“The contemporary working class and its alliance. The tasks of its political vanguard - the Communist and Worker’s Parties - in the struggle against exploitation and imperialist wars, for the rights of the workers and of the peoples, for peace, for socialism”

Contribution of the Communist Party of Poland

The situation of the working class is one of the main questions for the communist and workers parties. The basic principle of capitalism as a system of exploitation of the working class did not change at all. It is still based on concentration of the capital and division between those who own the means of  production and the exploited. The capitalist system applied various measures to diversify and divide the working people. Outsourcing, temporary work agencies and other changes leading to more flexible form of employment deteriorated the social situation. In factories workers are usually employed in various companies and based on differing contracts.

This tendency is clear in countries such as Poland. From 2002 to 2015 number of precarious workers doubled. The fastest increase of employment was based on limited period contracts. Despite the fact that in 2017 number of temporary contract employees dropped for 3% it is still high. Over 770 thousand people are employed on a base of temporary contracts. In 2017 in Poland there were over 8300 temporary work agencies and around 2,8 mln of people are forced to self-employ themselves. According to the law they are not treated as workers but are entirely dependent from capitalists.

Temporary workers and self-employed have less rights for example concerning work time. The 8 hour working day in many branches exists only in theory. Poland is already among the European countries with the longest working hours, the capitalists explain it as a result of lack of work efficiency. Also payment conditions were made more flexible. Many contracts allow to bypass laws on minimum wage.

The divisions of the working class and liquidation of the mass employment on stable contracts is accompanied with a capitalist propaganda of the so called middle class. Many people are being convinced that they should strive to become a part of it. According to last year’s data about 70 percent of the population perceived themselves as members of the middle class. However it is very far from the truth. The other aspect is an intensive use of loans including mortgage. This increases control over the working class that strives to be a middle class and becomes financially dependent from the banks. As a result workers are less willing to risk their jobs and accept growing austerity measures.

Exploitation of workers is always accompanied with imperialism and militarist propaganda. Capitalism promotes violent behavior in the domestic and international policy. Growing power of the capitalist class requires new market and access to dwindling resources by sending troops for the foreign aggressions. The enlargement of the NATO pact and its advance east serves to cement the power of the international monopolies. According to NATO’s demands Poland guarantees 2% of the GDP for the military and there are plans to rise this amount to 3%. At the same time we observe tendency to cut funds on healthcare or education.

Lenin has said that a state becomes a police state when policeman earns more than a teacher. According to this statement Poland and other countries become militaristic states because soldiers earn more than teachers. It is giving huge profits to big multinational arms companies. Militarization of Europe and new arms race is a business, which leads to international tensions and wars.

These tensions and economic crisis result in spread of nationalism and xenophobia. It also caused a change of the domestic laws to give the capitalist states more power to oppress the people. In Poland extraordinary measures for the anti-terrorist services were introduced. They allow the authorities inter alia to use the military in police actions. The populist tendencies in Polish politics are clearly on the rise. Polish authorities openly demonstrated along with the nationalists on the independence day.

Comrades,

The role of the communist party is to overcome bourgeois propaganda and to keep its ideological principles. Communists are the only political force consequently applying class oriented politics. Capitalists use legal measures to destroy the political alternative knowing that in times of crisis people may turn towards communism and gain class consciousness. In Poland the government attempts to illegalise the Communist Party of Poland. For nearly 3 years members of the editorial board of the party's newspaper “Brzask” are facing persecution under pretext of “promoting totalitarian system”. We appreciate support from our comrades around the world. The Communist Party of Poland will not be intimidated by the capitalists and reactionaries!