Working-class and Intelligentsia in Poland

Transcription

1 The New Reasoner 5 Summer The New Reasoner JAN SZCZEPANSKI Working-class and Intelligentsia in Poland The changes in the class structure of the Polish nation after the liberation by the Soviet Army in 1945 are relatively easy to describe. They followed a well-known pattern. The capitalist class disappeared after the nationalisation of industry and trade, the landed gentry after land reforms. A new social structure was created with the working class as the new ruling class, the peasantry allied to the ruling class, the intelligentsia-embracing all categories of white collar workers, intellectuals, managers and political leaders, and the urban middle class still controlling some retail trade or small enterprises of various kinds; finally, various marginal groups (in relatively large numbers) seeking their proper places and functions in this transitional period of great social mobility. It was a period when new elites and new centres of power were being formed. In this paper I shall try to indicate some of the problems connected with the part played by the working class and by the intelligentsia in the social processes initiated by the revolutionary reforms of the first post-war period. It would be easy enough to describe in a few sentences these reforms but questions about the social processes resulting from these reforms are more interesting though more difficult to answer. Every sociologist would like to be able to answer this kind of question: what happens in a country like Poland where a working class, small in number, economically weak, culturally backward, becomes the ruling class? What structural changes occur in the working class as a result of its seizure of power? What are the effects of such changes on other social classes? And what kind of social structure emerges from these developments? The answers to these questions would require a great amount of sociological research, and their results would fill many volumes. I shall have to limit myself to a consideration of some aspects of the changes going on in the working class and in the intelligentsia, and their interactions. Among the social forces influencing the life of a nation engaged in building socialism, these two classes are particularly important. The working class because it is the ruling class and its interests determine government policy; because changes in the structure and the social composition of the working class, in the workers' attitudes and levels of culture must exert an

2 74 The New Reasoner important influence on the life of the nation. The importance of the intelligentsia (and of the educated sections of the population in general) is derived from the basic principles and aims of the new regime: the development of science and technology, the establishment of a planned economy, and the planned cultural transformation of the whole nation. Sociological and political literature offers several speculations and hypotheses on the development of the working class in socialist countries and on the social and political consequences of such hypothetical developments. But no sociological research has been carried out in these countries and no factual material is available. Poland is the only socialist country where some sociological research has been going on and where some problems of working class development have been systematically studied. Basing myself on the results of this research, on the press and other materials as well as on my personal observations made while serving on a variety of public bodies, I should like to point to the following facts and processes which I consider to play an important part in the development of the Polish working class. The most important fact is the seizure of political power by the workers' party. This made it necessary for the working class to reorganise, to form itself into the new ruling class. What exactly does this mean? It means that the class must create new political, economic and social institutions, must assume the political, economic and social leadership of all other classes, etc. All these tasks require large numbers of educated people with the necessary specialized training. The old intelligentsia is, of course, still available for these tasks. But the new political power was moulded in the course of the class struggle, the Marxist theory of class struggle makes the new rulers suspicious, they prefer not to use the old intelligentsia as social and economic leaders and functionaries. And, therefore, the most politically experienced and most intelligent workers are promoted to important posts in industrial management and administration, and in state and party. The large number of such posts makes it necessary for a relatively large number of the intellectually most advanced workers to leave factory benches for office desks. This transfer produces an essential change in the social and political structure of the working class. Although the new white collar workers believe themselves to remain members of the working class, the fact is that they no longer work among the factory workers and no longer influence them politically. And just at the moment when the most advanced and politically experienced workers quit the factories, the rapid industrialisation of the country is set in motion and the number of workers is doubled within a few years. Socialism can be built only on the Jan Szczepanski : Poland.: the new class 1 75 industrial basis created by capitalism. There was no such basis in Poland in So the first step necessary to ensure the future of the socialist regime was industrialisation. The new factories constructed all over the