WHAT NEXT IN POLAND?
OAK, LISTON M.
What *>xt in Poland? m^B^ihe^Fraudulent Election, What Can Be Done by the USA and Britain? By Liston M. Oak tt*"*7ARSAW, Jan. 29—Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, v-vv fc«der of Poland's Peasant Party,...
...18 Issue of Mlkolajcxyk's paper, Uazeta Ludowa, would have car...
...Only a half-dozen moved...
...In so far as the PSL lost strength, it was due as much to these argument's as to terror...
...He is "one of the truly great figures of European Socialism the »ort of person who restore* one's dwindling ! faith, one's hope that all is not yet lost...
...Mikolajczyk estimated that over 100,000 of his people were arrested (a government spokesman, Ramon Ronikowski, said 2,110 as of Jan...
...Perhaps the most effective device of all was to compel all workers of a factory or institution to gather early on Jan...
...Walking 12 blocks from the Hotel Polonin to the American Embassy, I counted all the males on Ihe sidewalk between the ages of 15 and 60...
...in three places in Czestochowa, PSL 3,208, Bloc 1,489...
...JO out of every hundred were in uniform...
...One polling place in Kracow was closed early la-cause the UB discovered that everyone was voting for the PSL—list number 4. In another place there was a block-long queue...
...Another:*"Mikolajczyk and the Anglo-American warmongers want to rob us of our reconquered western territories...
...Communism if and when the Peasant Party (PSL) ^ It liquidated...
...For here as elsewhere, ope extreme breeds the other...
...The official attitude was that in the midst of a revolution we cannot stop to argue interminably, we cannot afford the luxury of "soft" democratic procedure as practiced in Britain and America...
...In Kracow, 15,000 PSL members were arrested on Jan...
...Even after the campaign of terror ami all the tent of it, the PSL would surely have won i majority had there been an honest iiniin—Mikolajczyk thinks 70 percent...
...If everything else had failed, the fact that the Army and Security Police voted separately would have been sufficient to enable the Government to stuff the ballot boxes with as many ballots as necessary, for there were no watchers except officers...
...J'rovita't Warsaw correspondent Polevoi also confirms the fact that balloting was not secret...
...The Constitution guarantees secrecy...
...We cannot afford the luxury of slow and easy evolution, and we cannot give the peasants control of the government even if they are in a majority...
...This was one of the few districts where the PSL had watchers, and in addition there happened to be an honest PPS member on the board...
...an official shouted that those who wanted to vote for list 3 could form a separate queue and would get preference...
...Any paeans is justified against individuals and parties so characterized!—everyone who blocks the revolutionary road must be ruthlessly removed...
...in ten booths in Poznan, PSL 11,931, Woe 5,344...
...In a village near Warsaw there were 2,073 on the registration books as eligible voters after all "unreliables" had been crossed off...
...And contributing heavily to the decrease in the number of PSL votes was the refusal of the Church to Issue a pastoral letter supporting the PSL...
...In addition to intimidation, dishonest counting of ballots, political assassinations, suppression of all civil liberties, the methods used to ensure in advance a PPR-PPS victory included voting en masse in an ostentatious, demonstrative manner, pressuring people to sign a pledge that they would vote for list number 3 (the Government Bloc), open lather than secret voting, the use of the Army and Security Police in the campaign and in supervising the balloting so that citizens liteially voted with a gun at their backs, locating election booths in places difficult for peasants to reach, and sundry other tricks unknown even to the worst machine politicians in America, which contributed to the mood of confusion, futility and fatalism which prevailed...
...The Showdown TlIE official election returns are fantastically ludicrous...
...But they honor and respect the I Poles in London and New York who cannot return and •who carry on the battle from abroad...
...So I was told by ¦ Cyrankiewitz, and so other PPS and PPR leaders stated in forthright terms...
...Another slogan was: "A vote for the PSL is a vote for the Anglo-Saxon rearmament of Germany...
