COMMUNICATIONS
THE NEW LEFTS
After thirty-five years, Trotskyism is being given new life in
the Communist world by a small but highly serious group of revolu–
tionary activists. One of their leaders is Ludwik Hass, an "old" Polish
Trotskyist who has spent almost twenty years in Soviet forced labor
camps. Hass and four younger members of the opposition have been
imprisoned by the Polish government on charges of "possessing and dis–
tributing pamphlets . . . detrimental to the interests of the Polish state
and dealing with political and social relations in Poland." Two trials
were held; testifying at the first, Hass affirmed his Trotskyism, and
defended revolutionary socialism.
The pamphlet which provoked the arrests is a 128-page manifesto
which argues that the Polish Communist state does not represent a
socialist order, but rather a new ruling class; and characterizes the regime
as a "dictatorship of the bureaucracy" which has arrogated to itself the
"workers' property." The writers of the manifesto distinguish them–
selves from Titoists by rejecting the claims of the so-called workers
councils of Yugoslavia to democratically represent the will of the Yugo–
slavian workers. They call for a "return to proletarian internationalism"
and attack the Polish clergy for what they term a "reactionary" role.
In
April, 1965, about forty Poles (the reports are unclear) were
arrested under Section 23 of the "Small Penal Code" of July 13, 1946.
The Code provides a minimum penalty of three years for those who
r
"prepare for the purpose of distribution" literature which "contains
false information that may bring essential harm to the interest of the
Polish state or bring prejudice to the authority of its chief offices." This
law had provoked open opposition during the 1956 upheavals and for
a short time afterward, opposition which was quieted
by
the tum of the
Gomulka regime toward greater repressive measures. Section 23 has