country according to a central plan, attracted large numbers of people from all social classes. And this is the second important fact. What kind of people flocked to the factories and joined the ranks of the working class? First of all, they were peasants who left their uneconomical smallholdings, agricultural labourers from the overpopulated farming counties, peasant youth attracted by the possibilities of a new life in industry. Then there were the members of the lower middle class, former shopkeepers who found it impossible to carry on in the new conditions, former domestic servants, lumpenproletariat and the ragtag and bobtail of society. There was a considerable increase in the numbers of women and youth working in industry. This new labour force took the place of those workers who had now become clerks, civil servants and party functionaries, and it provided labour for the newly-constructed factories. These processes changed the composition of the working class considerably. Into their new surroundings the new workers transferred their old way of life, their traditional social and cultural patterns, and the hopes and aspirations rooted in their past. They had never before worked in factories and their previous contacts with the working class had been loose and vague. There were two alternative roads along which the assimilation of these new workers could proceed: either the workers would integrate the newcomers and mould them according to the pattern of the traditional working class way of life; or the newcomers who retained their ties with the countryside would disintegrate the old core of the working class, break their internal solidarity and transform it into a social unit of a new kind. We can now see that both these processes occurred simultaneously. In the industrial cities where the old workers predominated, where working class institutions remained under their control, the process of adjustment of the new workers made relatively quick progress. The peasants coming into industry were ignorant of the patterns and values of the working class and did not understand working class attitudes towards work and towards management. Although they preferred their new jobs, they looked back to their life in the village and tried to maintain contact with their relatives and friends who had stayed behind. We must distinguish here three different categories that presented different problems of adjustment: (i) peasant families: in most of these, both husband and wife worked in the factory, (ii) The so-called peasant-workers, i.e., the individual who had left his family behind to look after the farm and who

3 76 The New Reasoner returned home periodically, (iii) Unattached peasant youths who lived in workers' hostels; the process of assimilating these young people to their new surroundings often led to their demoralizationand a long process of their social rehabilitation. The process of adjustment of members of the former middle classes presented different problems. Their way of life had differed basically from that of both the peasantry and the old working class. Work in the factory they regarded as something transitory and they never gave up hope of regaining eventually their economic independence. Class solidarity, the political aspirations and the ideology of the working class were alien to them. After working hours they returned home to take up occupations-as petty traders or domestic manufacturers-that would ensure their return into the middle class if and when possible. Parallel with these processes, changes also occurred in the old core of the working class. As has already been pointed out, the Polish working class in 1945 was relatively small, economically feeble and culturally backward. But after 1945 conditions changed. The workers were drawn into numerous political and social campaigns; they were given ideological training and an understanding of economic and political affairs. The cultural level and the political consciousness of the old core of the working class were raised considerably, at the same time as it grew in numbers. But this is not to say that all workers uncritically accepted all they were taught. They had ample opportunities to compare theory and ideology with the social and economic reality. Against the background of these developments, we must consider the relations between the workers and their political party. Certain changes occurred both in the party's ideology and in the methods used by the party to realize its political and economic aims. Briefly stated, during the so-called Stalinist period the party becomes more bureaucratized and is detached from the working masses, no longer understands their aspirations, aims and attitudes. As a result the party also lost the political leadership of the working class. Increased economic difficulties produced the wave of workers' discontent which found its most striking expression in the Poznan events of June, I cannot say whether these riots were due to the new attitudes injected into the working class by the new workers-attitudes in which national and religious feeling predominated over internationalism and socialist ideology-or to the strengthened position of the old working class core which now revolted against the bueaucratic dictatorship of party officials. It would be prudent, it seems to me, to assume that both currents met at this point. With Poznan began the crisis in the relations between the work- Jan Szczepanski : Poland : the new class? 