...he boasted that workers from factories voted en masse displaying their ballots marked number 3. Marguerite Hijigint of the New York HeraldtlTribunef Sidney Gruson of, the NY Timii, Robert Con.-.way a>S the Chicago Tribune, Christopher Buckley of the London Telegraph,'^ok Howard of fiewtieetk, G. E. R. Gedye of the London Herald, William Forrest of the London News Chronicle, the AP and-UP and": many others have described in detail how the electorial campaign was run and how the voting was rigged to ensure a Government Bloc victory...
...The industrial workers, who are a minority in this agricultural land, are our main support, and more weight must be given to their votes than to those of the reactionary peasants...
...Within the Church here,^«»s in America, there are Communist and riimi...
...At Torun the PPS paper Hobotnik Pomorski printed the names of 30 prominent persons who had not been politically active as sponsors of the Government Bloc number 3. The list included the Dean of the Cathedral and 18 other clergymen...
...Added to the evidence of elections in other Soviet-dominated countries, the proof is overwhelming that in any truly free election in any nation occupied, by the Red Army the Communists can obtain only a small mirtorify'of the votes...
...In thin same manifesto the PSL is declared to be "outside sound social forces and has eliminated itself from the democratic forces which will decide Poland's future...
...And remember that of 804 PSL candidates, only 428 were allowed to run...
...The news of this was spread throughout that district to frighten the peasants...
...One of the striking facts about the new Poland is the omnipresence of soldiers and policemen...
...my own estimate is about 60 percent...
...They have fought through centuries forVfreedom, and I predict that they will not surrender now...
...The meeting was then immediately adjourned before anyone could protest...
...The whole campaign followed faithfully the familiar pattern of Communist "democracy"—a united front was formed under terms dictated by the Communists...
...It seems that even the Virgin Mary has become a fellow-traveler riding the ¦ wave of the future...
...Many^ possibly most, of these men are bandits in the criminal sense, without much political Ideology, The real bandits among them are the fruit of Ave years of war and of the Nasl-Communlst occupations...
...But in Poland as elsewhere, the stronger the Communists become the greater the growth of Fascism...
...The official—and'of course distorted— returns gave the PSL 4,000,000 votes In the July referendum out of 12,000,000, and only 1,100,000 In the January 19 (lections, The election In Poland demonstrates . oncj again that Communists, In power, will no longer cooperate with liberals or democratic Socialists...
...Refreof to Lublin TllE story of the Polish election on Jan...
...29—Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, v-vv fc«der of Poland's Peasant Party, who repretents the best hope of the people of this coun.try for independence and democracy, gave me an exclusive three-hour interview on the eve of my departure...
...I have only a few more years of .life," he told me, with fire in his eyes, "and it is too * late for me to become a careerist or a coward...
...There were PSL watchers in about three percent of the election districts—in 200 . precincts nut of 6,778...
...And these were not the places where the PSL was strongest...
...Some of the following incidents I witnessed, others were seen by persons in whom 1 have confidence, but whose names cannot be cited for obvious reasons...
...And I am sure that the Church in Poland will not follow the example of the Church in Austria or Spain in supporting a Franco or a Schuschnigg...
...But Mikolajczyk repudiates vehemently any connection between the PSL and the underground—or wllh foreign imperialism...
...Anyone who stands in ouiAvay must be removed...
...Heme the PPR-PPS Bloc must win by any methods that may be necessary...
...Nothing was permissible which threatened to defeat the regime in power...
...The most effective propaganda broadcast by the Government Bloc was to the effect that a PSL victory would mean (I) a return to the prewar reactionary dictatorship, and (2) Ios<i of the "reconquered Western territories" to l>rinany, and (3) another direct invasion by the Red Army...
...stated, killed ""ore than 15,000 Government adherents (mostly Security Policemen) since the **r's end...
...Both I men have chosen the hard way—to struggle for democracy within Poland...
...But the UB overruled the instructions and told the board to allot ojily 17 votes to the PSL, and 2,000 to the PPRPPS coalition—njore than the total of ballots cast...
...The PSL in this case was to be allowed 750 votes...
