sold them to capitalism. It comes to no surprise that Lech Wałęsa lost the 1995 presidential elections to a former Stalinist!
Two class-traitors and enemies of the Polish proletariat!!