77 ing class and the party which culminated in October, It is not easy to describe all the social and political forces involved in the events that returned Gomulka to power. Intellectuals and students played an important part in this but the decisive social force was doubtlessly the working class. All reforms of the political regime in Poland-the so-called process of democratisation-were achieved by the pressure of the working class; they were carried out by those party leaders who had regained their insight into and understanding of the attitudes and aspirations that motivated the working class. The wave of strikes in 1957 was an expression of workers' discontent : they were 'put out of patience', and this pressure from below became a very important factor in Poland's political life. In October, 1956, the workers put forward the idea of workers' democracy, of genuine participation by the workers in management. It must be stressed that there are too many workers' representatives in the factory: the director representing the workers' government, the party branch as the workers' political representation, and, finally, the trade union. But may be this is the reason why the workers felt that they had nobody who could really take care of their interests. So the idea of workers' democracy found its institutional realization in workers' councils. In the councils the workers hoped to reconcile their two conflicting social functions: as socialist owners of nationalised industry and as hired labour. Through the councils workers were to participate in management and thus to realise socialist ideals in practice. It is not easy to say at this stage what precisely has been the evolution of the councils but it would seem that they are becoming institutions of technicians and economists to whom the councils offer the possibility of controlling the often incompetent directors. The councils are therefore preoccupied with questions of management and not of the workers' interests and needs. This is, of course, only a hypothesis because it is too early to draw general conclusions and because their activities differ in different branches of industry.* To sum up: the process of change in the social consciousness of the working class, the emergence of new economic, social and cultural aims, the impatience of the working class and awareness of its enhanced power produce and maintain strong pressure on Polish politics. We must now consider the place and function of the Polish intelligentsia after the seizure of political power by the working class party. This hypothesis was partly confirmed by the IV Trade Unions Conference held in April, 1958, when it was decided to ensure close co-operation of the workers' councils with factory trade union and party branches. This means a change in the importance of the workers' cowicils. J.S.)

4 78 The New Reasoner Jan Szczepanski : Poland : the new class? 79 Before the war the intelligentsia occupied an exceptionally important place in Polish national life. This position had been the outcome of 150 years of the partition of Poland: during this period the cultural values created by the intelligentsia were an essential factor in preserving the existence of the nation without state. After the Second World War the social status of the intelligentsia changed rapidly. It ceased to be the intellectual elite and was transformed into a social strata employed in professional and clerical occupations. White collar workers, professional people, managers, teachers, officials, artists, etc., became, according to official doctrine, a part of the working population, called officially 'the working intelligentsia', i.e. this term applies to members of the intelligentsia who not only have an education enabling them to engage in certain intellectual activities but who actually earn their living in that way. According to the Marxist theory of social class structure, the intelligentsia is not a social class and cannot play an independent social role; it is always the servant of the ruling class. Every social regime, every ruling class must have its own intelligentsia, i.e. officials, ideologists, educators, political managers, etc. The intelligentsia is linked with the superstructure of society. According to this theory the formation of a new intelligentsia, originating in the working classes, closely linked with Marxist (ideology, ready to work and to fight for socialism, is the basic task of the new social regime and one of the conditions of its success. A variety of methods have been used in an attempt to create this new intelligentsia: (i) by enhancing the workers' social status and by entrusting to them positions of responsibility in the administration, in the political apparatus, in industrial management, etc.; (ii) by establishing special secondary and vocational schools, for both adults and working class and peasant youths, where the able and ambitious candidate could obtain the education necessary for white collar jobs or for university entry; (iii) by the government reserving a high percentage of places for the children of workers and peasants within the 'normal' educational system, i.e., at secondary schools, colleges and universities. These methods for creating the new socialist intelligentsia have been in operation for 12 years. What are the results? Has a new socialist intelligentsia really been created? And what are the relations between this intelligentsia and the working classes? It is clear that only large-scale sociological research can answer these questions. Such research work is now in progress in Poland but the results are only partly available, my answer therefore must be very cautious and restricted. The intelligentsia-in the same way as the workers in their dual capacity as socialist owners and hired labour-fulfils two conflicting social functions: as 'servant' and assistant of the ruling working