...In tho few districts where the PSL did succeed in having watchers, the folic wing results were disclosed: in seven Warsaw polling places which were PPR ? trongholds, the PSL got 6,52fi, Ihe Bloc 7,509...
...The ultra-reactionaries had no ether way of expressing their,hatred of Russia...
...the other pages explained why every Christian should vote for the Communist-Socialist Bloc...
...r'y-;'¦¦v1 ' ¦ ¦¦¦> • ¦ |1 have also had the great privilege of spending an '."afternoon in Kracow with Zygmunt Zulawski, the grand old man of Polish social democracy...
...Also In Kracow, it is estimated that prior to election day about 60,000 names were stricken off the registration list of eligible voters...
...Typical Gommunist double-talk Is exemplified by the post-election manifesto promising an amnesty to opponents who repent and guarantees in the new constitution of civil liberties...
...Editors of PSL and Catholic publications told me that during the campaign from 60 to 75 percent of what they wanted to print was cancelled by the censor...
...For the election period, orders went out to the ubiquituous UB, the Security Police (estimated strength, 118,000, according to Berman), to ignore the electoral law and permit foreign correspondents to enter polling places,, Only a few of us experienced ' any^nWrfere'nce with our freedom of movement...
...Those to whom 1 'talked range from conservative to radical...
...It is certain that if the Government were a democratic and representative one, enjoying the confidence of the people and independent of Russian domination, most Poles abroad would return, and anti-Semitism and other manifestations of reaction could be wiped out, banditry would disappear, and Poland could take the road to drastic but sound social reform...
...In Lodz, a four-^ page leaflet displayed on page one a woodcut of the Holy Virgin of Czestochowa...
...about 2,000,000 citizens were disfranchised...
...I am a skeptic who haa always opposed the Churili on such issues as birth control, divorce, state subsidies for parochial schools, but these are abnormal times when such issues should be subordinated to the big issue—totalitarianism versus democracy...
...Enquiries brought forth the fact that a week earlier the Mayor had called a meeting of these 30, urged them to support the Bloc...
...as soon as he had finished his speech, a stooge arose and said of course everyone present was a patriotic Pole who would vote for democracy and list .'I...
...nor are the fellow-travrlers among the priests ¦much more influential here than their opposite minir*»r» in the USA, Father Olim*n»kt, for Instance...
...election they were everywhere...
...It will lie,the main obstacle...
...It is certainly true that because the PSL was the only legal opposition, it was supported for tactical reasons by many reactionaries, including Fascists, of whom Poland has more than her Share, though Mikolajczyk repudiates them...
...The Soviet press unanimously hailed the election as a model of democratic procedure, and said that in view of Mikoiajcxyk's link With the underground bandits and foreign imperialists, permitting the PSL to run at all was almost unwarranted magnanimity (Pravda, Jan...
...A gigantic red and white sign spanned the main street of many villages, reading: "Vote for the Democratic Bloc number 3 or-Mikolajczyk will take away your land and your cow...
...Russia is our only trusted friend, the protector of our western frontiers...
...The Jan...
...Antoni Zdanowski, colleague of Zulawski and famous trade union leader, was also a condidatc on the PSL list number 4. His name was taken off because he was accused of being a leader of the WRN ("freedom, democracy, independence") resistance In the Nazis...
...Thus in 35 polling places where an honest count was made, the PSL got 33,669 votes against 20,809 for the PPR-PPS Bloc...
...This included, a priest told me, most* of the Catholic clergy as well ss known followers of Zygmunt Zulawski, Independent Socialist who, refused a license to form a party, ran as a candidate of the PSL...
...Oppositionists were daily castigated in the press, over the radio, at meetings, and in poster* plastered on every wall...
...Greatly though Poles hate Communism, they prefer Polish to Russian Communist*, and almost to a man they are determined to keep the Western territories snd not to go back to the status quo snte belliim...
...In the Itadxyn district the Inhabitants of 96 villages were alt refused the light to vote on the charge that these villages were controlled by the underTrVmtnd bandits...
