Poland's rightward turn accelerates

of the Socialist Labour League. I AlM delegated by the to bring the warmest fraternal greetings to the Workers League on the occasion of its fourth There never was a time in history when the revolutionary co-thinkers of Leon Trotsky needed to work and fight together in the struggle to develop revolutionary to the US by Dany Committee Kremlin's timetable of 'detente' with the major capitalist states in W Europe.

An article in the Soviet economic journal 'Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya' blatantly emphasizes the advantages for W German imperialists in dealing with the bureaucracy:

'As a result of W Germany's dependence on the foreign market, as a result of the aggravation of competition in the capitalist market, as a result of the geographical proximity of most socialist countries to the German Federal Republic, commerical co-operation with them is becoming ant for Bonn, over more importThe article, taking issue with ultra-rightist opponents Brandt's foreign policy, added that 'cold warriors' should remember economic links with East help not only the Soviet Union, but W Germany itself.

RECESSION

The article coincides with growing fears in Bonn that W Germany faces a period of defiation and possibly even recession. 1970 was a record year for business bankruptcies, and the forecast for this year is even more gloomy.

So government leaders in Bonn are watching their opposite numbers in Moscow very closely for signs of a split over Brezhnev's declared policy of seeking better relations with W Germany.

A section of the Soviet bureaucracy, say sources close to Brandt, is anxious not to fall out with E German leader Walter Ulbricht.

His stubborn stand on E Germany's right to handle all affairs relating to the status of W. Berlin is proving a stumbling block in the convening of an all-European security conference as well as final ratification Bonn's treaties with the Soviet Union and Poland.

On the other hand, the new Gierek regime in Poland has the most pressing economic and The Gierek-Moczar leadership first makes plain that 'Poland wishes not only to continue her known and generally appreciated [sic!] efforts for a detente and security in Europe, but, what is mors leading to the quick hold. intends to take further ing of the European conference' The new regime, the statement goes on, 'calls for ... a system of security, the activation of a broadly conceived dialogue between People's Poland - a strong [?] link in the community of socialist states - and the European West.' - It then lists the regime's allies in this 'Européan West':

'We see here, more clearly than ever before that we should maintain excellent relations with Paris, not only for historical, traditional or sentimental Teasons, but also for realistic and political considerations' (Our emphasis.)

UNDERSTANDING And to drive the point home, the statement adds:

'France, ruled by the successors of Charles de Gaulle, may rest assured that precisely now she will find in Poland greater understanding than ever before.' The fact that de Gaulle's rule was succeeded by that of Pompidou, and not the working class, is solely due to the counterrevolutionary role of French and world Stalinism during the great Ulbricht: Stumbling block sit-in general strike of May. June 1968.

And now the Polish Stalinists pledge even greater understanding' for the future!

Provided trade does not undermine in any way the political support given by the workers' state to the struggle of the working class in the capitalist country concerned, then no basic principle of socialist internationalism is compromised.

But when trade is used to break strikes, as it was in both Spain and Ireland, and where it becomes the basis of political and even military collaboration between the bureaucracy and imperialism, then it is the duty of every communist to speak out against such a policy.

The Soviet and E European bureaucracies, caught in the inescapable contradictions of building "socialism' in the historically backward areas of Europe, are increasingly driven towards deals with the major capitalist monopolies of Europe. and the US.

The plight of the Gierek regime, faced by a working class determination to win both higher living standards and basic political rights, exemplifies the crisis of the entire Stalinist system.

To placate the masses, better living standards are needed. But to secure them requires a cutback in arms spending, which in turn threatens to weaken the defences of the Soviet Union and its allies.

ARMS STRAIN

So in return for policing the working class of W Europe, with its mass Stalinist parties" France and Italy, and its smaller, but equally, treacherous opportunist followers in Britain, the bureaucracy hopes that imperialism will come to an agreement on disarmament, thus easing the colossal strain arms production imposes on the planned economies of E Europe and the For, as the post-war history of Poland, E Germany, Hungary and Czechoslovakia has shown, the bureaucracy will yield none of It turns to imperialism to secure the economic means for heading off mounting unrest in the masses, while relying on the tanks of the Kremlin for open repression.

The only way out of this crisis in the economics of the workers' states is along the road of working-class revolution—the political revolution in the East, with the installation of genuine workers' democracy and control over production, on the foundations of the existing nationalized property relations, and the social revolution in the West, the expropriation of the capitalist class and the re-unification of the entire continent on socialist lines.

The crisis of the Polish bureaucracy, trapped between imperialism and its own working class, confirms in the most concrete way the analysis of Stalinism made by Trotsky in his classic work, "The Revolution Betrayed'.

That is why the international Trotskyist movement is the only force able to prepare the workers of all Europe for the revolutionary defeat of both Stalinism and imperialism.