| Abstrakt: |
This article explores some of the crucial aspects of relations between the newly-established Stalinist regime and the working class in post-war Poland. Its theoretical perspective is based on Marxist-inspired conceptions of the labour-bureaucracy class conflict within the post-capitalist society established by the Polish Stalinist circles with Soviet assistance after the end of the Second World War. After introducing the Polish historical context, the author focuses on the problems of bureaucratic planning, which led to the phenomenon of the 'shortage economy', and its impact on the labour process. Then, he analyses the Stalinist approach to the spontaneous expression of workers' control after the Nazis had withdrawn from Poland, and the regime's struggle against workers' democracy. He then looks at the major types of workers' attitude towards the regime which manifested themselves at the same time as resistance, compliance and support. The main portion of this article focuses on the dynamics of factory conflicts over control of the labour process and surplus product, between the Party-based bureaucratic administration and the direct producers. The existing social relations, based on exploitation of labour in the workplaces, led to multifarious forms of workers' resistance, which manifested themselves in waves of strike action, and various practices of so-called 'negative workers' control', like work abandonment, absenteeism, vandalism, and theft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