...19, listen to a harangue, and then march, accompanied by soldiers, with banners flying but heads hanging, to martial music, to the polls, where they were given their number 3 ballots and rushed through the miserable farce...
...Cyrankiewitz, Bierut, Osubka-Morowski, Gomulka and other leaders of the Government Bloc frankly justified the drastic measures taken to ensure victory for "democracy'1 ijs they conceive it— to prevent "the unpleasant fantasy," as Osubka put it, of a PSL triumph...
...He has urged those of hie followers who have fled in fear to the protection of the forest bands to return to normal life and abandon their futile Civil war, which gives the regime a pretext for political murders...
...19 has l»ccii fully told by two-score of lop-Higlit correspondents from countries where a free press Mill exists...
...James llyrnes' Stuttgart speech indubitably injured the PSL...
...From his sick, bed Zulawski continues to challenge the forces of ;totalitarianism...
...anti-Government vote...
...Many subv scribe to the idea that nationalization of basic indusEntries is a step necessary to the national welfare...
...In Kielce, 1,000 PSL members were in jail on Jan...
...Hut this counsel wss deleted...
...I wilt never capitulate, for without freedom life is.not worth Lthf Jivingj'.- ., * ,, ., f'.'the only.*,erime" these two champions of liberty jhave committed is their stubborn, persistent opposition c'to both the Nazi and the Bolshevik invasion, their in¦ »islcnce that without freedom Socialism mean* slavery...
...A concordat between tfie Kremlin and r lbs Vatican is improbable...
...The Government has promised amnesties before—only to arrest those who came out of hiding...
...in ' ¦4 i.also interViewed other PSL leaders aiiu'-indepeud* eht Socialists, as well as Cardinal Mioud, Cardinal -' Sapieha, the editors of-Poland's most influential Calh1 olic weeklies, and dozens of ordinary unknown Poles, "and found a surprising identity of attitudes between 'Socialists, Peasant Party members, and Catholic libIjwMala, on basic ideals—the independence of their naI tion, }he value of democracy, the supreme importance i of human dignity and the liberties that are trampled under the iron heel of every variety of totalitarianism...
...rl-J the following headline, If the censor had permitted: "Go and vote secretly...
...Those who are not with us are against us...
...in five places in Leszno, PSL 3,782, Bloc 1,847...
...With most Poles, patriotism comes first, political convictions second...
...Kor there arc always many in any nation who can be terrorized...
...He recapitulated the facts about his coni tinuing fight to prevent the domination of Poland by i,a*tinjf, minority of Communists acting as agents of Pa foreign power...
...But for this "crime" both will probably be arrested ultimately if not soon, aa "traitors" linked with the il< .legal underground (officially estimated at 1(1,000 armed , men) and with "Anglo-American imperialism...
...At least not unless that is the only alternative to Communism...
...in Zgiersz, the PSL got 825, the Bloc 2'J5...
...They give the PPRPPS Bloc 394 of the 444 seats in the Sejm, Polish parliament (119 each lo the PPR and PPS, 12 to the fake peasant party) and only 29 to the PSL, as compared with 53 previously...
...It is also true that many peasants, fleeing to the forests In dread of murder by the secret police, join the bands of desperate Poles who w*s"e guerrilla warfare against the Government and the alien society it seeks to impose upon them...
...I was reminded of the support given Republican and Democratic candidates by the Communists in tho USA, whether they wanted that support or not...
...But of the 700,000 dues-paying members ef the PSL only a minority are tinged with Fascism or anti-Semitism, and no Fascists or anti-Semites have any influence within the party...
...I am 'convinced that the Communists will never succeed in j'making the Church in Poland the kind of'agency of a&« State which the Eastern Church in Russia and KtaosUvU.ha* become...
...The irony is that he was not- but his accusers, including lyiankiewitz, were WRN leaders, who have since become "Government Socialists" and dropped their opposition to Communism...
...Even Jacob Berman, Undersecretary of State and the power behind the throne, discriminates between the two tendencies In the underground, which, he...