class, on the one hand, and as the actual directing elite of the planned economy, the people who in fact operate political and economic plans, on the other hand. In effect, then, some groups of the intelligentsia are the real rulers of the country. Thousands of adults and young people-drawn from many social strata and occupations-leave our colleges and universities with high educational qualifications each year. This immense increase in numbers has led to the internal differentiation of the intelligentsia. We can discern several patterns of stratificaton in the Polish intelligentsia to-day. There are different educational standards: some possess a pre-war higher education, others received post-war education at the different levels of our present educational system. Vocational differentiation makes for varying levels in social prestige, income and participation in national culture. Finally there is the sociological stratification into, e.g., political elite, functionaries of the political machine and of propaganda and mass persuasion, creative artists, scientists, officials, etc. There is another problem of great importance for future social developments in Poland and in similar countries: has the intelligentsia become an independent class? Will it become transformed into a social class which in the future will be the most important of all social classes, a new ruling class? The results of our research do not permit a conclusive answer to this question. But it seems to me that the theory put forward by Djilas in The New Class cannot be applied to Poland. Djilas fails to give a sociological analysis of the real conditions and processes prevailing in societies engaged on building socialism under the guidance of a Communist party. His book is rather an exposition of a schematic conception of the class structure of such a society. The new class, the political elite composed of party leaders and high-ranking civil servants Djilas regards as the new exploiting class. It is easy to show that in Poland unskilled workers in some jobs earn more than the highest ranks of the civil service. Serious problems were created by the fact that the social upgrading of members of the working class often meant economic downgrading. We know of resignations of former workers from high managerial positions who returned to their manual work because the wages were higher than the salaries. In recent years tendencies towards the institutionalization of certain groups of the intelligentsia could be observed. But there are as yet no strong indications of an integration of all the sections of the intelligentsia into a social class. One could, in fact, point to antagonisms between certain strata of the intelligentsia. But this would not exclude future integration. So far no results of sociological research into the position of

5 80 The New Reasoner intellectuals in the Communist Party have been published. Without this type of research it is difficult to elucidate the problem of the place of the intelligentsia in a socialist society. The leaders of the party are people with long political experience or people who combine higher education and a thorough intellectual training with political experience. They lay down the principles of party policy in relation to the intelligentsia. Although they cannot avoid employing intellectuals in the elaboration of their political and economic plans and in the execution of their policies, they distrust them and suspect the intelligentsia of tendencies towards emancipation. The intellectuals are always more sceptical than the workers towards political ideology and political myths. This is why the workers in the party apparatus tend to assume that the intelligentsia represents a potential basis for the emergence of a hostile ideology, and why the relations between workers and the intelligentsia are rather ambiguous. This is most marked in the relations between the workers and those of their colleagues who-after completing their education-return to the factory as technicians or economists. The working class and its ruling party consider it to be in their interest to keep the intelligentsia in a position of dependence, and to limit its range of independent social activities. The party tries to control the development of the intelligentsia. But there are spontaneous processes resulting from the informal mechanism of social life which are too powerful to be controlled by formal state institutions. Future developments will be determined by both party policy and these spontaneous processes. Relations between the working class and the intelligentsia are influenced by efforts to shape these relations in accordance with the ideas of the ruling party and by the fact that the discontent of the working class is directed against certain sections of the intelligentsia, the bureaucrats. The bureaucrats are the scapegoats, responsible for all distortions in the social and economic system. This made it more difficult for other sections of the intelligentsia to become the ideologists of the discontent of the working class. To sum up: The increase in the numbers of the intelligentsia accelerated the process of its social stratification. It has not as yet achieved an independent social position. But there are processes at work which seem to indicate that the formation of the intelligentsia into a new social class is possible, and there are some traits inherent in the socialist system which facilitate such developments. This will become more evident when further industrial developments take place, and when on the basis of such development new changes in the working class occur. But these are problems of the future. 12th March, 1958