Polish strikes

Press, 1 September 1980, Page 18

Polish strikes

Sir, — It is interesting to see Bill Andersen caught in a conflict of loyalties. He has always supported workers against their' enemies, the bosses, and socialist governments against capitalist ones. Hitherto,,it seems, he has never had to consider the problem of whom to support when these, two heroic groups, workers and socialist powers, clash. Mr Andersen has said he ‘favours a solution by force if necessary. But, surely, the whole point of a socialist society is to better the lot of workers. If they are discontented enough to strike, as iri Poland, their lot is obviously not better, in their ..own view. Nor is it likely to be improved by Soviet guns

and tanks. When Mr Andersen suggests imposing contentment on the workers of Poland militarily, he is playing the well known game of communist -semantics, in which words mean whatever Marxists want them to mean. — Yours, etc., lAN HOOD. August 27, 1980. Sir, -— Your leader on the Polish strikes was excellent. The totalitarian and aggressive aims of the Soviet Union and the Communist movement in general have so often been obscured behind such cliches as “workers’ struggle against oppression”, and “people not profits”, that, it is refreshing to see Messrs Andersen and Douglas being forced to admit their true allegiances — to the brutal Soviet Government, not the unionists they represent. The Communist movement has never been a movement of oppressed classes, struggling for self-determination and control, of their lives, as is standardly promoted. Incredibly, it is exactly the reverse, a highly oppressive system used by an elite class to prevent the. people from achieving self-determi-nation and control of their lives. I suppose that if the Russians marched into New Zealand to impose a completely . repressive police state, Messrs Andersen and Douglas would hail them as liberators. — Yours, etc., FRANK A. SMITH August 29,1980.