...Repetition is like flogging a dead horse, but I want to add a few details to the picture ihey have painted...
...Similarly, PPR and PPS posters were everywhere, but no PSL posters could be found...
...in one polling place I counted 20 soldiers with sub-machine guns slung on their hacks, herding the dejected, unenthusiastic voters along, scrutinizing every vote cast- there were no screens behind which the citizen could retire to place his ballot in the envelope...
...Geography and ideology dictate an Eastern orientation...
...It was easy to tell how each person voted—if his ballot was folded so that the number on it was not visible, it meant an...
...How will the Moscow-Warsaw axis exploit Its victory...
...In a village near Zywlec the Security Police seized the peasants' livestock, and they were warned that if Mikolajczyk won, they would never see their cows and horses again...
...This was a bit too much for the local PPS chairman, Henryk Wachowicz, who stated that it had been printed without his knowledge...
...During the...
...Also, they could get only a small fraction of the newsprint allotted to the PPR and PPS papers...
...released on the late afternoon of Jan...
...nine polling places in Gniezno, PSL 7,397, Bloc 4,325...
...They report that they received written instruction* as to what the final count should be...
...and Poles long for national unity and peace...
...These reporters unanimously agree with the verdict of more than fifty observers from the stall's of the American and British Embassies—that the election was fraudulent and accompanied by intimidation, a complete violation of the Yalta promise.* (This verdict waa, unanimous, that is, except for correspondents of the Soviet press agency TASS, from the Communist press, the Federated Press, the Overseas News Agency, and, of course, Ralph Ingersoll of /ML) Now there should remain no slightest doubt in the minds of even the pseudo-liberals who always seek to find excuses for Soviet imperialism, as to exactly what the Communists mean by "democracy...
...From these and other widely varying sources, including foreign correspondents, 1 have gleaned (he information and the opinions expressed in this seiies of articles^ Nothing 1 write is to be attributed to any individual except as I give a direct quotation...
...While the Polish Communists do not dare go so far as to say dial the PSL and the bandits actually^work closely together—they only charge collaboration on the fringe of the PSL and underground—the Moscow papers directly accuse the entire party with identifying itself with the bandits, and hold Mikolajczyk responsible for all the murders and thefts committed by the criminal elements of the underground...
...the opposition was split by organizing fake Socialist, Peasant and Christian Labor parties;, those who refused to surrender were branded as traitors, Fascists, anti-Semitites, in league with the underground and with imperialist warmongers abroad...
...It is utterly ridiculous to accuse Cardinals lllond > Ind Sapieha or even the Church hierarchy generally I of being anti-Semitic or Fascist...
...symPyftsthiiers.among the clergy, bnl thry aie not excom^¦Minted for their political views} nor are the social|w The clerical Fascists play a role hardly more .important than the role of Father Cuiighlin in Airierj, ha...
...Poles are strange people—they seem to think that despite the geographical location of their unfortunate country, they still have a right to independence...
...It proved that Communists believe in freedom only for themselves, and that they believe In democracy only as a weapon to destroy democracy...
...this is a composite picture of Poland to which even Socialists in the Government have contributed, and many interpretations are my own...
...1!>, they rushed to their polling places and stood in line, but few of them got inside before the polls were closed at 7 PM...
...Of these, l,fi40 actually voted, 115 of them for the PPR-PPS Bloc, the others for the PSL...
...These reports have been confirmed by Ambassadors Arthur Bliss Lane and Victor Cavendish-Bentinck...
...It showed again that Communism Is an International conspiracy...
...If Mikolajczyk, Zulawski and the Catholic hierarchy are "disloyal," sp are many members of the PPS (the official Socialist Party) who occupy high governmental positions, and who share the universal Polish opposition to Communist domination...
...Listen only to your own conscience...
...Nobody believes in its promises anymore, especially after the terror in this "free and unfettered" election...
...To all such * Poles the easy cynicism that argues that Poles are not Steady for democracy, that they must accept Russian' 'domination, is an insult and a lie...
Vol. 30 • February 1947 • No. 7
